252 History of Conchology. 



we mistake not, of the genera also, of the shelled tribes had been al- 

 ready recognized. It labours under the censure of having too small 

 regard to the animal, a censure in some degree just, for assuredly 

 more was known of these than the definitions of the " Systema" 

 would lead us to suppose ; and it had still less regard to the position 

 of the groups in reference to their organical affinities. It often as- 

 sociates species of dissimilar habits ; and species are found in almost 

 every genus at variance Avith the character of this, and where con- 

 sequently the student ought not to have sought for them. The su- 

 periority of it lies in its simplicity ; in the regulated subordination 

 of all its parts ; in the admirable sagacity with which the families " 

 or genera are limited ; in the assumption of more stable characters 

 for these, and for the clear distinct manner in which they are ap- 

 plied ; in the suitableness of its nomenclature ; in the invention of 

 trivial names which gave a facility in writing hitherto unknown, and 

 was a welcome relief to the memory ; in the conciseness of the spe- 

 cific characters and the skill with which those characters were chos- 

 en ; in the regular indication of the stations which the species oc- 

 cupy on the globe ; and in the beauty of the more extended de- 

 scriptions, and the peculiar felicity of language in which the thoughts 

 suggested by any remarkable structure in the species under review 

 are conveyed to us. That merits of this kind should secure him 

 something more than approbation was natural : there was much ex- 

 cellence in it which prejudice or jealousy only could not see, and 

 which folly alone would have rejected ; and while every collector and 

 amateur found it easy to be understood, ready in practice, and neat 

 in nomenclaturing their cabinets, their pursuit assumed the garb 

 of science when they could tell the scorner that they were following 

 the steps, and had the sanction, of a man whose genius has justly 

 won him a place in the first rank of those whom succeeding ages con- 

 tinue to venerate for the good they have done in the promotion of 

 useful knowledge. 



While the eyes of almost all were turned to this northern lumi- 

 nary for light to guide them in their pursuit, or as an object by 

 barking at which a few drew notice on their littleness, Jussieu of 

 Paris, the admirer of Linnaeus' genius and industry, and his corre- 

 spondent, was explaining to his select but few disciples the princi- 

 ples of what has been commonly called the " Natural System." 

 Jussieu's profound studies were confined to botany, but he had col- 

 leagues and contemporaries who attempted their application to con- 

 chology, and whose vv^ant of success is to be ascribed mainly to the 

 meagerness of the anatomy of the mollusca then attained, to the few- 



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