54 REVIEW. Correspondence of Linnæus, Xc. [July, "The Princess will build a hot greenhouse, 120 feet long, next spring, at Kew, with a view to have exotics of the hottest climates, in which my pipes, to convey incessantly pure warm air, will probably be very serviceable. And as there will be several partitions in the green-house, I have proposed to have the glass of one of the rooms covered with shutters in the winter, to keep the cold out, which will make a perpetual spring and summer, with an incessant succession of pure warm air. What a scene is here opened for improvements in green-house vegetation! "Having been ill lately, though, I thank God, well recovered, I shall not venture to come to London this winter, for fear of exposing myself to the ill consequences of cold to me, who am 81." Some miscellaneous letters from Mr. Stanesby Alchorne, the Duchess of Portland, Sir John Hill, John Ford, Esq. Lord Chancellor Northington, the Duchess of Norfolk, John Earl of Moira, Mr. Thomas Knowlton, and Mr. (afterwards Sir Joseph) Banks, close the correspondence of Mr. Ellis. We shall next copy a Letter from Hogarth, "the great Moral Painter, whose temper of mind, as displayed in this short letter, may advantageously be contrasted with that of his two celebrated antagonists, Wilkes and Churchill." "DEAR SIR, Chiswick, Nov. 28, 1757. As Being out of town, I did not come by your agreeable present till yesterday, for which I return you my sincere thanks. It must be allowed your print is accurately executed, and very satisfactory too. for your pretty little seed cups or vases, they are a sweet confirmation of the pleasure Nature seems to take in superadding an elegance of form to most of her works, wherever you find them. How poor and bungling are all the imitations of art! When I have the pleasure of seeing you next, we will sit down, may kueel down if you will, and admire these things. I shall be in town in two or three days for good, and will take the first opportunity of wait. ing on you. In the mean time I am, Sir, your most obliged, humble servant, WM. HOGARTH." The letters of Mr. Ford are, in general, very amusing. The correspondence of John-James Dillenius, M. D. with Linnæus and Dr. Richardson, is introduced by a biographical memoir. "In the letters of Dillenius there is a genuine love of science, and a rectitude of principle, apparent throughout. His temper was not without occasional, though transient, asperity. He disliked forms and compliments, and he expresses his sentiments, without hesitation or reserve, especially in his letters to Linnæus, whom he charges freely with his own fault, an impatience of contradiction or of criticism." from Mr. James Petiver and John Letters to Dr. Richardson follow, Frederick Gronovius, M. D. The Correspondence of Linnæus is then resumed; among others are letters from the following eminent Naturalists: John Amman, M.D. Herman Boerhaave, M.D. Bernard de Jussieu, and Albert Haller, M.D. His A letter from the celebrated Boerhaave, dated Jan. 13, 1737, must have been highly gratifying to Linnæus, who was then a young man. "Genera Plantarum," is pronounced to be "a work of infinite attention, singular perseverance, and unrivalled science." "You, in every instance, write nothing but what announces a man of experience, and a profound critic." "May God grant you health of body and mind, to be Nature's historian, for many years to come!" The resignation of Boerhaave to the Divine Will, is pleasingly manifested in a Letter of this eminent Physician, addressed to J. B. Bassando. Jussieu gives Linnæus due praise, and attributes the study of natural orders to him. Haller's consultations with Linnæus about nomenclature, and the limits of genera, are very curious, and show the state of botanical knowledge at that time, from which something may, even at the present advanced stage of Botany, be learned. Haller "at this time of day people are accustomed to establish before genera they are masters of their distinctions, or the power of their characters." This has been true in every age, and is most glaringly evinced at present. says, The following letter from Dr. Peter Ascanius, a celebrated Danish zoologist and mineralogist, afterwards superintendent of mines in the Northern part of Norway, addressed to Linnæus, gives an interesting view of the state of botanical knowledge in England in 1755, as it appeared to the mind of an intelligent foreigner : "A few remarks on the present state of Natural History in England may not be unworthy of your notice, considering the celebrity 1821.] REVIEW.-Correspondence of Linneus, &c. celebrity of this country for its rich collections of every kind. "Our Pontopidan's Nat. Hist. of Norway is published in English. That author, in the second part of his work, gives an account of a marine monster, Siöe ormen, or Microcosm, as he calls it*, supported by evidence that might almost satisfy a historian. Nevertheless I suspend my opinion. The book will please the English, though the translation is bad enough. "In October last I visited Oxford, that famous seat of the Muses; nor is it wonderful that the Sacred Nine should choose such a residence. No seat of learning in the world contains more splendid palaces, nor richer libraries, galleries, museums, &c. "A natural history of Jamaica is expected to appear in about 12 months, by ■ Dr. Browne, who, after residing nine years in that island, is just returned to England. He is well skilled