P R E F A C E .

...[might] diminish the reputation he had undeservedly acquired for himself by publishing specimens of that Method, which he boasted he had not drawn from books, but had been taught by nature herself. Taking it poorly that I had dared to put my sickle into his harvest original Latin: "in messem suam falcem immittere"; a common idiom meaning to interfere in another's field of expertise or business, he tore those Tables to pieces in shameful ways, while keeping the author's name silent. Although I acknowledged that the Method was subject to criticism, and was not only imperfect but in many ways erroneous and flawed; yet, when I saw myself held in contempt and plainly made a laughingstock by a man who was self-willed original Greek: αυθάδει (authadei); meaning stubborn or arrogant and full of himself—not to say anything harsher, or disturb his spirit original Latin: manes; referring to the spirits of the dead, as Morison had passed away by this time—I decided to see what I could achieve in arranging plants and establishing a system by following the lead of nature freely, so that I might provide somewhat for my own reputation.

At last, after weighing the matter long and hard (as I have said * elsewhere), and by comparing my own observations with those of others, I carved out that distribution which I later published under the title A New Method of Plants in the year [16]82 of the previous century. I foresaw that this work would be far from perfection—I do not mean absolute perfection, but such as the nature of the subject allows (which indeed turned out to be the case)—for reasons cited in the preface to that small work. Namely, that such a task was not the work of one man or one lifetime. Furthermore, I was neither strong enough in intellect to perfect it, nor was I equipped with the proper resources adminiculis; technical supports, such as extensive libraries or botanical collections,

* In the Preface to the Method.