xxii 



LINNiEAN SYSTEM. 



genius, lie possessed in no ordinary degree ; otherwise he could 

 never have completed a tenth part of his magnificent design, of 

 forming an Index to the countless productions of nature, the 

 true light in which his great work ought to be viewed, though 

 his followers have so preposterously considered it not as any 

 Index, but as the Book of Nature itself. 



Some modern writers tell us, that "the glory of Linnseus is 

 built" upon his having "first pointed out the distinction between 

 the natural method and the artificial system," and upon his hav- 

 ing " first remarked the existence of intermediate genera between 

 natural orders." # Again we are told, that " his great and trans- 

 cendent merit lies" in his attempt at "the investigation of the 

 affinities which unite the larger groups " f of animals. It is much 

 to be questioned, whether Linnseus himself, had he been alive, 

 would have considered these trivial matters very meritorious; 

 while he would have stood up most manfully for the value of his 

 miraculous Index, upon which, amidst the duties of a laborious 

 practice as a physician, he laboured, as he tells us, "for three 

 lustres, with new vigour and fresh enthusiasm.''^ Who is there 

 that can refuse to admire the youthful ardour of this venerable 

 naturalist, who has so long given laws to his favourite science ? 

 and who is there but must regret that his great Index has been so 

 extensively mistaken for a book, and his real merits so far mis- 

 understood. That this great man himself mistook the instrument 

 for the execution, and the means for the end, might perhaps 

 be proved ; but that is no reasonable excuse for others to follow 

 him blindfold into the same error, and shews that they do not 

 possess a particle of their master's spirit of mental independence. 



By fixing upon the numbers and forms of the parts of flowers, 

 Linnseus was successful in contriving a system of botany, ingeni- 

 ous, simple, and, with some exceptions, easy in its practical appli- 

 cations ; but it possessed, with all these excellences, the glaring 

 defect of classing side by side a motley assemblage of lofty trees 

 and minute herbs, such as the soft and slimy pond weed, th e 

 prickly holly bush, and the tiny wall chickweed, ($a(/ina,)§ though 



Horae Eiitomol, p. 20. f Linn. Trans, xiv. 516. 



X Fauna Suecica, Dedicatio, p. 2. 

 § See his class Tetrandvia, order Tetragynia. 



