display an introduction to natural history, in what we consider to be by far the most desirable form and manner of publication for giving effect to our intentions. Our second object is, to collect scattered facts and new discoveries. Individuals are now occupied in every part of the globe, in discovering new objects, or in explaining the nature of those already known. New productions and new facts are thus rapidly accumulating; it shall be our business to record them as they are discovered or ascertained, and at the end of every year to present their essence to our readers in a general summary If we can attain these two objects in the manner in which we hope to do, whoever makes himself master of our introductory papers, and regularly peruses the other parts of the Magazine, will, for all the ordinary purposes of use and enjoyment, be a practical and scientific naturalist; will know all that is already known, and worth remembering, on the subject, and be made acquainted with every thing new or interesting as it occurs. In conclusion we repeat, with a view of impressing them on the mind of the young reader, the fundamental truths with which we set out; first, that all knowledge is pleasure, as well as power; and secondly, that in the pursuit of pleasure, as in every other pursuit, the reward obtained will be commensurate with the labour bestowed. These are facts in accordance with reason and experience, and ought to be treasured up in the mind of every young person, as perpetual incitements to exertion. 10 PART I. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. ART. I. Some Remarks on Natural History, as a Means of IT has been the fashion, in modern times, to depreciate the discoveries of Linnæus, and to put forward other eminent naturalists as rivals for popular favour at his expense. Nothing can be more unjust towards the memory of departed greatness, nothing can be less acceptable to existing merit, than the attempt to build up their fame by disparaging that of another. Now, although it must be acknowledged that the naturalists of this country have confined their studies too exclusively to the nomenclature of science, and have overlooked too much the end for which language is invented, let us not be so absurd as to shut our eyes to the real merits of Linnæus, because we have witnessed some abuses of his system. His great claims to our admiration rest upon ground independent of that which is generally taken up against his disciples; and this will be found tenable against all opposition, whatever the extent or novelty of our discoveries or improvements in our systems. The first great merit of Linnæus consisted in the sound philosophy on which he framed his genera. This invention of generic characters, though not his own, was brought to such a degree of perfection by him, and was rendered current by his instrumentality to such an extent, that he is entitled to the high praise of having made it useful to the world. Before his time, natural history consisted of a multitude of particulars spread over so large a surface, that it was impossible to embrace them without devoting a whole life to the subject. By the simple invention of generic terms, the mind is enabled to comprehend and speak of all these particulars in an abridged form. That is done by one word, which before required a hundred. It may safely be asserted, that the application of this metaphysical instrument, familiar as it now appears, has facilitated the acquisition of the knowledge of nature more than any thing besides. It is to the intellect what the steam engine is to mechanics - a highly compressed form of power, enabling us to do in a minute, and with infinitely less fatigue, what before consumed an hour. Systematic terms, of a generic character, are now become so common, that naturalists seem to have forgotten the great importance which is attached to them. The subject, of which they formed a part, engrossed nearly all the learning of the latter part of the seventeenth century. It engaged the attention of Locke, Leibnitz, Descartes, and, more or less, of all the master-minds of the age. Hume pronounces the discovery of the real nature of these abstractions to be the greatest and most important which has been made in modern times in the republic of letters. These philosophers treated the subject metaphysically; Linnæus showed its application to practice. It is very true that the English, who have a metaphysical turn peculiar to northern latitudes, and were among the first to adopt this prodigious concentration of intellectual strength, have, in dwelling upon the engine itself, thrown away some time in a less profitable application of it; yet this is better than the abuse of it by some of our more southern neighbours, who are frittering away the power, by breaking down and dividing substantial genera, until they have almost reduced them to particulars again. Sound philosophy, on the contrary, requires, that, as our knowledge of particulars increases, the generalisation of them should increase also. This is the proper business of the present generation. Our forefathers have laboured to accumulate the particulars of natural history, until they are become so redundant as to be beyond the grasp of human thought. The only mode by which they can be reduced within our power, is the just application of the laws of generalisation, by persons standing preeminent in science, and entitled to prescribe to inferior minds. It is a small and paltry ambition which has inflamed the ordinary naturalists of the present day, that they should wish to impose their own names; that they should be mortified to find themselves forestalled in their barbarous compounds; and that their boast should be in the number of these spurious offspring that may be affiliated upon them. Besides the placing of genera on a philosophic