156 Life of Linnaus. 



first appearance, was without any doubt, the most able of his time, 

 distinguished himself by great exactness in the study of details, but 

 never appeared to be seriously engaged with general ideas ; he had, 

 of course, but a very inadequate perception of the real value of the 

 innovations of Linnaeus, but felt strongly the embarrassments which a 

 new language, momentarily, introduces into science. 



This man is confounding all botany, said Dillenius to his friend 

 Sherard, on seeing Linnaeus enter. In many respects, however, he 

 yielded his prejudices. Linnaeus, in his sojourn in England, and in 

 his correspondence, astonished him by the extent of his knowledge, 

 and brought him over by his urbanity. 



Another rival of Linnaeus, who would have been the most danger- 

 ous of all, had he proceeded directly in the same career, was Haller. 

 This astonishing man, at once a poet, physician, anatomist, physiolo- 

 gist, bibliophile, and naturalist, had very remarkable ideas relative to 

 the natural method, and would doubtless have made immense strides, 

 if botany had been the special object of his researches. He confined 

 his ideas to a too contracted sphere, the Flora of Switzerland, and 

 he rendered his work less popular, by not distinguishing the nomencla- 

 ture of Linnaeus from his classification ; and in rejecting the first, which 

 is excellent, from an antipathy to the second. These two celebrated 

 men were, for a long time, on a fooling of intimacy and confidence, and 

 notwithstanding a diversity of opinions, they rendered each other jus- 

 tice. Some light clouds appeared, from time to time, on occasion of 

 their reciprocal criticisms, and there arose a sort of misunderstand- 

 ing between them, by reason of Haller's indiscretion, in publishing 

 some old letters of Linnaeus, which contained private details of his 

 life, and especially relative to his marriage. 



It is but justice to Linnaeus, to state that during his whole life he 

 refrained from replying to the criticisms, (often very severe,) that 

 were made upon him and his writings, either because he disdained 

 them, or because he felt that he had a larger and more glorious mis- 

 sion to fulfil. — He allowed Siegesbeck, Browall, etc. to let loose 

 their choler against him, and enjoyed, in peace, the admiration of his 

 age. The only instance of transient ill will, which can be cited, is 

 against Browall. This person, in his youth, was very humble, in 

 relation to Linnaeus, and the latter dedicated to him a genus which 

 contained only one species, Browallia demissa. Afterwards, made 

 Bishop of Abo, Browall assumed to be a great lord, and Linnaeus 

 found a second species which he named Browallia exaltata. Brow- 



