A lecture delivered in King's College, London, on Tuesday, the 11th of October, 1831, being introductory to the first botanical course of the session opening the institution / by Gilbert T. Burnett.

  • Burnett, Gilbert T. (Gilbert Thomas), 1800-1835.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture delivered in King's College, London, on Tuesday, the 11th of October, 1831, being introductory to the first botanical course of the session opening the institution / by Gilbert T. Burnett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    truth, we must forget and part with much we know. Yet this is no easy task: how doubly hard do we find it to forget those things Mdiich we wish not to remember! Were it not better, then, as it were easier far, that they had been never learned ? for, as Sir Thomas Browne most truly adds, “such errors as are but acorns in our younger brows, become sturdy oaks in our elder heads, and resist inflexibly the powerfulest arm of reason.” Can such a system merit man’s reproach? if so, reproach be thou my lot; for such reproach should ever be esteemed more truly praise. But to our theme. Gentlemen: Botany, the professed object of these lectures, is a science which relates to all those inferior ranks of the or- ganic creation called Plants, or Vegetables. But what is a plant? what do we mean by this word vege- table? It is a term the most ignorant presume they under- stand, although the most learned are unable exactly to define: for a plant is, indeed, as Theophrastus long ago observed, “a various thing, of which it is difficult to give a definition.” Tell a clown that it is difficult to distinguish between an ani- mal and a plant, he will smile incredulously, and perhaps will say, can I mistake man-orchis roots for men? but shew him a conferva and a polype, a lichen and a coralline, a flustra and a flag, or even a mushroom and a mollusc, and he will at once confess, at least by silence, if not by words, that he “ kens not which they be.” Such pi’esuming self-confidence in what they know, is the “ badge of ignorance and the curse of fools;” it is the humble privilege of the wise alone to doubt; and they who know the most are always the most sensible how little the most enligh- tened know. But this matter is apocryphal not to the unlearned and the ignorant alone: physiologists the most astute have la- boured, and do labour, still in vain, succinctly, yet compre- hensively, to define a plant. The difficulty, however, consists not so much in the perception of the differences which un- doubtedly do exist, as in reducing these perceptions of the progressive scale of creation to our still very imperfect language. The dilemma somewhat resembles that in which an ancient philosopher is said to have been involved, who, w'hen desired to state what motion is, after much consideration, rose from his seat, walked towards the inquirer, and replied, “ You see it, I can shew it to you, but I cannot tell you what motion is. Thus, also, to our opening question I would an- swer, here are plants; you see them; 1 can shew them to you.