in natural science, and his work will be much superior to that of Sloane. His attention has been particularly directed to plants, and I believe he has near 150 new genera, examined in their native situations. This able man follows the sexual system, and his book will be enriched with figures by the celebrated Ehret, who still retains his love of plants, and is truly a botanist. He desires his best respects to you. He had, some years since, the care of the Oxford garden, but having more ardour than the Professor, he was obliged to quit his station. It is not impossible that he may become the draughtsman of our intended Hortus. Mr. Miller gave me a packet of seeds for you in February last, but I had no opportunity of sending it till now. I saw nothing of Professor Sibthorp at Oxford, he being absent from thence; nor of the manuscripts of Dillenius or Sherard, of which, I am sorry to hear, he takes little care. When he has been spoken to on the subject of their publication, he replied, that such an undertaking would require much time, and would not suit the taste of the booksellers. "Mr. Watsont, an apothecary, and Fellow of the Royal Society, in an English periodical publication for December, has given a review of your Species Plantarum, in which he has controverted many points, without saying any thing to the purpose. The English chiefly find fault with your exclusion of Catesby's generic name of Meadia; nor do I find myself able to give them a sufficient reason. Dr. Mead is celebrated by every body, and especially by Ehret, for his great attention to Natural History. He left 200 drawings of rare plants, for the doing of which he paid Ehret 400 guineas. *The famous Kraken. 55 "The British Museum, consisting of the immense collections of Sloane and the Royal Society, will soon begin to be placed in Montagne house, but the whole undertaking can hardly be accomplished in the space of ten years. When complete, this museum will alone well repay the trouble of a visit to England. Both these collections however are at present in the greatest confusion, and many articles have been lost, either through neglect, or from being placed in a bad situation; but they receive acquisitions daily from every part of the globe. Mr. Mr. Ellis, F.R.S. has just published a treatise on Corallines, Sertulariæ, which, by means of an excellent microscope, he has discovered to be entirely the work and crusts of Polypes, by which they are inhabited throughout their whole length. He possesses many specimens in which tentacula (feelers) are protruded from the divarications and summits of the branches, in the same manner as Trembley relates. To this tribe also belong the productions called the Dead man's hand, Sea Fig, &c. Ellis asserts the same thing of the Lithophyta, or true Corals, and especially of the Sea Fan, Flabellum Veneris; but to this I hardly dare, as yet, assent. The original author of these experiments is Dr. Buttner, who has lately left Paris for Berlin. I mean to repeat his curious observations at the sea side the first opportunity. The opinion of Bernard de Jussieu, relative to these matters, has not yet prevailed here; but rather Baker's doctrine of crystallisa tion. This last is a very worthy man whose microscopical enquiries have great merit, though very simple. He has confirmed your opinion of the formation of crystals. "Da Costa is a jew, who has long laboured at a history of fossils, in English. He certainly possesses an excellent collection of minerals; or rather, I should say, he did possess it; for he is at present in prison for debt. But his collection is in the hands of a friend, who allows him a partial use of it. Da Costa is certainly well versed in this study, and will make us acquainted with more species than any other writer has done. "Dr. Hill, the too famous naturalist of England, is in the lowest possible condition. I do not think any mortal has ever written with more impudence or more ignorance. His only excuse is that he must write in order to exist. I have a letter, dated March 24, from Dr. Gronovius, who is just recovering from a very severe illness. His preface to the Flora of Rauwolf, with the life of that celebrated traveller, are ready for the ' press. *Flora Orientalis, Lugd. Bat. 1755, 8vo. 56 REVIEW.-Correspondence of Linnæus, &c. "I am about to bid farewell to the English, whose kindness I have reason to acknowledge." The letters of Don J. C. Mutis, a learned Spanish ecclesiastic and phy. sician, will be read with considerable interest, on account of the warmth of affection and respect for Linnæus, everywhere so apparent in them. Mutis first taught and established the Newtonian philosophy in Spanish America. We have not room to extract a curious letter from Lord Monboddo to Linnæus, in which he defends him against Buffon; as we are desirous of copying the concluding letter in this collection from the late President of the Royal Society to the Editor: "MY DEAR SIR JAMES, "My chief reason for troubling you with this is to tell you that I have paid obedience to your mandate, by reading your article on Botany, in the Scotch Encyclopædia, which, conceiving it to be an elementary performance, I had neglected till now to peruse. "I was highly gratified by the distinguished situation in which you have placed me, more so, I fear, than I ought to have been. We are all too fond of hearing ourselves well spoken of, by persons whom we hold in high regard. But, my dear Sir