Dr. Smrtu’s Introduétory Difcourfe. 31 
guifhed:merit and amiable manners procured him the favour of the 
rich and powerful, as well as the attention and admiration of the 
{cientific; and his medical and botanical lectures at Upfal foon at- 
tracted a number of ftudents from all parts of the world, and ex- 
alted that univerfity to a degree of fame hitherto unknown. | 
It is true, he did not efcape the attacks of envy and jealoufy; 
nor can any exalted character, however inoffenfive and prudent, 
hope to efcape them. But they never put him fo much ‘off his 
guard as to wafte his time in controverfy, nor would he give his 
adverfaries immortality, by tranfmitting their names to pofterity 
with his own. Iíhall on the prefent occafion follow his example ; 
nor drag from obfcurity works long fince forgotten, or authors 
who never were noticed. I cannot butobferve, however, that pro- 
feffor Siegefbeck, notwithfta iding his intemperate zeal in attacking 
the fexes of plants and Tanners fyftem with all the arms he 
could mufter, both facred and profane, was by no means the mot _ 
contemptible of all the authors on that fide the queftion. He 
has been unfortunate enough to be always held forth as the botanic 
Zoilus; but I think there have been fome critics, even in our own 
country, who for futility, ignorance and malevolence, would have 
much greater claims to that title, if they were of confequence 
enough to claim any title at all. 
We muft now. confider fome of the moft eminent naturalifts 
who were contemporaries with Linnzus in the beginning of his 
literary.career, and. whofe labours tended effentially to the advance- 
ment of the ícience. It would be endlefs to enumerate all who 
have cultivated or written upon natural hiftory during this golden 
age; we can only notice a few of the moft diftinguifhed. | 
His moft intimate companions at this time were Artedi and Gro- 
novius ; the former of whom has in his Ichthyology difcovered fuch 
: talents 