foundation, we are indebted to Linnæus for the invention of a language of such precise import as almost to supersede the necessity of a draughtsman; and also for the application of trivial names, which is but another mode of generalising. Whoever will look into the old authors, will see what a wonderful facility is given to the acquirement and communication of knowledge by this simple contrivance. For instance, Ray, in writing or speaking to his friend Willoughby, to tell him he had found Antirrhinum Elatine (the former being the generic, and the latter the trivial name), is obliged to go round to his point in this manner: "I have found that Linaria Elatine dicta folio acuminato;" and Haller, who was one of the neatest and most skilful definers, if he had communicated the same information, would have employed this periphrasis :-"I have gathered the Antirrhinum foliis imis conjugatis, superioribus alternis, ad basin hamatis." But the knowledge of the instrument, however requisite, is not the knowledge of the subject to which it is applied. Nomenclature is not the end, but the means, of our study; and if I have offered an excuse for the attention which has been paid to it in this country, I rejoice in any circumstance which is likely to enlarge the boundaries of science, and throw open still wider the temple of nature. The establishment of a Magazine of Natural History cannot fail to promote this object. Without disparaging other pursuits, the subject has some advantages of a wider bearing than is generally acknowledged. In the first place, it is admirably adapted to develope and strengthen the faculties of the mind; and this it does, not only by the system and order which are necessary to be observed, but by appealing to some of the higher powers with which we are endowed. Mankind are evidently divided into two great classes, those who particularise (composing the bulk), and those who generalise. No man was ever great, ⚫ without possessing both faculties in an eminent degree; yet the greater part pass through life without ever discovering that they have this power of abridging and condensing thought by an operation of the mind alone. Even those who do possess the faculty to some extent, are apt to suffer it to run so wild, and to deal in such loose generalities, that they lose half its benefits. Nothing is more likely to develope this peculiarity of the intellect, or to keep it within legitimate bounds, than the systematic study of nature. She furnishes such an infinity of subjects, that no man could grasp the ten-thousandth part who should attempt to become acquainted with all the individuals, and he would be left immeasurably behind another who should employ generic and family distinctions. Nor can the student of natural history make a step in generalisation without a frequent recurrence to his particulars. He would soon find himself lost amidst the mazes of similar and related things, if he were not to examine and reexamine the individuals before him. Unlike many of the subjects of the present day, which seem to owe their attraction to the almost licentiousness of their generalisation, this subject brings with it its own corrective; and to be a good naturalist, requires that the student should be a diligent observer of particulars, as well as a correct generaliser of them. Another great inducement to adopt the study of natural history, is, that it is admirably suited to correct the tendency there is in our popular institutions to run into schemes of utility. Our mechanics, mathematics, amusements, politics, charities, are all tainted, more or less, with this defect. "The age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, calculators, and economists has succeeded." Now, besides this perpetual appeal to utility and reason, as the only, or chief foundation of happiness, there is another and higher appeal, felt by all, and occasionally bowed to by all, which goes to the heart and to the affections; more subtle in its nature, and less within control, there are a thousand cases which yield to no other tribunal, and where man acts with greater safety, trusting to the dictates of his heart, than if he relied upon utility and reason. To bring the subject home more practically: our scheme of popular education attempts to improve man's moral condition. almost entirely through the medium of his understanding. It seems to be adapted to make good artizans, skilful mechanics, industrious tradesmen; but it may be fairly doubted, whether it be suited, in a like degree, to cherish the higher virtues, and to make men better as well as wiser. I wish to see natural history cultivated as a means of enlarging this contracted view of education, of opening to the little sentient new objects for his affections and sympathies, of awakening within his bosom a love for nature and nature's productions. It is the fashion with a cold and heartless portion of the world, to stigmatise these notions with the names of romance and sentiment. It might, perhaps, be happier for England, not forgetting Scotland, if the sinews of our strength were not wholly exhausted in our industry; if steam-engines, and power-looms, and economy, and profit, divided our attention only, things which reason approves, but which the imagination forbids. They have a tendency to lower the standard of excellence to their own level, while the repudiated and now antiquated scheme of bettering men through the heart, always proposes a higher and nobler standard than he can reach. I should, for instance, propose, that the peasantry of England should be improved by being taught that the kitchengarden does not comprehend the whole scope of horticulture; that there are such things as violets and roses to awaken sweet recollections; ranunculuses and anemones to ravish the eye; and some one or other particular flower, which every |