CHAPTER II. 



WEXIO. 



The breeze that flung the lilies to and fro, and said 



The dawn, the dawn, and died away, 



Thence shall we hear 



The music of the ever-flowing streams, 

 The low deep thunders of the booming sea. 



Clouds, ARISTOPHANES (translated by ME. COLLINS). 



IN the spring of 1717, l Carl's father took him to Wexio 

 to be entered at the grammar school (or trivial school, 

 as Linnaeus calls it in his diary) in that town where 

 already his connection John Lindelius had been cele- 

 brated as a physician. It is true John had been dead 

 these six years, but his interest would still be alive in 

 the place, and might be useful to the boy now for the 

 first time leaving his parents' roof. Carl's outward 

 appearance had been transformed to suit his altered 

 circumstances. The long silky white hair was cut short 

 as befits a schoolboy, and he was provided with new 

 boots for state occasions high loose boots reaching 

 up the calf. Linnaeus's account of his schooldays is long- 

 worded, after the fashion of his time ; but Stoever's 

 biography of him is very funny. He begins the story 



1 A note-book of Linnaeus's says September 1714, but this date 

 is evidently an accidental interpolation. See note 2 p. 25. 



