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OPPONENTS OF LINNjEU-S. 
44 method was natural. Become yourself a creator of a similar system, 
44 and I will immediately acknowledge you. If you have remarked 
44 greater faults in me, I forgive you your superior wisdom. Who 
44 could perambulate, without erring, the wide spread domains of nature? 
44 Who could observe every thing with sufficient accuracy ? Correfl me 
44 in a friendly manner, and you shall have my best thanks. I have 
“ done all I could do. A great tree cannot bear a lofty top when 
44 only it first begins to shoot forth. I have already made myself 
44 known to all the principal botanists. They have all encouraged me, 
44 and none would oppress my insatiable desire of getting acquainted 
44 with nature. Should you be more obstinate than all those Pin your 
44 treatise in the Journal of Nuremberg, your disposition appears to me 
44 too elevated, too sublime, ever to permit you to avail yourself of 
44 the ignorance of others to promote your own greatness*.” 
44 Forbearing to contend with me, you will do much better to com- 
4> municate your profound learning and knowledge of nature to the 
44 world. This will surely be more honourable to you. Look back 
44 on the history of botanists. Proud of their skill and inventions, 
44 they would not remain quiet and peaceable when they first appeared 
44 on the stage. Long have I been of that opinion, but now I know 
better. After the lapse of a few years, the former became so com- 
* Si quos alios in me vidisti errores, Tu sapientior, bate ignoscas. Quis caruit erroribus, 
in diffusissimo Naturae constitutus campo ? Quis sufficientes habuit observationes ? Moneas 
haec amice, et tibi gratias agam. Feci, quae potui, nec fastigium summum acquirit vasta 
arbor, prima qua erumpit tempestate. Innotui Botanicis certe primariis omnibus dudum ; 
me erexerunt omnes, nec meum insatiab le discendi naturalia, desiderium fregit ullus. An 
tu hisce omnibus durior ? Videris mihi ex tua dissertatione magis nobilis, quam ut te jadtares 
super ignorantiam aliorum. Epistol. ad Hallerum, Vol. I. p. 184, et seq. 
44 plaisant 
