224 
THE NATURAL HISTORT 
[LETT. 
LETTER LXXXII. 
TO THE IIOXOURAIiLE DAINES BARRING TON. 
The standing objection to botany has always been, that it is a 
pursuit that amuses the fancy and exercises the memory, without 
improving the mind or advancing any real knowledge : and, 
where the science is carried no farther than a mere systematic 
classification, the charge is but too true. But the botanist that 
is desirous of wiping off this aspersion should be by no means 
content with a list of names ; he should study plants philosophi- 
cally, should investigate the laws of vegetation, should examine 
the powers and virtues of efficacious herbs, should promote their 
cultivation ; and graft the gardener, the planter, and the hus- 
bandman, on the phytologist. I^ot that system is by any means 
to be thrown aside ; without system the field of Nature would 
be a pathless wilderness : but system should be subservient to, 
not the main object of, pursuit. 
Vegetation is highly worthy of our attention ; and in itself is 
of the utmost consequence to mankind, and productive of many 
of the greatest comforts and elegancies of life. To plants we 
owe timber, bread, beer, honey, wine, oil, linen, cotton, &c., what 
not only strengthens our hearts, and exhilarates our spirits, but 
what secures us from inclemencies of weather and adorns our 
persons. Man, in his true state of nature, seems to be subsisted 
by spontaneous vegetation : in middle climes, where grasses pre- 
vail, he mixes some animal food with the produce of the field 
and garden : and it is towards the polar extremes only that, like 
his kindred bears and wolves, he gorges himself with flesh alone, 
and is driven to what hunger has never been known to compel 
the very beasts, to prey on his own species. 
The productions of vegetation have had a vast influence on the 
commerce of nations, and have been the great promoters of 
navigation, as may be seen in the articles of sugar, tea, tobacco, 
opium, ginseng, betel, paper, &c. As every climate has its 
