94 B O T A N I C A L R E F O R M. 



aBivity and enthusiasm which charaQerize genius, and without which 

 no great enterprise can be encompassed. " A system which is to bear 

 *' our name," says Haller, " an opinion issued from our own head, 



effe£ls with the learned what ambition has efFe6led with Alexander. 

 " Labor, time, skill, all the energy and force of mind are applied 

 " cheerfully and without contradi&ion as soon as our system becomes 



more certain, more pleasant, and more probable. Who would have 

 " counted and fixed the stamina in flowers almost numberless, had they 



not been the essential part of the new sexual system of Linn^us, 

 " and the , principal source of rendering it perfccl and universally .pre- 

 " dominant !" 



It required a strong and forcible progress to bring about such revo- 

 lution. And in faO:, no time, during the whole life of Linn^us, was 

 more distinguished by an extraordinary a£livity, none more fertile for 

 the republic of science than the year 1737. It was in the course of 

 this same year, when Linn/eus published about 200 printed sheets. 

 Such a deal of writing would have been no novelty, and the young 

 Swede had long before been excelled in it. But what constituted its 

 pre-eminence was, that the six works, which Linnaeus published in the 

 course of this year, and which diffused the reform of botany from Har- 

 tecamp throughout Europe^ were all originals, and by more than one 

 half large classical works; replete with the most difficult researches, 

 new representations, and accurate critical dodrines. It would have 

 done infinite honour to his diHgence, had he only produced one of those 

 works in a whole twelvemonth. The plans and materials for some of 

 them had certainly been previously collefted ; but the whole required 

 to be digested and arranged. All those labours could not prevent him 



from 



