LIFE AT STOCKHOLM 69 



is wrong before I die, for no one can amend his own 

 works in the grave.' Linnaeus was not jealous, even of 

 Haller. ' Of whom in the world could he ever be jealous ? ' 

 asks Sir J. Smith indignantly. Both these great men 

 have been accused of vanity. ' If vanity were never 

 found but with such pretensions, one would almost for- 

 get it were a weakness ! ' ! But such accusations are no 

 proof; for, as Goethe writes to Carlyle, 'those who 

 live with superior men are easily mistaken in their 

 judgment. Personal peculiarities irritate them. The 

 swift-changing current of life displaces their points of 

 view, and hinders them from perceiving and recognis- 

 ing the true worth of such men.' This is a roundabout 

 and German way of saying that ' no man is a hero to 

 his valet/ Linnaeus could respect the criticisms of a 

 Haller ; but for the lesser fry Siegesbeck and the rest 

 who with ' vociferous platitude ' brayed out against the 

 man who had called their science compilation, and de- 

 clared that the world was already overburdened with 

 catalogues, ' which require no abilities in their composi- 

 tion, arid answer no purpose when done ' Linnaeus did 

 not waste his time in answering these cavillers one by 

 one and point by point. 2 



He had cracked their theories across; the fabric 

 stood, to outward seeming, much the same ; but that 



1 Smith. 



2 There is a email volume, edited by Stoever, Hamburg, dated 

 MDCCLXXXXII,' containing Linnasus's letters to Albert Haller, to 

 Pennant (in Swedish), to Thunberg, and Gieseke, Wallerius's theses 

 against Linnaeus, the Orbit Eruditi t &c. 



