obliging in all that concerned him, promoting his wishes 

 and his interest, whenever opportunity offered. She took 

 so much pleasure in the conversation of her distinguished 

 naturalist, that she allowed him his habitual indulgence 

 of smoking, even in her royal apartments, that he might 

 continue his labours with the more satisfaction to himself. 

 Nor were his services accepted without suitable returns 

 of royal munificence. 



In 1753, he received, from the hand of his sovereign, 

 the order of the Polar Star ; an honour which had never 

 before been conferred for literary merit. A still more 

 remarkable, if not more grateful compliment, was paid 

 him, not long after, by the king of Spain; who invit- 

 ed him to settle at Madrid, with the offer of nobility, the 

 free exercise of his religion, and a splendid botanical ap- 

 pointment. This was handsomely declined by Linnaeus, 

 who declared, that if he had any merits, they were due to 

 his own country. This patriotic moderation received its 

 just reward in November, 1756, when he was raised 

 to the rank of Swedish nobility, and look the name of 

 Von Linne. 



As the habits of Linnseus were temperate and regular, 

 he retained his health and vigour in tolerable perfection, 

 notwithstanding the immense labours of his mind, till be- 

 yond his sixtieth year; when his memory began, in some 

 degree, to fail him. In 1774, at the age of sixty-seven, an 

 attack of apoplexy greatly impaired his constitution. Two 

 years afterwards, he had a second attack, which rendered 

 him paralytic on the right side, and materially affected 

 his faculties. He died of a different complaint, in 1778, 



aged seventy-one. His sovereign, Gustavus III. com- 

 manded a medal to be struck, expressive of the public loss 

 his country had sustained in him ; and honoured the 

 Academy of Science, at Stockholm, with his presence, 

 when the eulogy of this ornament to his country was pro- 

 nounced there by his intimate friend Black. A still higher 

 compliment was paid to his memory by the king, in a 

 speech from the throne, in which he did justice to the 

 splendid talents and acquirements of his illustrious subject, 

 and testified his royal sympathy with the sorrow of a 

 whole nation, in their irreparable loss. Nor was this sor- 

 row limited to the narrow bounds of his native soil : the 

 whole literary world, with whom he had become inti- 

 mately connected, and to whom he was endeared, felt the 

 shock of such a bereavement. Eulogies were pronounced 

 in the several scientific institutions of which he was a 

 member. In his own country, there was a general mourn- 

 ing proclaimed at Upsal his remains were deposited in a 

 vault near the west end of the cathedral of the university, 

 where a monument of Swedish porphyry was erected by 

 his pupils. His obsequies were performed in the most 

 respectful manner, by the whole university, the pall being 

 supported by sixteen doctors of physic, all of whom had 

 been his pupils. 



Five years after this, the remains of his only son (then 

 in his forty-second year, successor to his father in his 

 botanical professorship, which he supported with ability) 

 were laid by the side of the parent ; the family coat of 

 arms broken over them, and their mingled ashes strewed 

 with flowers. 