James, do not you think it probable, that the reader, who takes the book in hand for the purpose of seeking botanical knowledge, will skip all that is said of me, as not at all tending to enlarge his ideas on the subject? "I admire your defence of Linnæus's natural classes. It is ingenious and entertaining, and it evinces a deep skill in the mysteries of classification; which must, I fear, continue to wear a mysterious shape, till a larger portion of the vegetables of the whole earth shall have been discovered and described. "I fear you will differ from me in opinion, when I fancy Jussieu's natural orders to be superior to those of Linnæus. I do not however mean to alledge that he has even an equal degree of merit in having compiled them. He has taken all Linnæus had done as his own; and having thus possessed himself of an elegant and substantial fabrick, has done much towards increasing its beauty, but far less towards any improvement in its stability. "How immense has been the improve ment of Botany since I attached myself to the study, and what immense facilities are now offered to students, that bad not an existence till lately! Your descriptions, and Sowerby's drawings, of British [July, plants, would have saved me years of labour, had they then existed. I well remember the publication of Hudson (in 1762), which was the first effort at welldirected science, and the eagerness with which I adopted its use.-Jos. BANKS." "The last Letter, coming from a man of such distinguished talents and experience, is so valuable a commentary on several leading subjects of the present Volume, that the Editor could not withhold it from the publick. He must rely on the favour of his Readers, not to attribute to a foolish vanity this exposure of what gives an important sanction to his own sentiments, while it displays at once the knowledge, the indulgence, and the unassuming candour, of the writer. The hand that traced these lines is no longer held out to welcome and encourage every lover of science; and the homage of the motley crowd, of which Science formed but the livery, has passed away. The lasting monument of botanical fame, of whose judicious and classical plan so interesting a memorial is left us, in the first of Sir Joseph Banks's Letters to the younger Linoæus, has been sacrificed to the duties incumbent, for almost half a century, on the active and truly efficient President of the Royal Society. Its loss would ill have been supplied by ever so stately a mausoleum of marble; and even this mausoleum has been suffered to crumble, in embryo, into dust! The names of Banks and of Newton are, indeed, alike independent of an abortive or a mutilated monument; and inscriptions on brass or on marble now resign their importance and their authority to the more faithful records of History and Science, perpetuated for ever, if they deserve it, by the phoenixlike immortality of the Press." It will afford us sincere gratification, should the reception given by the publick to these Volumes induce their worthy Editor to favour us with another Selection, from the ample materials of which we understand he is in possession. 7. The History of the British and Foreign Bible Society. By the Rev. John Owen, M.A. late Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Rector of Paglesham, Essex, and one of the Secretaries of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Vol. III. 8vo. pp. 541. Hatchard. OF the two former Volumes of this Work, comprising the History of the first ten years of this commendable Institution, we have candidly spoken in vol. LXXXVI. ii. 342. Of the present Publication, which relates P 1821.] REVIEW.-Malthus and Godwin on Population. relates the transactions of the Society from 1814 to 1819, it may be justly said, that their labours have been more abundant, and their success proportionably greater. The worthy and conscientious Author deserves well of the Publick, and more especially of the Society. which is so much benefited by his pious and strenuous exertions. : As he very truly observes, "The task of writing such a volume is, in fact, more onerous and trying than, to those who have not had some experience in the work of selection and arrangement out of copious materials, would appear easily credible. All that the author can pretend to, in the performance of his task, is that of having bestowed upon it as much time and application as his variable health and numerous avocations would permit and, while he has reason to apprehend that it may be justly chargeable with some deficiency of correction and polish, he has the satisfaction to believe that it will not be found wanting in the more important requisites of fidelity and truth. He is perfectly aware that the subject which he has chosen for the employment of his pen, is not sufficiently popular to obtain for his work any flattering degree of attention from the generality of readers. In this respect, therefore, as he has encouraged no hope, he has nothing to suffer on the score of disappointment." 8. An Enquiry concerning the Power of Increase in the Numbers of Mankind; being an Answer to Mr. Malthus's Essay on that Subject. By William Godwin. 