S7S CHARACTER OF LlNN^US. 



moved or irritated ; that he is but slow in adopting opinions, and 

 *' perseveres perhaps with too much obstinacy in those which he had 

 « once received; that he was not possessed of moderation sufficient to 



resist the censure and the contradiftions of his rivals. — Such avowals 

 *' only prove, that Linn/Eus was passionately fond of fame, and that 

 " this passion like all others is subje£l to frailties and excesses. But 

 " how small is the number of men who have that courage which he 

 " had to own their frailties." 



" Thus the care which he took of his eulogium, and which in another 

 " man might perhaps have been the mere impulse of vanity, was in him 

 " but a fresh proof of his love of truth. After having combated errors 

 " all his life time, he would not palliate those which admiration or envy 

 5* might have urged for or against him." 



The extraordinary laconism in the works of Linn.-eus, and per- 

 haps the too frequent use of systematic description, render the perusal 

 of them difficult ; they require more being studied than read; but 

 afford afterwards a rich compensation in the precision of his ideas, 

 and in the advantage of presenting, all. at once, a multiplicity of results. 

 LiNN^us was well aware that naked truth possessed the most captivat- 

 ing charms, and that those ornaments which are used to set her off, serve 

 only to mask her. He was more eager to form naturalists and to instru£l: 

 students than to entertain amateurs. The powers of eloquence which 

 allure the latter and please the idle fancy, were a gift which he never 

 •des-ired to make his own. His countrymen, at the same time, found in 

 the works which he wxote in his mother-tongue, an elegant and pleasant 

 idi^ion, and that kind of eloquence, which among all others, is the 

 fflftost enrapturing, and perhaps the only one peculiarly adapted to phi- 



2 losophical 



