CAROLUS LINNAEUS 29 



year before, had counselled Nils Linnaeus to 

 abandon all hope of Karl's ever becoming a 

 clergyman, to take him home and apprentice 

 him to the learning of some useful handi- 

 craft. To this man young Linnaeus had to 

 make application for the necessary credentials. 

 As a matter of routine duty, the letter was 

 indited promptly and handed to the appli- 

 cant. It was brief and rhetorical; and, 

 whether by chance or of deliberate purpose, 

 the figure of speech employed was botanical. 

 "Boys at school," he writes, "may be likened 

 to young trees in orchard nurseries; where 

 it will sometimes happen that here and there 

 among the sapling trees are such as make 

 little growth, or even appear like wild seed- 

 lings, giving no promise; but which when 

 afterwards transplanted to the orchard, make 

 a start, branch out freely, and at last yield 

 satisfactory fruit." 



On reaching Lund, Linnaeus first of all 

 paid his respects to Professor Gabriel Hoek, 

 who some years before had been an esteemed 

 tutor of his in the earlier days at Wexio. 

 This gentleman was so much pleased at see- 

 ing young Linnaeus there as a postulant for 

 admission to the university, that he at once, 

 and in complete ignorance of that humiliating 



