OF THE LIFE OF LINNAEUS. 
225 
the late celebrated FERBF.R,had acquired great names and high distin&ion 
in the various branches of mineralogy, which had been the principal ob- 
ject of their study. In the same manner has he been far excelled by one 
of his former pupils professor Fabric us, who became the most eminent 
entomologist. How many discoveries have there not been made within 
these twenty years in the vegetable and animal reigns ! but how little 
can those gradations of progress, for which thanks are chiefly due to 
him, diminish his greatness ! To presume to censure a first-rate genius, 
because somebody existed after him, who in certain separate branches 
signalized himself to a superior degree, would be like venting the in- 
vidious spleen of Aristarchus, it would be signifying that merit 
ought never to be acknowledged*. What Linnaeus said respefting 
CjEsalpinus, may be applied with more extensive propriety L to him- 
himself : 
Quanta: molis erat, Romanam condere genlem ! 
Linnaus had laid the foundation to the modern and beautiful struo- 
ture of natural history. To finish that edifice could not be the w T ork of 
one man alone. It is a task never yet performed, and left for improve- 
ment to all future generations. In this point Linnaeus did as much 
as his situation would permit. In the years 1767 and 1771, he pub- 
lished supplements to his botanical descriptions, and after the year 1774 
gave accounts of single plants which had been sent him by his pupils. 
* “ The system of Linnjeus,” says M. Condorcet, “ has no doubt some weak sides ; 
« but till now, no other method has combined so many advantages; perhaps even the defects 
for which that system is censured, are inevitable in all artificial methods. Ought we 
11 for this reason to proscribe them and condemn ourselves to err grappling incite dark be- 
•i cause the light presented to us, may sometimes be extinguished.” 
See Eloge de M. Linne, in the histoire de l’Acad. Roy. des Sciences a Paris ijg t , 4(0 . 
P- 74- 
Cg 
These 
