HOMEWARD BOUND 49 



is Dillenius. I had never any acquaintance with Vail- 

 lant. He was a man full of himself, ambitious of raising 

 his own fame on the overthrow of his teacher, the 

 honourable and excellent Tournefort. Vaillant was 

 merely demonstrator in the Paris garden, and rude in 

 literature. He set himself up against Jussieu, and once 

 laughed Dillenius to scorn. . . . All this is nothing to me. 

 I wish to be a just and reasonable man as well as a 

 botanist. I confess I never yet read any writer who 

 was more accurate than Vaillant, who made more dis- 

 coveries in botany, who laboured harder, or reaped a 

 more sparing reward. Is a man to be handed down to 

 posterity either as a scoundrel, a madman, or the most 

 stupid of all mortals, merely because he has pursued, 

 honoured, and laboured to improve botany ? Jussieu, as I 

 am informed, has solemnly sworn hostility to the memory 

 of Vaillant; nor is Dillenius content with the numerous 

 cavils with which he has insulted his manes in the 

 " Hortus Elthamensis." Admit that Vaillant has his 

 faults in synonymy, or perhaps in other respects. Who 

 has ever been free from botanical errors ? He is a wise 

 man who can distinguish good from evil; and that 

 general may be esteemed happy who conquers and dis- 

 perses his enemies with the loss of half his own forces. . . . 

 But an honest man ought to do justice to everyone's 

 deserts. If you give due praise to Vaillant, posterity will 

 be just to your memory.' 



Among the delightful society that Linnaeus found 

 at Paris, who welcomed with open arms the pleasant 



VOL. II. E 



