For me, I
know _no_ rational study which is only a science of words: and to which of
the two, I pray you, shall I grant the name of botanist,--to him who knows
how to spit out a name or a phrase at the sight of a plant, without knowing
anything of its structure, or to him who, knowing that structure very well,
is ignorant nevertheless of the very arbitrary name that one gives to the
plant in such and such a country? If we only gave to your children an
amusing occupation, we should miss the best half of our purpose, which is,
in amusing them, to exercise their intelligence and accustom them to
attention. Before teaching them to name what they see, let us begin by
teaching them to see it. _That_ science, forgotten in all educations, ought
to form the most important part of theirs. I can never repeat it often
enough--teach them never to be satisfied with words, ('se payer de mots')
and to hold themselves as knowing nothing of what has reached no farther
than their memories."
8. Rousseau chooses, to represent his 'Personees,' La Mufflaude, la
Linaire, l'Euphraise, la Pediculaire, la Crete-de-coq, l'Orobanche, la
Cimbalaire, la Velvote, la Digitale, giving plates of snapdragon, foxglove,
and Madonna-herb, (the Cimbalaire), and therefore including my entire class
of Draconidae, whether open or close throated. But I propose myself to
separate from them the flower which, for the present, I have called
Monacha, but may perhaps find hereafter a better name; this one, which is
the best Latin I can find for a nun of the desert, being given to it
because all the resemblance either to calf or dragon has ceased in its rosy
petals, and they resemble--the lower ones those of the mountain thyme, and
the upper one a softly crimson cowl or hood.
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