8vo. pp. 626. MR. GODWIN says (p. 623) that, if we embrace the creed of Mr. Malthus, " we must have a new Religion and a new God:" but he admits that "it was America, which, by the inaccurate representations that were made of her population, gave occasion to Mr. Malthus's theory of the geometrical ratio." (p. 437.) The laws of life and death (says Paley) are connected with providential regulations, unknown to us; and it is certain, that animals prey upon each other. We see, therefore, nothing unphilosophical in Mr. Malthus's ideas, except his adoption of Soame Jenyns's opinion, that vice made a part of the system of Providence, which needs no such clumsy inconsistent agent. By means of vice, disease and death are doubt less increased: but a father may as reasonably be supposed to recomGENT. MAG. July, 1821. 57 mend prostitution to a daughter, because that would produce barrenness, as that Omnipotence should adopt such miserable expedients. Had any check of population been in the contemplation of Divine Wisdom, similar limits of issue would have been placed (to judge by analogy) as ensue in relation to beasts and birds of prey. If we were created to die, we must of course be formed subject to disease and no other check exists in nature. The doctrine of Mr. Malthus, we are thus compelled, from respect to the glory of God, to pronounce "a libel upon Providence;" but satisfied as we are, that Mr. Malthus acted upon solemn conviction of the accuphilosopher, we regret that Mr. Godracy of his data, and abstractedly as a win, in his conclusion, should write ill-naturedly, as if the doctrine was a vice of mind and heart. If we are glad to see the basis of the Malthusian system utterly confuted, we shall also have occasion to show that, unless there is some gross mis-statement, Mr. Malthus is right, and Mr. Godwin is wrong, in the most important inference connected with political action. The doctrine of Mr. Malthus is known to be this,-that population by periods of 25 years each, increases in geometrical progression thus: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, and so onwhile subsistence follows only the common arithmetical increase, 1-2-34-5-6-7-8-9, and so on. Though Mr. Malthus is analagously vindicated by Natural History, in forming these conclusions, yet they have no foundation whatever; and only a little reflection will show, that such an arrangement is inconsistent with Divine wisdom and benevolence. No argument is necessary. As to the absurdity of the geometrical ratio, we shall endeavour to show it, in a manner different from Mr. Godwin, by an instance, which brings it at once to the reductio ad absurdum. The greatest instance of prolific descent, to which we can at present refer, is that of Esther Lady Temple, who lived to see seven hundred descendants of her body (Collins's Peerage, vi. 49; ed. 1763.) Suppose her to have lived five hundred years after the marriages of her children, and the geometrical ratio to com mence 58 REVIEW.-Malthus and Godwin on Population. mence with the first 25 years, the issue in 500 years will be as follows : 613,288 Remainder. This enormous remainder must have been carried off by the preventive check; and therefore the geometrical ratio must have been acting upon the population in the way of decrease, not augmentation. We have made this computation ourselves upon Mr. Malthus's Geometrical basis, by multiplying by 2. We shall now exhibit the manifest absurdity of the ratio, by an extract from Mr. Godwin (p. 163), formed by dividing by 2, the population of every Century: "The population of Sweden in 1805, as appears from the actual enumeration, amounted to 3,320,647. Now let us take half this number, as the population of 1705, 1,660,323. By the same rule the population will be in 1605, 830,162; in 1505. 415,081; in 1405, 207,540; in 1305, 103,770; in 1205, 51,883; in 1105, 25,942; in 1005, 12,971; in 905, 6,485; in 805, 3,242; in 705, 1,621; in 605, 810; in 505, 405. "So that by this way of calculation, Sweden contained at the time of the destruction of the Western empire in 476, little more than three hundred souls; and when this part of the globe began to send forth its hordes, which destroyed the power of the Romans, aud changed the face of the [July, world, it could scarcely boast a human inhabitant." The geometrical ratio is, therefore, untenable. Mr. Malthus says, that England and Wales contain 46,916,000 acres, which amount, divided by 640, the quantity of acres in a square mile, leaves the number of square miles to be 73,306. Now this we presume to be an exaggerated account; for in other statisticks we find the number of square miles in England and Wales, to be only 57,960, which is above fifteen thousand less than Mr. Middleton's. We shall take the latter amount, and apply to it the rest of Mr. Middleton's data, to which we have no objection. Mr. Middleton says, that 4,800,000 acres, or 7500 square miles are devoted to the keep of horses, and that there are 7,816,000 acres, or 12,209 square miles of waste. These products added, make 19,709, and that number subtracted from 57,960, leaves 38,251 square miles in actual cultivation. Mr. Middleton states the consumption of the inhabitants, men, women, and children, upon an average, thus: Food per head, annually. Acres. In animal food..... In roots, greens, and fruit......... (P. 459.) 20 Total......24 In other accounts we have found it computed, that every person living solely upon meat, consumes the produce of five acres ; - solely upon wheat, one acre and three-quarters; solely upon potatoes, but three-quarters of an acre. If this estimate be too high, Mr. Middleton's is probably too low; but we will take his account, as he includes infants, at three acres per |