MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
APRIL. 1, 
(1810... [4 of Vox. 29- 
' As long as thofe who write are ambitious of making Converrs, and of giving their Opinions a Maximum of 
Influence and Celebrity, the moft extenfively circulated Mifcellany will repay with the ereaccht Kfiect the 
Curiofity of thofe who read either for AMufement or [nitruction.—~ JOHNSON, 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
N reply to your correspondent in the 
Monthly Magazine for last month, 
p- 123, I beg leave to give my reasons’ 
for continuing to write the naine of Liu. 
neus in its original form, rather than 
Linné. The Swedes did not adopt the 
use of regular surnames ull the early 
part of the last century. When each fa- 
mily took a name, literary people, in ge- 
neral, chose one derived trem Greek or 
Latin; hence arose the family-names of 
Mennander, Melander, Solander, Dryan- 
der, Aurivillius, Celsius, &c. Some 
gave a Latin termination to names of 
barbarous origin, as Bergius, Retzius, 
Afzelius, Browallius; and these became 
Swedish names, even with that termina- 
tion entire. The name of Linneus was 
in this latter predicament. Its termi- 
nation therefore is by no means boorish, 
or plebeian, or vile, but of classical ori- 
gin; and these names have the peculiar 
felicity of being transferable into any 
language without inconvenience, and es- 
ecially of entering spontaneously into 
ah composition. If your correspond- 
ent be in the habit of writing or reading 
many scientific books in Latin, he will 
duly appreciate this last consideration. 
With respect to English writing, as we 
mention Titus, and Marcus Aurelius, in 
their original orthography, without fol- 
lowing the French, who call them Tite 
and Mare Auréle; vo one has found any 
difficulty in making an English word of 
Linnzus. 
When this great man became ennobled, 
Yam well aware that, in conformity to 
the court ceremonies of the day, which 
were all French, a termination borrowed 
from the language of that people was, in 
his case, asin others, adopted, with the 
strange jumble of a Gothic prefix 5 and he 
became in Swedish von Linné, as in 
French de Linné, and in barbarous Latin 
@ Linné. No one, that I know of, has 
adopted any of these in English; though 
' Moxrury Mac. No: 197. 
~ 
some have called him Linné, but hitherto 
with little success. I presume no one 
would wish to anglicize his name into 
Linny ; and yet that, however ridiculous, 
would be the only correct and consistent 
measure, unless we retain the von, the 
de, or the 2, 
J have therefore always used bis origts 
nal name, without any design, or surely 
any suspicion, of slizhting the honours 
which his sovereign conferred upon him, 
and which,T will venture to say, reflected 
glory on his royal patron in return, By 
such a disposal of honours their lustre is 
preserved, as in the cases of a Marlbo- 
rough, a Newton, anda Nelson, from 
that deterioration to which, from huinan 
imperfection and error, they are, in their 
very nature, otherwise prone, but from 
which it 1s the interest of every good ci- 
tizen to guard them. [ do not conceive 
however, that any one needs to be re- 
minded of the various digiities, whether 
courtly or academical, conferred on the 
illustrious Swede. His simple name Lin- 
neus recals them all. We have no oc- 
casion to say the emperor Julius Cesar, 
king Henry the 4th of France, Mr. secre= 
tary Milton, or the right honourable Joseph 
Addison, Neither is it necessary to say 
sir Charles Linnewus, or the chevalier de 
Linné, to remind us that he was knight 
of the polar star; and the first person 
who ever received that honour, equal to 
the garter with us, for literary merit. I 
must therefore protest against any inter 
pretation of an intended slight in this 
case, formy meaning is the very reverse, 
I believe the practice followed in Eng- 
land, has decided the conduct of other 
nations. In Latin he is now always call« 
ed Linnéus, even by the Swedes; and 
what is still more striking, the French 
now write Linnzus, even in their own 
language. 
I presume your correspondent had’ 
never a design of recommending for Latin 
composition any thing but Linneus ; and 
Thope he will not hereafter think me 
2 perunacivus, 
