LFXTURE I. 13 



few years past. It may however be much doubted 

 whether the study of Natural History has been 

 greatly advanced by their institution. 



It is impossible not to allow some degree of 

 justice to the complaints uttered on this subject bj 

 'an ingenious naturalist in a neighbouring nation, 

 who thus expresses his sentiments. 



By what fatality does it happen, that the beau- 

 tiful and elegant science of Natural History is be- 

 come an assemblage of systems, of methods, and 

 discussions of nomenclature, as dry and tedious as 

 they are idle and unnecessary? How can it hap- 

 pen that men of any sterling sense should spend 

 their time in endeavouring to reduce into geome- 

 trical divisions the beautiful gradations of Nature, 



and to be the slaves to arbitrary and petty ar-, 



■ .,^'' ' - . ■ '■ ■ yi lO 

 rangements, which rise and perish, like so many 



\i' 

 mushrooms, and which appear to be of no other 



effect but to disgust and fatigue those who are 



doomed to study them ? When shall we see a stop 



put to that inundation of new and barbarous words 



and terms, which deforni and disgrace almost all 



our new works on Natural History, and which 



threaten to reproduce the scholastic jargon oi the 



