

are 





■I . . 



and I have myself repeated it*, ttat lie dedicated to antagonists 

 plants of an nngraceful habit, thorny, or singular in soine of their 



parta. iThis might possibly have been so. and there would have 



.,'■ 



186 MOKS. FEE ON THE NOMJINCLATIIEE 



with geometry, physics, and rural economy, works doubtless of 

 some importance, as they obtained for him admission into the 

 Academy of Sciences as early as 1733 ? The printing of Buffon's 

 'Histoire NatureUe' extended from 1749 to 1767, and it was 

 during this interval that the reputation of Buffon was diffused 

 and popvilarized. If this great man was known in Sweden prior 

 to this epoch, it was not by Linnaeus. Eevenge can only be taken 

 for an actual injury, and Linnseus had no reason to complain of 

 attacks which had never taken place. We may here invoke a 

 material impossibility— a sort of alibi. It is a petty calumny 

 directed at one and the same time against two great names. We 

 may consequently say with Eichter (Opera Omnia Linneana, 

 1836), "Nomen iniqna mente a Linnseo in Bufonimn (pro Biiffbnia) 

 mutatum esse, probent ii qui narrant." 



Linnseus had his adversaries, and what man of genius has not ? 

 But in his writings we should seek in vain for traces of Hi-temper. 

 He had an elevated tone of thought, an excellent heart, and great 

 dignity of character. He was, if I may be pardoned the expres- 

 fion, a very good great man. Controversy was his antipathy ; he 

 thought, not without reason, that his time was better employed in 

 improving former publications and preparing new ones ; and this 

 was the wisest mode of reply. He not only disliked, but he feared, p 



scientific polemics. The proofs of this assertion 

 as they are convincing. He answered neither Heister, nor 

 Siegesbeck, nor Browallius, nor any other opponent. ' " My old 

 friend Ludwig," he writes to Haller, " wishes to attack me, and I 

 shall be easily conquered, for I lay down my arms beforehand. 

 I will not defend myself." Having reason to complain of Haller, 

 who had greatly ill-used him, he wrote thus in his * Flora Zey- 

 lanica ' : — " In Germania inter Helvetos eminet alter Boerhaavius 

 Hallerus. CI. HaUerum esse mortalium omnium laboriosissimum, 

 inque Theoria Medica et Anatomia hodie summum, norunt omnes. 

 In Botanicis insuper plures investigavit et descripsit plantas 

 qnam ullus facile alius. Inique itaque dixere nonnuUi me minus 

 mite de viro optimo scripsisse ; et sciant velim me ejus scripta et 

 observationes ubique magni facere et attente volvere, cum in tota 

 Germania vix adhuc alius meliora prsestiterit.'* 



All reformers are heated and intolerant. Linnseus was an 

 fRtception ; he vfras mild and benevolent. It has been written, 



"I 



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