362 
LINNAEUS 
Linne’s scientific work lies not in a retrospective com¬ 
parison between him and his forerunners, but between 
him and later investigators, when new, unsuspected 
fields of work were opened, previously neglected owing 
to want of means. How wrong it would be to blame 
Berzelius, Lavoisier and other chemists because they 
did not even know the composition of the atmosphere, 
and made use of chemical formulae now abandoned. 
How insignificant are Newton, Franklin, Galvani and 
other physicists, who had not the slightest knowledge 
of spectrum analysis, telegraphy and the like, which 
are now part of an elementary school education ? And 
what a bad soldier—to borrow the comparison of a 
Norwegian author, N. Wille—was Caesar, who did not 
employ artillery? One thinks of the old story of the 
dwarf who sat on the giant’s shoulder, and boasted that 
he could see farther than the latter. 
Finally it may be mentioned, that false judgment 
of nationality has probably sometimes been the cause 
of detraction. For instance, persons—not naturalists 
—created a smoke-screen against Linne by speaking of 
him as “ our celebrated compatriot ” (French), or “ the 
renowned German naturalist ” (German). These were 
attempts to claim Linne as of local celebrity, “ a genius 
the like of whom the great civilized countries could 
show a hundred.” It recalls the tale of the birds 
disputing who should be king. The eagle, with 
powerful flight, mounted high, and leaving the others 
of the winged troop beneath him, cried out, “Now I 
am king,” but unwillingly heard the protest of a little 
feeble kingfisher, who had crouched all the time on 
the eagle’s back, and now fluttered some yards higher. 
Probably if any Linne-censor should read this, he 
may compassionately or contemptuously smile at this 
account, but besides a Swedish author in a field where 
Linne was a pioneer, two writers of the highest 
eminence may be quoted. Franz Unger, an Austrian, 
in 1852 wrote: “ One of the most eminent men of the 
previous century was the great reformer of natural 
