HABITS AND MODE OF LIVING OF LINN.EUS. 263 



^ alapas a Prisciano, ([uam unam a Natura*." When he was chosen 

 member of the French Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris in 1763, 

 he composed his letter of thanks to that learned body in Swedish, and 

 had it translated into Latin by his friend the late Swedish librarian 

 Frondin. In other respects, it cannot be denied, that a more exten- 

 sive knowledge of languages, especially of the modern ones, would 

 have proved highly useful to LinnjEus. The complaints of his not 

 having profited wit hutility by the works of foreigners, would then have 

 been less numerous, if not entirely removed. He was tolerably well 



versed in the German, but spoke it very rarely. " I had however ' 

 '< the pleasure," — says the celebrated botanist Eh r hard at Hanover 

 *< of his once conversing with me in Germany for a whole afternoon 

 « in the spring of 1773." 



His aftivity was as great as his thirst for truth, and for the more 

 profound and more extensive knowledge of his science was unquench- 

 able- The strictest order, the most punctual regularity distinguished 

 all his aftions. In summer he usually slept five hours, from ten at 

 night till three o'clock in the morning ; in winter his rest lasted nine 

 hours, namely, from nine in the evening till six in the morning. He 

 proportioned the length and duration of his sleep to the season of the 

 year; and the time for study and occupation he always limited by the 

 natural flow of his spirits. Whenever he felt himself fatigued, he laid 

 by his work ; at night he used to be very fond of good company, dis- 

 played much mirth and jollity, joked, and would often set whole 

 circles in a roar in which he most heartily joined them. Owing to his 



* From a Letter of one of his most intimate friends at Stockholm. 

 t In a Letter to the Author. 



sanguine 



