94 
BOTANICAL REFORM. 
aBivity and enthusiasm which charaBerize genius, and without which 
no great enterprise can be encompassed. 44 A system ^hich is to bear 
4 " our name,” says Haller, 44 an opinion issued from our own head, 
44 eftefts with the learned what ambition has effefted with Alexander. 
44 Labor, time, skill, all the energy and force of mind are applied 
44 cheerfully and without contradiftion as soon as our system becomes 
44 more certain, more pleasant, and more probable. Who would have 
44 counted and fixed the stamina. in flowers almost numberless, had they 
not been the essential part of the new sexual system of Linnaeus, 
t4 and the principal source of rendering it perfeft and universally pre- 
44 dominant !" 
It required a strong and forcible pi-ogress to bring about such revo- 
lution. And in faft, no time, during the whole life of Lin Nat us, was 
more distinguished by an extraordinary aBivity, none more fertile for 
the republic of science than the year 1737* It was in the course of 
this same year, when Linnaeus published about 200 printed sheets. 
Such a deal of writing would have been no novelty, and the young 
Swede had long before been excelled in it. But what constituted its 
pre-eminence was, that the six works, which Linn* us published in the 
course of this year, and which diffused the reform of botany from Har- 
tccamp throughout Europe , were all originals, and by more than one 
half large classical works; replete with the most difficult researches, 
new representations, and accurate critical do&rines. It would have 
done infinite honour to his diligence, had he only produced one of those 
works in a whole twelvemonth. The plans and materials for some of 
them had certainly been previously colle&ed ; but the whole required 
to be digested and arranged. All those labours could not prevent him 
from 
