8 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



and roll themselves over and over among the fallen apples, 

 carrying off a cargo on their spines for private eating. 



The club let each other talk, giving each man the 

 opportunity of mounting his hobby. This is the best 

 way to get at his mind. l When a man of genius is in 

 full fire never contradict him, give him swing ; let him 

 pour forth, right or wrong ; a listener is sure to get a 

 greater quantity of good, however mixed, than if he 

 thwarts or reasons.' Let Pegasus bolt : he will bring 

 you up in a place you know nothing about. There ID ay 

 flow out of the new idea, as it bursts upwards, a lava 

 stream of conceptions, ready to take the finest mould, in- 

 vigorated by sympathy, and regulated by being perforce 

 promptly put into intelligible words, which give them a 

 body of more power than much print. Then came tran- 

 quil discussion, rising at times to brilliant interchange 

 of thought, over the social pipe of course, and maybe 

 the convivial glass, as they settled down to comfort 

 Linnaeus learnt to smoke in Holland ; the Swedes are 

 no great smokers. It was the age of conversation, an 

 art which we have lost. ' That is the happiest conver- 

 sation,' says our Johnson, c where there is no competition, 

 no vanity, but a calm, quiet interchange of sentiments/ 

 But it must have its elements of gaiety aad humour, 

 repartee and flashes of fun, or it is flat as weak tea and 

 dismal as a dose of senna. 



Linnaeus sparkled among these luminaries ; he was 

 young enough to have those animal spirits about him 

 which it is so vivifying to older men's wisdom to effer- 



