ANECDOTES OP LINNJEUS. IX 



the immensity of beings which cover the globe; 

 and perhaps greater still in the extraordinary num- 

 ber of observations, and in the hypotheses which are 

 founded upon them, and gradually became theoreti- 

 cal truths. The hypotheses of Linnaeus indicate most 

 particularly the brilliancy of his imagination, and at 

 the same time, the strength of his judgment. Some 

 of them appear extremely bold and venturesome at 

 first ; but upon closer inspection, we find the ob- 

 servations in Nature on which they are founded, 

 and must acknowledge them afterwards, if not as 

 true, at least as probable and as deserving of a more 

 minute inquiry. 



" Among his manuscripts there must certainly 

 have been found many important remarks ; I should 

 have been very desirous of seeing those which re- 

 late to the general arrangement of Nature. He 

 must have collected the most interesting observa- 

 tions on this head. He contemplated Natnre with 

 the greatest accuracy, and with so much knowledge 

 and judicous skill, as to have penetrated into her 

 most secret mysteries. But he dared not, as he him- 

 self assured me, publish those observations during 

 his life, because he was afraid of the excessive vio- 

 lence of the Swedish divines, who, frequently too 

 faithful and too bigotted to their own arguments, do 

 not consider, that Nature as well as Revelation, 

 proclaim, in unison of principle, the hands of that 

 Great Master who formed both. Linnasus had the 

 example of his pupil Forskal before his eyes, who 



