14 SKETCH OF THE RJSB [LECT. I. 



states, which, in that period, have astonished and 

 convulsed Europe. At length the correct judg- 

 ment, cultivated mind, unwearied assiduity, and 

 sublime genius of Linnaeus, gave to the whole 

 science a new and more attractive aspect. It 

 would form a pleasing episode, were it consistent 

 with our plan, to enter minutely into the biography 

 of this great naturalist*. The display of his tran- 

 scendent abilities, like those of many other illus- 

 trious men, depended upon accident ; and but for 

 the kind offices of a physician of the name of Roth- 

 rnan, those of Linnseus would have been for ever sup- 

 pressed, his father having felt so much disappoint- 

 ment with his eailier studies, that he conceived he 

 was only fit for a tradesman, and destined him to 

 be a shoemaker : but this benevolent physician 

 persuaded him to allow his son to study medicine; 

 and he himself became his preceptor. The po- 

 verty of Linnaeus obliged him to struggle with great 

 hardships in his earlier years-}-. His expenses in his 

 Lapland ttfur, which, however, amounted to seven 

 pounds teu shillings sterling only, were defrayed 



* LINNAEUS was born at Rashult, a village in the province of 

 Smaland) on the 3d of May, 1707. His father, Nicholas Lin- 

 naeus, was pastor of the village; and his mother, Christina Bro- 

 derson, the daughter of his father's predecessor in the church. 



f When at Upsal he was glad to wear the cast-off clothes 

 of his fellow-students ; and his shoes were mended by himself 

 with the bark of trees. 



