OPPONENTS OF LINNAEUS. 123 



ridiculous, was dimissed in 1747 from the Russian academy of sciences, 

 and died a private man. 



Meanwhile Heister felt an inward satisfaftion at the quarrel of 

 which he had himself been the author. Though no vi£lory ensued, 

 yet he rejoiced in the teazing violence of the aggressions. In other 

 respefts, he was prudent enough not to show himself direftly in 

 the field of litigation. He screened himself behind his pupils, whom 

 he had influenced with his spirit of resentment. With these he held 

 disputations at Hehnstadt replete with acrimony, and pointedly levelled 

 against the northern reformer*. 



Do£lor MoEHRiNG at levern, an able botanist, gave his opinion of 

 those hostile dissertations, in a letter to Haller, in the following 

 words : " They are a mass of turbulent verbosity j the smallest minutiae 

 « are attacked in them, and matters censured which Linn^us himself 

 *' only pointed out as plausibilities, and which none of his opponents 

 «' have thus far been able to expose in a clear light. If those literary 

 «' brawlers had but so deservedly exerted themselves in botany as 



LiNNiEus, they would see, that it is easier to criticise, than by 

 « dint of the most arduous observations to discover truths and give 

 «« new elucidations. How much better would it be, to remain an entire 

 « stranger to honours than thus impudently to attempt to lessen the 

 « reputation of anotlier. Thus far can envy and party-spirit mislead 

 « us mortals !" • 



* These were L. Heisteri Dissert, sistens meditationes et animadversiones in novum 

 systema botanicum Sexuale LiNNiEi; Respond. P. C. Goeckel, Helmst. 1741.— Disser- 

 tatio de nominum plantarum mutatione utili ac noxia, Resp, J. E. Sandhagen, Helmst, 

 1 741, and several others, 



R 2 Heister 



