OF THE LIFE OF LINN/EfS. 825 



the late celebrated Fe r b e r , had acquired great names and high distinRiou 

 in the various branches of mineralogy, which had been the principal ob- 

 je6l of their study. In the same manner has he been far excelled by one 

 of his former pupils professor Fabiucus, who became the most eminent 

 entomologist. How many discoveries liave there not been made within 

 these twenty years in the vegetable and animal reigns ! but how little 

 can those gradations of progress, for which thanks are chiefly due to 

 him, diminish his greatness ! To presume to censure a first-rate genius, 

 because somebody existed after him, who in certain separate branches 

 signalized himself to a superior degree, would be like venting the in- 

 vidious spleen of Aristarchus, it would be signifying that merit 

 ought never to be acknowledged*. What Linnaeus said respefting 

 C^sALPiNus, may be applied with more extensive propriety to him- 

 himself : 



uantce molis erat, Rovmnam condere gentem ! 

 LinnjEUs had laid the foundation to the modern and beautiful struc- 

 ture of natural history. To finish that edifice could not be the work of 

 one man alone. It is a task never yet performed, and left for improve- 

 ment to all future generations. In this point Linnveus did as much 

 as' his situation would permit. In the years 1767 and 1771, he pub- 

 lished supplements to his botanical descriptions, and after the year 1774 

 gave accounts of single plants which had been sent him by his pupils. 



* " The system of LiNNTE us," says M. Condorcet, «' has no doubt some weak sides ; 



but till now, no other method has combined so many advantages; perhaps even the defcfls 

 " for which that system is censured, are inevitable in all artificial methods. Ought wc 

 " for this reason to proscribe them and condemn ourselves to err grappling in the dark, bc- 



cause the light presented to us, may sometimes be extinguished." 



See Eloge de M. Linne, in the liistoire de I'Acad. Roy. des Sciences a Paris 1781, 4to. 

 ?• 74- 



eg These 



