326 LINN^US. 



" 9. I doubt, indeed, whether you, or any other 

 lecturer, can enter into controversy with propriety. 

 Professors and teachers should, above all things, 

 acquire the confidence and respect of their hearers. 

 If they appear in the light of students, how much 

 of human imperfection must appear, and what a 

 depreciation of their dignity ! What man was ever 

 so learned and wise, who, in correcting others, did 

 not now and then show he wanted correction 

 himself? Something always sticks to him. We 

 have lately seen an instance of this in a most dis- 

 tinguished professor, the ornament of his university, 

 who, having long indulged himself in attacks upon 

 schoolmasters, has at last got so severe a castiga- 

 tion from one of this tribe, that it is doubtful whe- 

 ther he can ever recover his ground at all, and cer- 

 tain that he cannot recover it entirely. A very wise 

 physician has declared, that he would rather give 

 up physic, and the practice of it altogether, than 

 enter into public controversy. 



" 10. Look over the whole body of controversial 

 writers, and point out one of them who has received 

 any thanks for what he has done in this way. 

 IMatthiolus would have been the greatest man of his 

 day if he had not meddled with such matters. Who 

 is gratified by '^ the mad Cornarus,' or ' the flayed 

 fox/ (titles bestowed on each other by Fuchsius 

 and Cornarus) ? What good have Ray and Rivi- 

 nus done with their quarrels ? Dillenius still la- 

 ments that he took up arms against Rivinus ; nor 

 has the victory he gained added any thing to his 

 fame. Did not Threlkeld give him much more just 

 cause of oifence } But he was now grown wiser, 

 and would not take up the gauntlet. Vaillant, at 



