Volume 1

A selection of the correspondence of Linnaeus and other naturalists, from the original manuscripts / by Sir James Edward Smith.

  • Linné, Carl von, 1707-1778.
Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A selection of the correspondence of Linnaeus and other naturalists, from the original manuscripts / by Sir James Edward Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    598/640 (page 572)
    DR. GARDEN TO MR. ELLIS. January 15th, 1770. My dear, my first, my chief Botanical Friend, It is absolutely with shame and confusion of face, that 1 take up the pen to write to you. My long silence, my neglect in answering your affectionate letters, leave me not even the shadow of an excuse, • and I can make no proper apology for either. Will you, can you, forgive me If you do, I shall im- pute your excuse to your own goodness, of which I have already had a thousand proofs. Shamefully negligent indeed have I been. I have left and for- saken that study which gave the purest delight to my mind that ever it received, but I believe I only left it for a season, to return to it again in a short time, I hope, with renewed vigour and attention. For these three years past I have done nothing, neither read nor studied any branch of natural his- tory. Indeed I have been sunk and lost in applica- tion to the practice of medicine alone. Closely con- fined to town, and having no intercourse with any person in that way here, the spark was almost ex- tinguished. The perusal of some of your letters helped to rekindle it a little at times, and lately a fresh perusal of yours of May 1768, and June 17^9, accompanying Mr. Pennant’s, have roused me from my lethargy. It is not yet too late to return again to the ways of well doing. I have only to beg your kind fostering assistance to stimulate me to a fresh exertion of the opportunities with which Providence has kindly blessed me, in placing me in a land of