HABITS AND MODE OF LIVING OF LINN ALUS. 263 
alapas a Prisciano, quam 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 
Frond in. In other respe£b, it cannot be denied, that a more exten- 
sive knowledge of languages, especially of the modern ones, would 
have proved highly useful to Linnaeus. 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 Ehrhard at Hanover + s 
14 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 stri&est order, the most pun&ual regularity distinguished 
all his actions. 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. 
f In a Letter to the Author. 
sanguine 
