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24 preparatory labour. Indeed, the principle on which it rests must to a certain extent be implied in every artificial system of arrangement.

This work soon acquired a considerable degree of popularity, not only by its intrinsic value, but from the seasonable time of its appearance. The study of botany, which had hitherto been confined almost exclusively to the members of the medical profession, was now becoming a popular and even fashionable pursuit; a distinction which it owed chiefly to the writings and example of J. J. Rousseau. Every work, therefore, calculated to facilitate the study, was likely to meet with a favourable reception among those who would probably have been repelled by dry technical details and rigorous scientific precision. Its publication had an important influence on Lamarck's fortune and prospects. It secured for him the friendship and patronage of M. de Buffon, who was then in the height of his popularity, and possessed of much influence, not only from his rank, character, and celebrity, but also from his authority with the government. Even its want of a very philosophical and precise system was probably one of the circumstances that recommended it to Buffon's attention, as it was thereby assimilated to his own writings, from which every thing of that nature was expressly excluded. Through his influence, an edition of the work was printed at the royal press, and its author introduced to the favourable notice of many of the leading savans of the day. He had soon an opportunity of turning his popularity to