HIS WORK FOR POSTERITY 243 



Society] c because I knew that you merited that addi- 

 tional mark of the esteem of the English literati. We 

 are greatly obliged to you for the account of the curious 

 and learned works printing in Sweden. It is really 

 wonderful how it is possible for you to carry on so 

 many great works.' 



In August 1768 Ellis writes to Linnaeus, 'Poor 

 Collinson, our friend, is dead.' 



Poor Miller had been hauled over the coals at Chelsea. 

 He had written a voluminous book and thought a good 

 deal of himself in consequence. 



John Ellis to Linnceus, 1756 (?) 



* Though our Mr. Miller is a good gardener, he is of 

 opinion that he is a most excellent botanist, which all 

 the world will not allow him/ 



Dr. Garden, writing to Ellis a gushing letter, con- 

 cludes it with enthusiastic faith. It reads oddly, but it 

 shows in what respect Linnaeus was held by amateurs 

 of science at that time. c If seas and mountains can 

 keep us asunder here, yet surely the Father of Wisdom 

 and Science will take away that veil and these obstacles 

 when this curtain of mortality drops; and probably 

 I may find myself on the skirts of a meadow where 

 Linnaeus is explaining the wonders of a new world to 

 legions of white candid spirits glorifying their Maker 

 for the amazing enlargement of their mental faculties/ 



The correspondence was not always so sympathetic. 

 Haller writes to Rosen de Rosenstein, ennobled in 1762, 



E 2 



