202 
Presumably the great Linnaeus felt that fallen man needs 
a better gospel than Nature can supply. At all events, he 
trod with unshod feet the temple of Nature in the spirit of a 
devout worshipper. He describes himself as aroused to behold 
the eternal, immense, omniscient, omnipotent God, whom he 
says (in reference apparently to the vision of Moses), <f I be- 
held from behind, and was astonished. I traced somewhat 
of His footsteps in created things ; in all which, even in the 
very smallest and scarce perceptible, what Power, what Wis- 
dom, what inextricable Perfection ! I observed animals relying* 
for their support on vegetables, vegetables on terrestrial things, 
terrestrial things on the world itself; but the world borne in 
its appointed course round the sun, from which it borrows its 
life : the sun finally revolving round its axis with the remain- 
ing stars ; the system of stars, in courses and number not 
to be defined, all circling in the vast ether, upheld by the 
incomprehensible Prime Mover, the Cause of Causes, the Pre- 
server and Ruler of the universe, and the Lord and Artificer 
of this piece of workmanship, the world : — without whom 
nothing exists ; who founded and created the whole, and who 
both fills and eludes our sight; for He is only to be seen 
mentally, since He withdraws Himself into the sacred recesses 
of His own majesty, and gives no audience to any except in 
a spiritual manner. He is all Intelligence, all Sight, all Soul, 
all Spirit, all Himself. The conjecture of the human mind 
cannot trace out His lineaments, and is forbidden to form of 
Him any likeness.”* 
* Imperium Natures. — “ Deum sempiternum , immensum, omniscientem, 
omnipotentem expergefactus transeuntem a tergo vidi et obstupui ! Legi ali- 
quot ejus vestigia per creata rerum, in quibus omnibus, etiam in minimis et 
fere nullis, quse vis ! quanta Sapientia ! quam inextricabilis perfectio ! Ob- 
servavi animalia inniti vegetabilibus, vegetabilia terrestribus, terrestria tel- 
luri ; tellurem dein ordine concusso volvi circum Solem, a quo vitam mutuatur ; 
Solem demum circa axin gyrari cum reliquis astris systema siderum, spatio 
et numero non definiendum, mediante motu in vacuo nihilo suspensuni 
teneri ab iucomprehensibili Movente Primo, Caussa Caussarum, Custode 
Rectoreque universi mundani hujus operis , Domino et Artifici 
Totus est Sensus, totvs Visus, totus Auditus, totus AniMye. lotus Animi, 
totus Sui, hujus extera indagare non capit hum, aim conjectura mentis .’ 
Numen esse credi par est, eeternum, immensum, neque genitum neque creatum. 
Hoc sine quo nihil est, quod totum, hoc f undavit et condidit, quodqne oculos 
nostros et implet et effugit, cogitatione tantum viseiulum est. in sanctiore 
enim secessu Majestas tanta delituit, nec ulli dat aditum nisi animo .” — 
Copied from the 12th ed. Systema Natures in possession of the Linnean 
Society. 
1 Exod. xx. 41. 
