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A Selection of the Correspondence of Vinneus and Other Naturalists From the Original Manuscripts
A Selection of the Correspondence of Vinneus and Other Naturalists From the Original Manuscripts Author:James Edward Smith General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1821 Original Publisher: Longman Nurit Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can s... more »elect from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: PREFACE. THE epistolary correspondence of eminent characters is generally an object of curiosity. This may arise from an opinion that the writers are there likely to appear with less disguise, and under a more easy and familiar aspect, than in studied compositions intended for the publick eye. Hence the letters of professed authors have always been perused with avidity; though possibly not invariably written without a latent expectation of their being one day seen and admired beyond the limits of confidential privacy. The letters here presented to the publick were probably not written with any such expectation ; or, if they were, it was an expectation of their being consulted as registers of plain facts and scientific remarks. The effusions of the heart, which they not unfrequently contain, were certainly not poured out in ostentation, or to display brilliant sentiments, rather than warm affections. These effusions will principally be found in the correspondenceof genuine disinterested lovers of Nature: while the letters of academical dignitaries, of such at least as were little inspired by any of this pure and elevated taste, too often display that irritability which is characteristic of rivals, whether in fame, interest, or any other personal object. The ample stores, from whence the following collection has been selected, are, in the first place, the epistolary correspondence of the great Linnaeus and his son, which came into the hands of the editor, by purchase of every thing that belonged to those eminent men relating to Natural History or Medicine, in the year...« less