tools which are worthless when unused, and which they use not for the purposes for which they were de- 
signed, are like scholastic pedants who make language their only study, without reference to the truths which 
language is destined to reveal ; they are always moving, yet never getting on, never getting farther than the 
threshold of vegetable philosophy ; for ever treading as on the wheel, a weary round of never-changing 
place, of never-ending toil. 
Plants are the subjects of botany, their attributes the objects ^pf the science; and, as with other things, 
these are essential, technical, and accidental ; those, universal, general, and special ; these, the objects of 
the study; those, the subjects to be studied; and to the reciprocal elucidation of both, the science, as a 
whole, is equally devoted. 
The language of botany has often been regarded with fear, and we still find it to be that part of the 
study most commonly objected to. This is not the only case, however, in which the facilities afforded by 
science have been ignorantly mistaken for difficulties inseparable therefrom : other instances could be given 
in which what we might perhaps be allowed to call the almost too exclusive privileges of botany, have been 
described as its peculiar disadvantages by those who little understood their import, and consequently were 
led to underrate and misrepresent their value. To these I shall not further now allude, but confine my pre- 
sent animadversions to this outcry against hard xoords, as the technicalities of science have foolishly been 
called; whereas, it should be remembered, as Johnson says, that “ words are only hard to those who do 
not understand them,” and, so far from our terms being really hard, the language of botany is more easy 
and intelligible, because it is more copious and precise, than that of the other natural sciences. 
Oh, believe me, the feelings with which a botanical philosopher contemplates the various productions 
of the vegetable world are very different from those with which they are viewed by one unblessed by the 
light of science ! How different is the barren knowledge of the existence of all these things around us, which 
every one knows to be from a knowledge of the laws by which they are regulated and sustained. Never, 
indeed, to my mind, does true wisdom more fully vindicate her majesty and power, than when, as in this 
case, she thus unfolds a leaf turned down by nature, and reveals to us a record of those changes which long 
since have been forgotten, (if, indeed, to man they were ever known,) than when she thus turns back the 
pages of past time, and reads in these majestic tablets of the Creator the history of his wondrous works, as 
published in the volume of creation. The whole earth, like Ezekiel’s scroll, is written over, both within and 
without : to the ignorant and the thoughtless it may, perhaps, appear to be inscribed with mourning, lamen- 
tation, and woe ; but to the philosopher it tells a constant tale of miracle and mercy, as Hunter has well 
observed on a somewhat similar occasion : “ appearances of this sublime nature may be compared to the 
handwriting upon the wall, which, although seen by many, was understood by few : they seem to constitute 
a kind of harmonious intercourse between God and man ; they are, indeed, the silent language of the Deity.” 
I would, therefore, recommend all persons to indulge themselves in the delights of botany ; for they 
will find it a relaxation rather than a toil, an amusement rather than a labour; a profitable pastime in youth, 
an agreeable occupation in manhood, and a gratifying research in honourable old age ; when having, as we 
hope all will do, passed through this world useful to their generation, and not useless to themselves ; when 
having acquired, by meritorious exertion, a competency of wealth and a sufficiency of fame, they may retire, 
like Cincinnatus, from the senate to the field, and in a garden — (what pleasure is there not associated with 
the very name of a garden, it bespeaks at once serenity and ease,) — in a garden forget awhile this world, its 
turmoils and its cares, before they are summoned to quit it for a better. 
Botany, like all other studies, requires for its successful pursuit some small share both of ardour and 
attention, but certainly much less than has been frequently supposed ; not more, perhaps far less, than many 
collateral sciences would seem to demand. For we ask not that entire dedication of the mind which some 
abstract and speculative philosophers have claimed from those who offer to become their pupils ; we only 
ask attention. , 
I think we hear too much by far of the rugged road to learning, too much of, “ the steep where fame’s 
proud temple stands,” as if to deter, even whilst inviting, the timid yet ingenuous aspirant : the road, believe 
me, has many beauties in its course ; the steep has many steps to ease its weary height ; and they who have 
trod the path well know that it is not very rugged ; they who have scaled the steep well know that it is not 
high ; the one is rugged only to the slothful, the other steep to such alone as lie grovelling at the base. Let 
but the will be father to the deed, and then the deed is done. Tell me not of the student’s midnight toil, I 
know it to be rather the midnight pleasure ; for what time is ever so much enjoyed as that which, redeeming 
from perdition more truly than any other, we may call our own : what hours are ever so dear when present, 
so doubly dear to memory when past, as those in which we wake and work while others sleep. 
Forgive me if I am wrong, perhaps I am too hasty in my conclusions, perhaps I generalize here on in- 
sufficient grounds, on too meagre an association of particulars. There may be, in studies foreign to my 
pursuits, difficulties that I know not of : it becomes me therefore, not to speak decidedly of other sciences, 
but to restrain my positive asseverations to my own : and yet if others truly tell of the thorny paths which 
lead to their shrines of knowledge, why then it must be confessed that we botanists alone of all are privileged 
to strew our way with flowers. 
