267 
CHARACTER OF LINNjEUS. 
« Linn/eus is censured,” says Dean B.eck, « for having aspired at 
« universal dominion in botany, and for having been angry with those 
* 6 who strove like him to acquire eminence in that science. Jealousy 
<• is almost constantly found to operate upon great men. And the ie~ 
« public of science has neither Pompeys nor Cjesars. Exclusive do- 
ts mination in the regions of literary eminence belongs to him alone 
cc who has truth on his side; nature confirms the truth, while time on 
« the other hand, destroys presumption and caprices. And who had 
« more virtue and more merit on his side than Linn *us ? Who could 
u w i t h greater right raise himself the monarch of natural science ? 
« Hence how generally and voluntarily have his laws been adopted.” 
We will readily allow that Linn/eus wished to acquire honour by 
his labours. But he did not negleQ, as his pupils can prove, to pay 
proper homage to the discoveries of other men. He mentioned with 
gratitude all those, who showed or sent him the least curiosities of 
nature. He thought it was his prerogative, to see and describe those 
plants, which Iris disciples procured by resources of their own. He ac- 
knowledged their confidence as a strong mark of politeness ; but when 
they lost sight of this confidence, he could not forbear expressing 
his displeasure. In other respects he did not like to speak publicly of 
things which he had not seen himself. 
The arms of Linnaeus were perhaps the most expressive of any 
learned man of the age; at the top above the helmet was the plant 
which bears his name, and whose leaves hung down on both sides, in 
«« Apud nos mLlNNJEO ipsiusque discipulis Academiae Upsaliae fere unica spes, quoniam alii, 
„ quam vis in Chemicis, Medicis peritissimi, raro sua inventa communicant. Ne itaque mi- 
{t reris> q U0( j quandoque LiNN/EUM impensius laud emus. Haec ipsius unica est merces pro 
44 tot laboribus.” 
Mm2 
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