HlSTORl liOTANY. 
223 
opment. From the days of Theophrastus until the beginning 
of the 16th century, Botany, instead of becoming more perfect, 
had been rendered more obscure. This was not owing to want 
of attention or hxbor, but to the false rules of philosophy which 
had so long prevailed. At length the cause of the evil seemed 
to be discovered. Many writers protested against the errone- 
ous opinions of their times ; they said, " Our hlind respect for 
the ancients is an insurmountable obstacle to the progress of 
Botany. We expect to find everywhere the plants of Theo- 
phrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny ; w^hereas they did not know 
one-hundredth part of the plants which cover the globe. The 
first of them never went out of Greece ; the second left only 
unconnected notes, treating without order upon the medicinal 
qualities of plants ; and Pliny copied these notes w^ithout com- 
ment or criticism. AVe cannot apply to the plants of Germany 
or France the names under which the ancients described those 
of Italy, Greece, and Asia ; before studying the plants of for- 
eign countries we ought to know those of our own. Of what 
use are disputes about the nature and qualities of species when 
we are not able to distinguish one from another ? The true 
method of doing this is to explore the plains., valleys., and 
mountains., to examine and compare the plants of our own and 
foreign countries. Libraries alone are insufficient to malce bot- 
anists.'''^ These reflections led to a happy revolution, not only 
in this science, but in all others ; it may be called the era of true 
philosophy.^ Yet the principles which were now discovered 
were not much applied to science until the time of Bacon, 
Newton, Linnaeus, and Locke ; and it remained for the late 
Thomas Brown, of Edinburgh, to show that the human mind 
itself is subject to the same general laws of inquiry which 
now regulate investigations in the physical sciences. 
342. Up to the period of which we are now speaking plants 
had only been described in alphabetical order ; about this time 
some German botanists attempted a collection of individual 
plants into species / this improvement was received with much 
approbation. These species were arranged according to certain 
general resemblances., or natural relations i thus we see that 
natural methods were prior to any attempts at an artificial 
system. 
• Lord Bacon is geneially considered as having first taught the proper method of studying the sci- 
ences, viz. by ascending from facts to principles ; this is called the method of induction. It has re 
cently been asserted by an able writer, in one of our first American periodicals, that Bacon was not 
the author of the inductive philosophy, but that he borrowed his rules of philosophizing from Aristotle, 
whose real principles had for ages been misunderstood. It is to be hoped that men of talents will not 
BO far depart from the true rules of philosophizing, as to devote that time in contending about theil 
anthor which might be profitably applied in the application of these rules to the investigation of truth 
and nature. 
Botanists began to discover the obstacles to the progress of science — Era of true philosophy -<• 
542. Improvements of German botanists 
