12 CAROLUS LINN^US 



minister, had a family of minister's sons 

 to educate, and was generous enough to 

 receive as one of his own sons his sister's son 

 Nils, to be educated with them. This peasant 

 boy, Nils Ingemarsson, remember, is the pre- 

 destined father of our LinnaBus. But this 

 boy's school scene, lying away back almost 

 upon the edge of mediaeval times, and afar 

 in the north of Europe, well towards the 

 country of the midnight sun, is a pleasant 

 scene, before which we must pause a moment. 

 It is in the midst of a time when great people 

 may lead simple lives, and when a family 

 group of boys, destined if possible to the 

 intellectual life and at least to one of the 

 learned professions, are not at first to be sent 

 away from home. They live under the par- 

 ental roof, and their Latin tutor lives there 

 with them. Latin is the language in which, 

 later at college and at university, lectures on all 

 subjects will be given; it will be the language 

 in which most of the books there used are 

 printed; the language of recitation and of 

 student debate. 



So these small boys at home begin Latin. 

 They also so begin it as if they were to become 

 interested in it, and really to learn the lan- 

 guage, and not to end with a mere smattering 



