Not that system is by any
means to be thrown aside; without system the field of nature would
be a pathless wilderness: but system should be subservient to, not
the main object of, pursuit.
Vegetation is highly worthy of our attention; and in itself is of the
utmost consequence to mankind, and productive of many of the
greatest comforts and elegancies of life. To plants we owe timber,
bread, beer, honey, wine, oil, linen, cotton, etc., what not only
strengthens our hearts, and exhilarates our spirits, but what secures
from inclemencies of weather and adorns our persons. Man, in his
true state of nature, seems to be subsisted by spontaneous
vegetation: in middle climes, where grasses prevail, he mixes some
animal food with the produce of the field and garden: and it is
towards the polar extremes only that, like his kindred bears and
wolves, he gorges himself with flesh alone, and is driven, to what
hunger has never been known to compel the very beasts, to prey on
his own species.*
(* See the late Voyages to the South-seas.
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