5683. NATURAL HISTORY, Nomenclature.—[continued].
To disturb Linnæus's
system was unfortunate. The new system attempted
in botany, by Jussieu, in mineralogy,
by Haüiy, are subjects of the same regret, and
so also the no-system of Buffon, the great advocate
of individualism in opposition to classification.
He would carry us back to the days
and to the confusion of Aristotle and Pliny,
give up the improvements of twenty centuries,
and cooperate with the neologists in rendering
the science of one generation useless to the
next by perpetual changes of its language.—
To Dr. John Manners. Washington ed. vi, 322.
(M.
1814)
