248 
NATURAL HISTORY 
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 produc- 
tive 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 prevail, 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 pro- 
moters of navigation, as may be seen in the articles of 
sugar, tea, tobacco, opium, ginseng, betel, paper, &c. As 
every climate has its peculiar produce, our natural wants 
bring on a mutual intercourde ; so that by means of trade 
each distant part is supplied with the growth of every lati- 
tude. But without the knowledge of plants and their cul- 
ture, we must have been content with our hips and haws, 
without enjoying the delicate fruits of India, and the salu- 
tiferous drugs of Peru. 
Instead of examining the minute distinctions of every 
various species of each obscure genus, the botanist should 
endeavour to make himself acquainted with those that are 
useful. You shall see a man readily ascertain every herb of 
the field, yet hardly know wheat from barley, or at least one 
sort of wheat or barley from another. 
But of all sorts of vegetation the grasses seem, to be most 
neglected ; neither the farmer nor the grazier seem to dis- 
tinguish the annual from the perennial, the hardy from the ten- 
der, nor the succulent and nutritive from the dry andjuiceless-. 
^ See the late voyages to the South Seas. — G. W. 
