118 
CLASSIFICATION. 
gether ; but we cannot tkus form organized bodies, for to these belongs a JiviniJ 
principle, which it is not in tlie power of man to bestow. It is said that Rousseaii, 
skeptical in science as in religion, declared he would not beheve in tlie correct- 
ness of the analysis of vegetable or animal substances, until he should see a young 
nimal, or a thrifty plant, spring into existence from the retort of the chemist. 
But the power to create the Almighty has not delegated to man ; neither is it tf. 
be supposed that any future discoveries in science will ever confer it upon him. 
To study the compound nature of substances, to classify, arrange, and by various 
combinations to beautify the world of matter, to cultivate the faculties of mil •\, 
until, stronger and brighter, the mental vision sees facts and principles before 
invisible, — these are the high privileges bestowed on man; — but to add one neve 
■particle to n^atter^ or one new faculty to the mind, is beyond the power of the whole 
human race. 
PART III. 
CLASSIFICATION. 
LECTUEEXXIl. 
METHOD OF TOTJKNEFORT. SYSTEM OF LINN^US. NATUEAL METH 
ODS. ^METHOD OF JUSSIEU. COMPARISON BETWEEN THE CLASSIFI- 
CATIONS OF TOURNEFORT, LINN^US, AND JUSSIEU. 
145. Let us now imagine the whole vegetable kingdom, comprising iimumerable 
millions of individual plants, to be spread out before a Botanist. Could he, in the 
course of the longest life, number each blade of grass, each little moss, each shrub, 
or even each tree ? If he could not even count them, much less could he give to 
each one a separate name and description. But he does not need to name them 
separately, for nature has arranged them into sorts, or kinds. If a child were sent 
into the fields to gather flowers of a similar kind, he would need no book to direct 
him to put into one parcel all the red clover blossoms, and into another the white 
clover ; while the dandelions would form another group. These all constitute dif- 
ferent species. Nature would also teach the child that the red and white clover, 
although differing from each other in some particulars, yet bear a strong resem- 
blance. By placing these kinds together we form a genus, and to this genus we refer 
all the different kinds or species of clover. 
146. The whole number of species of plants which have been 
named and described, including many which have been recent- 
ly discovered in New Holland and about the Cape of Good 
Hope, is said to be more than 100,000. If species of plants 
were described without any regular order we could derive 
neither pleasure nor advantage fi-om the study of practical bot- 
any. When we wished to find the name of a plant we should 
145. Nature arrangee plants into kinds or sorts — Examples.— 146. Number of spec'es of plants- -Tf* 
cessity of order in descriptioiu 
