SOME FURTHER CORRESPONDENCE OF BANKS. 
185 
I was highly gratified by the distinguished situation in which you have placed 
me, more so, I fear, than I ought to have been. We are all too fond of hearing 
ourselves well spoken of, by persons whom we hold in high regard. But, my 
dear Sir James, do not you think it probable that the reader, who takes the book 
in hand for the purpose of seeking botanical knowledge, will skip all that is said 
of me, as not at all tending to enlarge his ideas on the subject? 
I admire your defence of Linnaeus’ natural classes. It is ingenious and enter- 
taining, and it evinces a deep skill in the mysteries of classification ; which must, 
I fear, continue to wear a mysterious shape, till a larger portion of the vegetables 
of the whole earth shall have been discovered and described. 
I fear you will differ from me in ojiinion, when I fancy Jussieu’s natural orders 
to be superior to those of Linnaeus. I do not, however, mean to allege that he 
has even an equal degree of merit in having compiled them. He has taken all 
Linnaeus had done as his own; and having thus possessed himself of an elegant 
and substantial fabrick, has done much towards increasing its beauty, but far 
less towards any improvement in its stability. 
How immense has been the improvement of botany since I attached myself 
to the study, and what immense facilities are now offered to students, that had 
not an existence till lately I Your descri]>tions, and Sowerby's drawings, of 
British plants, would have saved me years of labour, had they then existed. I 
well remember the publication of Hudson,* which was the first effort at well- 
riirected science, and the eagerness with which 1 adopted its use. Believe me. &c. 
Jos. Banks. 
Then follows Sir J. E. Smith’s eulogy of Banks, inspired by the 
above letter ; — 
“ The last letter, coming from a man of such distinguished talents 
and experience, is so valuable a commentary on several leading subjects 
of the present volume, that the editor could not withhold it from the 
publick. He must rely on the favor of his readers, not to attribute 
to a foolish vanity this exposure of what gives an important sanction 
to his own sentiments, while it displays at once the knowledge, the 
indulgence, and the assuming candour of the writer. The hand that 
traced these lines is no longer held out to welcome and encourage 
every lover of science ; and the homage of the motley crowd, of which 
science formed but the livery, has passed away. 
“The lasting monument of botanical fame, of whose judicious and 
classical plan so interesting a memorial is left us, in the first of Sir 
Joseph Banks’ letters to the younger Linnaeus, has been sacrificed to 
the duties incumbent, for almost half a century, on the active and 
truly efficient President of the Royal Society. Its loss would ill have 
been supplied by ever so stately a mausoleum of marble ; and even 
this mausoleum has been suffered to crumble, in embryo, into dust. 
The names of Banks and of Newton are indeed, alike independent of 
an abortive or a mutilated monument ; and inscriptions on brass or 
on marble now resign their importance and their authority to the 
more faithful records of history and science, perpetuated for ever, if 
they deserve it, by the phoenix-like immortality of the press.” (Vol. ii, 
pp. 577-80.) 
♦ In 178:2. 
