266 
CHARACTER OF LINN.EUS. 
a To the praise of Linn/eus I must farther own,” says Mr. Ehr- 
hart, the celebrated botanist at Hanover *, — ■« that notwithstanding 
« his parsimony, he neither did nor would accept a single penny as an 
« honorary for the le&ures which he gave me.” — w You are a Swiss,” 
said he once to me, “ and the only Swiss that visits me. I shall take 
« no money of you, but feel a pleasure, in telling you all I know 
“ gratis .” 
Notwithstanding those liberal sentiments, gold, the noblest of metals, 
did not a little recreate his sight, and inspire him with fondness. ,e And 
« why,” says Dean B/eck, “ should gold not have been amassed by 
« him, who hoarded up all that was precious or beautiful in the lap 
« of nature.” 
In the common social intercourse he was fond of conversation, 
kind and condescending towards his inferiors, — and at the same time, 
a prepossessed and enthusiastic friend of reputation and honour. His 
coat of arms bore for its motto the words, with which Anchises 
spirits up jEneas, and Pallas invokes Hercules: “ Famam Ex- 
** TENDERE FACTIS.” “To SPREAD FAME BY DEEDS'! . The 
truth of this motto he fully realized. Honour was in him like in other 
eminent men, the source of his greatness. The liberal will in other re- 
spe£ts hardly deem it necessary to gloss over by apologies that manifes- 
tation of self-love, which is generally inseparable from true honour*. 
* LlNN/EUS 
* In a Letter to the Author. 
•J- <• Et dubitamus adhuc virtutem extendere faftis ?” — Virgil. Ain. Lib. VI. Vers. 809. 
“ Sed famam extendere fattis 
. “ Hoc Virtutis opus.” Virgil, yEn. Lib'. X. Vers. 468 and 469. 
J The late celebrated Chevalier Peter Wargentin, Secretary of the Royal Academy 
at Stockholm , gives the following opinion in a Letter dated Stockholm , July 23^ 1731. 
“ Apud 
