56 HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



cost his father no small pains to eradicate from his 

 flower-beds. The enterprising youngster even tried 

 the experiment of establishing a swarm of wild 

 bees and wasps in the garden, the result of which 

 was a devastating warfare waged against the do- 

 mestic hives. 



At length it was thought desirable that these 

 flowery pursuits should give way to more serious 

 occupations, and he was committed to the charge 

 of a private tutor, whom he calls " a passionate and 

 morose man, better calculated for extinguishing a 

 youth's talents than for improving them." Nor 

 did he fare any better in his next remove, which 

 was to the grammar school at Wexio, where the 

 masters "pursued the same methods, preferring 

 stripes and punishments to encouragements and 

 admonitions." Probably the boy evinced his dis- 

 taste for such coercive measures, since we find him 

 soon removed from school to the care of another 

 private teacher, of whose mild and gentle disposition 

 he speaks in terms of approval. Nevertheless, he 

 too failed to inspire in his pupil a love for the 

 studies which were considered necessary as pre- 

 paratory to admission into holy orders ; for Nils 

 Linnaeus, desirous that his eldest son should become 

 his assistant and eventually his successor, designed 

 him for the Church. The boy had to work for three 

 years before he was promoted to a higher " form " 

 in the school, called the " circle ; " and the principal 

 use he seems to have made of the greater liberty 

 allowed him in this new rank, was to shun the usual 



