[ 34 ] 



as glorious to the country in which he lieved, and crown- 

 ed heads defired to poiTefs him. The king of Spain 

 offered him an annual penfion of two thoufand piafters, 

 equal to three hundred and fifty pounds, the free exercife 

 of his religion, and a patent of nobility, if he would re- 

 fide at Madrid. Offers were like wile made him from 

 the courts of Petersburg and Great Britain. But Lin- 

 nceus chofe rather to enrich with the fplendor of his re- 

 putation, the country which produced him, and the 

 friends who nourifhed him. 



Frederick the firfl who like his fuccefTor gave much 

 encouragement to literature, had in the year 1748, found- 

 ed in Sweden the order of the Polar Star. Into this 

 order Linnaeus was admitted by Frederick Adolphus, 

 and in 1753? on the twenty-feventh of April, he was 

 created a knight of the Polar Star. And as a further 

 reward for his merits and the diftin£lion to which he 

 had raifed the univerfity of Upfal, he was by the fame 

 royal munificence, by a diploma, dated the fourth of 

 April, 1757, admitted among the hereditary nobility of 

 his country. At this time he changed his name to Von 

 Linne ; the termination us being confined to the plebei- 

 ans of Sweden. 



^ 



In 1755, he obtained the firft prize which Count 

 Sparre had left, to be giyen for the beft treatife on the 

 fubje£l of agriculture and the feveral branches of rural 

 economy. It confiHed of two gold medals, of the value 



