212 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



CHAPTEE XIX. 



HIS WORK FOR POSTERITY. 



* Nature has created many, small in person and external power, 

 whose souls are so great, and whose hearts are full of such im- 

 measurable force (terribilita), that if they do not begin great and 

 almost impossible undertakings, and carry them out to the wonder 

 of all beholders, they have no peace in their lives.' VASABI, Live* 

 of the Painters. 



DOES all biography diminish in interest when the sub- 

 ject has won celebrity, as George Eliot affirms ? Yes, 

 for the struggle is over and one always likes to watch 

 a good fight the hero is no longer in the thick of the 

 battle. There is a lull ; ambition is at home in its own 

 element : it has attained the upper air ; its course is no 

 longer so passionately interesting. 



There seems to me the exception to this rule in the 

 case of men like Linnaeus, whom no success can stupefy 

 into slumber ; who go on the more ardently working. 

 It is as if they had climbed the hill only to fire the 

 beacon that will kindle answering fires on all the hill- 

 tops round, passing on the tale of glory or of warning 

 through the realm. Linnseus had found truth and pro- 

 claimed it ; he now proceeded to make the application. 

 He had now to fit the capital to shaft, or rather to place 



