66 CHAPTER 32. 
thofe great works in exotic botany, which 
have immortalized their names. This pe- 
riod was the clofe of the laft century; 
which, as it has been called by the elegant 
and learned author of the *^Eflay on the Ge- 
" nius and Writings of Pope," the Gol- 
den Age of Learning in England fo has 
LiNN-^us named it, in his Allegorical Hif- 
tory of the Rife and Progrefs of this Sci- 
ence, The Golden Age of Botany;*' 
and Sloane was one of its brighteft orna- 
ments. 
Of the life of this great patron of natural 
fcience, it would be fuperfluous in me to 
attempt a detailed account ; fmce this tri- 
bute has been paid to his memory in the 
Eloge of the French Academy," in the 
^^Bio.gtaphiaBritannica^'' the Biographical 
Didionary," and other colleftions of that 
kind, in daily ufe. Hence, I fliall, from 
shefe publications, extrad only the outlines 
ccf his life, as they are connefted with, and 
tend to elucidate, his general charader, his 
acquirements in natural hiftory, and his bo- 
iai'ucal publications* 
Sk Mans Sloane was defcended from 
parents^ 
