Linnæus and Wilson [pp. 74-76]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
to the topics on which I had before heard him dwell with
pleasure. A question about his friend and comrade, the
famous Philip Nolan, effected my object. His dim eye for
a moment flashed up like the last flickering of an expiring lamp, and he became eloquent in praise of the companion of his youth, his fellow in arms, and partner in
innumerable dangers. The excitement soon died away,
but it subsided into calmness and self-possession. He
rose, and took his leave with recovered dignity of manner. He tottered to the door, and to his horse, a halfbroken colt, which he mounted with difficulty. As he
touched the saddle, hlie became a new creature. His
infirmities had disappeared, and he was now a part of
the vigorous and fiery animal he bestrode. There he
sat, swaying with every motion of the prancing horse,
restraining his impatience with a skill and grace too
habitual to forsake him, and with an air which betokened a momentary flush of pride. He was like Conrad restored to the deck of his own ship. I could not
see his fa-ce, but I had pleasure in thinking that the excitation of the moment might operate as a cordial to
his drooping spirit. I looked after him as he passed up
the street in a curvetting gallop, with his head-gear
streaming on the wind, and bethought me that I might
never see him again.
I was not mistaken. The blow that brought him to
his knees before any but his God, or "the king his
master," had crushed his heart. He never held up his
head again, and was soon at rest. The prevalence of
the Catholic religion among the French has preserved
one spot sacred to the men and customs of other days,
and there hlie lies.
LINNZEUS AND WILSON.
Fisher Ames has remarked, that it is as difficult to compare great mien, as great rivers. He might have found
a happier illustration; but the meaning is obvious, that
whilst distinguished men bear to each other some points
of resemblance, they are remarkable for points of discrepancy. Johnson traced lines of analogy and contrast
between Dryden and Pope, whilst Playfair did the
same between Newton and Leibnitz. Plutarch led the
way in this kind of writing, but his parallels were occasionally more fanciful than true.
Il miany things antiquity has excelled; but in natural science and in works of fiction, the palmn is due to
modern times. Cuvier and Pliny, could nrot be impartially measured, without giving to the former a decided
advantage. The light which fell on the latter was dim,
in comparison with that by whichl the philosopher of
France was guided in his researches. Persian monarchs
might formerly have been amused by the tales which
adulation told in their presence; but Sir Walter Scott
has redeemed fiction from many of the purposes to
which it has been applied.
Among, the scores of men who have devoted their
talents to natural science, Linnaeus and Wilson are not
the least conspicuous, and they'bore a likeness to each
other in the obscurity of their origin. The first was
the son of a Pastor, who lived in a village of Sweden,
and partly sustained his family by cultivating a few
beds of earth. The manse (to use a word familiar in
Scotland,) has more than once been the birth place of
genius, as Thomson, Armstrong, and the translator of
the Lusiad could have testified. The latter wvas de scended of a line of peasantry-but they both evinced
that science has palms to bestow, on all by whom they
shall be nobly attempted and fairly won, whilst she
leaves it to kings to adorn the undeserving with hereditary titles.
They both appear to have lived for a time out of their
element, for the one had well nigh been sent to the
awl, whilst the other was a weaver in Paisley. But the
taste of Linnacus was early formed, whilst that of the
ornithologist was not developed, until comparatively late
in life. The biography of the Swede is full of incidents
to show that his passion for plants took its rise in infancy, and grew with his years. The circumstances of
his father being unexpectedly improved, the new residence of the Pastor was embellished by a garden, and
though gardening had been his business, it now became
an amusement. When the parent was employed among
his plants, the son was seen by his side, drawing from
paternal instruction, the elements of that science in
which he was destined to excel. But the Ornithologist
betrayed no early predilection for the branch of knowledge to which he subsequently became devoted. It was
not until hlie had expatriated himself, and killed for his
own sustenance, one of our forest birds-that the high
resolve was formed of consecrating himself to the investigation of thie feathered tribes. There is something
striking in this event. An exile from Scotland, driven
by poverty to seek an asylum on our shores, not knowing to what destiny his steps were tending, is reminded
by an incident of the claims of science on his personal
services. He had seen the birds of his own country,
which Grahame had celebrated in one of his poems;
but it is probable that the dishevelled plumage of the
one alluded to deeply affected his mind. To ail accident we owe a series of galvanic experiments, and the
discovery of the law of gravitation; and if this be so,
it is not to be wondered at, that to an event seemingly
unimportant we should owe the enlargement of Ornithology.
Linneeus and Wilson made but small attainments in
any other branch than the department in which each of
them became eminent. The first was conspicuous in
his medical profession, but this was the result of adventitious circumstances. He gained some acquaintance
with Mineralogy, and even explored the province of
Dalecarlia as a kind of Peripatetic Lecturer-but this
branch belongs to Natural Science. He was sent in
youth to an academy, with a view to prepare for the
sacred office; but his habits, though marked by innocence, unfitted him for its duties. He appears to have
been deficient in what Phrenologists call the organ of
language, and especially in the acquisition of the modern
tongues; but whilst others were becoming familiar
with words, he was ruminating by Lake Helga, and
stripping Lake Wetter of its plants, that the tribes of
the North might learn to speak in flowers, and thereby
resemble in traits of sentiment and imagination the
caravans of the East. The attainments of the Ornithologist were from his circumstances necessarily limited. Confusion is generally consequent on education
which has not discipline for its basis. Before Wilson
left Scotlaud he attempted poetry, and some of his
productions were attributed to Burns; but this kind of
mistake is freiqucntly made by the partiality offiriends.
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