13B PANEGYRISTS OF LINNiEUS. 
The attacks of his opponents were by no means indifferent tq, his 
ambition; yet he thought it more prudent to commit them to oblivion* 
than to acquire notoriety in defence of his name. His whole way of 
thinking in this respeft, he expresses in the best manner in a letter to 
Baron Haller, written in the year 1748% when the latter had a 
dispute with the Aulic Counsellor Ham berger of Jena , about res- 
piration. 
44 If you will listen to the counsel of a sincere friend, I advise yon 
« to give up the dispute with Ham berger and his whole set. Nay, 
44 that man is not your equal. The more he is beneath you, the more it 
44 aggrandizes his reputation and his notability, which is otherwise com- 
« pressed in a very small sphere. Boerhaave, our great pattern never 
44 replied. I still remember what he told me.” — 44 Never,” said he,. 
« answer attacks. I promised to take his counsel, and found it 
44 answered. wull. Your time, my dear Haller, is too precious to the 
* f public. You can do more for science than hundreds of others. 
n The plurality of men judge of matters which they do not understand. 
44 How do kings wage war ? Their very conquests are attended with the 
« loss of many thousands of subjects. Thus it is with the learned. If 
tt even they triumph, it happens by lessening their influence and merit. Be 
44 our assertions true or false, they wull so remain, whether we defend them 
44 or not. Children, now occupied with infant sports, will judge us when 
44 once we are gone. The hypotheses of Hamberger will never be 
44 permanent if they are erroneous, however much they may enjoy the 
44 transitory triumph of deluded fashion. Remember the disputes of 0111 
« ancestors in botany. Does not the very perusal of them inspire with 
* Epist. ad Haller, vol. ii. p. 409- 
3 
(e disgust 
