ANECDOTES. 
284 
much laconism, to the last edition of his genera plantarum, 
which was the result of some le&ures he gave us in summer, in the 
« country, upon the Natural Orders. 
« These are his merits in botany, to which he gave a quite new ap- 
pearance, and enriched with many valuable remarks*. “ If we 
“make conjeQure of the value of the Linn^ean method, says the 
celebrated Hill in his Vegetable System , “it will live, even when a 
»c natural method shall be found, as long as there is science. 
.« Linn.eus manifested the same spirit of systematical order in the 
“ animal reign. He found it a real chaos, in which the infinite number 
«c of animals were confounded without charaaeristic distinaion and 
« without order. There had hardly been any regular and fixed classes 
« introduced, at least not among the smaller kinds of animals. But he 
“ m? it a regular iCience He limited the various classes by plain dis- 
“ tine narks, introduced the solid genera, determined the species, 
« and took pains to lessen the great number of variations. I must 
« freely own, that Lin njeus himself was very sensible, that his system 
n 0 f the animal reign was not built upon so safe a foundation as his 
« botany, and that his generical chara&ers were far more tottering and 
“ more undefined. It is, however, the only system which .comprises the 
« whole animal reign, which is certainly a great prerogative, if we only 
sc consider the circumstances in which Linn&us found that science. 
u It remained almost entirely uncultivated, consisted only of a few de- 
« jeriptions which were extremely deficient, and of a small number ol 
“ copper-plates so badly executed as hardly to be discernible. In 
* See a special sketch of the Botanical Reform of Linnajbs in the Supplements annexed 
to this work. 
„ “ Ichthyology 
