24 EMINENT NATURALISTS. 



During the year 1737 he received many congratu- 

 latory letters from eminent botanists in all parts of 

 the world. Sir Hans Sloane wrote : "I am so 

 uncommonly pleased with your "Flora Lapponica' 

 that I very much wish to see the other parts of 

 the natural history of that country completed, and 

 publicly described by you." 



Linnreus published the last edition of his " System of 

 Nature" in 1766, when he was advanced in life, and 

 in his preface he says : "I have ranged through the 

 thick and shady forests of nature ; I have to and fro 

 found sharp and perplexing thorns, I have, as much 

 as possible, avoided them ; but learned at the same 

 time that foresight and attention do not always 

 conciliate perfect and entire safety. I have there- 

 fore quietly borne the derision of grinning satyrs, 

 and the jumps of monkeys upon my shoulders. I have 

 entered the career and completed the course assigned 

 by fate." 



He reached Stockholm in the September of 1738, 

 after an absence of three and a-half years. The return 

 was a source of pleasure to him. It was only natural 

 that he should anticipate, after his laborious 

 researches and fatiguing travels, honours and 

 respect wordd be paid him. But alas ! with him as 

 with others, he was to experience the disheartening 

 truth that " a prophet has no honour in his own 

 country." College dignitaries and professors made 

 sport of his botanical knowledge, and ridiculed his 

 pretensions. 



Again did the necessities of life compel him to 



