370 LINN^US. 



heart the being possessed of such a character ! The 

 sneer of the filthy sensualist^ who, steeped in pollu- 

 tion, endeavours to persuade his turbid mind that 

 all others are like himself; the scorn of the little 

 puflTed-up intellect, which, having traced the outline 

 of some curious mechanism in nature, exults in the 

 fancied independence of its own poor energies ; the 

 malice of the grovelling spirit, that, finding itself 

 eclipsed by the splendour of superior talents, strives 

 to obscure them by the aspersions of calumny, — what 

 are they that they should influence our estimation 

 of the character of this great man, who with his 

 ardent piety and the devotion of his faculties to the 

 glory of his Creator, is, amid all his imperfections, an 

 object w^orthy of our love and esteem. And such 

 he will remain, while the world endures, in the 

 view of every enlightened admirer of the wonder- 

 ful works of God. 



His writings are characterized by extreme bre- 

 vity, nervousness, and precision. He expresses 

 in a dozen words what might be expanded into 

 half as many sentences. His style certainly is not 

 always pure, nor even on all occasions grammati- 

 cally correct. He was more desirous to instruct 

 than to entertain, and therefore his expressions are 

 weighed but not ornamented. Yet no teacher ever 

 excited such enthusiasm in his pupils ; and since the 

 world began has there been none wiio gave such an 

 impulse to the progress of natural history. They 

 who can sneer at such a man must be cold and 

 selfish indeed. " The language of Linnaeus," says 

 Cuvier, " is ingenious and singular. Its very sin- 

 gularity renders it attractive. His phraseology, and 

 even his titles, are figurative ; but his figures are in 



