It may happen that any one just commencing to study nature, is anxious to make a great discovery and to obtain a great name. The history of the lives of these and other heroes of science, will prove to him, however, that discoveries are not sudden gains of knowledge, but are the result of very slow and gradual accumulation of facts. If he is a real student of nature, he will strive for truth and not for personal distinction; and the truth, brings a better reward than the fleeting praise of man. The true lasts. He will be able to glean that the special gifts of men, if properly fostered and cultivated, advance knowledge in particular directions, and that certain great changes and advances in the method of learning, have been due to men who have begun poor, have laboured hard, have been persecuted and vilified, and who have nevertheless lived happily in their consciences, and have often become great men in every respect. The following chapters contain the history of the lives of some of the most interesting men of ancient and modern times—of men who are the heroes of Botany, Zoology, and Geology, and who have added methods of study and many facts to their sciences. [Illustration] CONTENTS. [Illustration] PAGE. CHAPTER I. THE INFANCY OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SCIENCE OF PLANTS. Old fancies and notions about plants—Aristoteles, the first botanist—Theophrastus—Plinius—Dioscorides—Their lives, labours, and troubles 1 CHAPTER II. THE RISE OF THE SCIENCE OF PLANTS. John Ray—Joseph de Tournefort—Their lives 27 CHAPTER III. THE LIFE OF LINNÆUS. The science of plants begins to mature, to be reformed, and to be made more exact 52 CHAPTER IV. THE LIFE OF LINNÆUS (_Continued_). The publication and reception of the artificial system of classifying plants 81 CHAPTER V. THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE SCIENCE OF PLANTS. The life of De Candolle—The Natural System 98 CHAPTER VI. HEROES OF ZOOLOGY. The nature of the science of zoology—Great zoologists usually botanists also—Aristoteles as a zoologist—Plinius—The long age of no progress—The life of Conrad Gesner—The zoology of Ray and Willughby—Swammerdam—Réaumur—The zoology of Linnæus 122 CHAPTER VII. THE LIVES OF BUFFON, PENNANT, AND LAMARCK.