LATER CRITICISM 
863 
history, Carl von Linne. On his shoulders the genius 
of that science now before us rests.” And M. J. 
Schleiden (the universally recognized reformer, and 
strenuous, sometimes ruthless judge of predecessors) 
closes his faithful and sympathetic record of Linne 
thus: 
“ Truly if we compare the work of Johannes Miiller, 
Agassiz, Milne Edwards, Owen and others with that of 
Linne, from the six folios in which he first published 
his system of Nature, we may see the difference as 
between the brilliant and luxurious New York liner of 
the present day and the small Spanish caravel, which 
in 1492, first landed at San Salvador. One must not 
forget that it was this caravel, guided by Columbus, 
which discovered the New World, and laid the way 
by which the captain can now travel with safety and 
ease, but which without Columbus he would have 
found difficult. No development in the knowledge of 
geography can obliterate the name of Columbus from 
the memory of mankind, so never can a step in the 
development of natural science be reached, when it will 
be possible to forget, that without Linne’s ‘ Funda¬ 
mental it could never have taken place.” 
There now remains a report on Linne’s scientific 
importance. To set out a complete and trustworthy 
account, would demand more space than is at our 
disposal; all that can be done, is to present in a brief 
form, the role Linne played in the history of botany, 
zoology, mineralogy and medicine. 
Botany was his first love, and he remained true to 
it till death. The chief part of his unresting industry 
he devoted to his “ scientia amabilis ” [lovable science], 
and it is with this, therefore, that his name is indis¬ 
solubly connected. Hence the illuminating epigram 
which admiring contemporaries used, “ Deus creavit, 
Linnaeus disposuit ” [God created, Linne set in order], 
The best known of all his works to the general 
public, is his “ Sexual System,” which undoubtedly of 
all those before and after the so-called artificial system, 
