WEXIO 41 



of mind than for research : he wandered off as far as 

 the royal tumulus of Amlech Shakespere's ' Hamlet ' ; 

 his disturbance of mind was, perhaps, equally great. 

 Had Linnaeus been able to read English he would have 

 found a kinship in Hamlet's unwilling acceptance of 

 life, with its problems not always adapted to man's 

 varying mental constitution. To be or not to be a 

 clergyman : that was the question. How dare assume 

 to guide others, when every blade and leaf taught him 

 his own ignorance ? He could not receive the narrower 

 doctrines the only ones then current as to what objects 

 were the best worth seeking in this world. How was 

 it, then, that his companions, who, he could not help 

 seeing, were most of them less talented than he, were 

 able without difficulty to pursue studies that for him 

 were like beating his head against a stone wall ? He 

 was brought down to earth again. What ! Were all his 

 botanical excursions to be stopped ? his only pleasure 

 at Wexio, where ' amid his wild-wood sights he lived 

 alone. As if the poppy felt with him.' 



Stoever proceeds in his inimitable way : ' Dogmati- 

 cal acquirements, the Hebrew language, and the more 

 solid branches of scholastic science had been forgotten 

 amidst the allurements of the goddess Flora, and still 

 continued to enjoy their usual share of oblivion.' 



When we read passages like these our own pon- 

 derous Johnson feels less sesquipedalian. He seems 

 light reading after seeing Stoever and other Germans 

 disporting themselves like whales. Carlyle talks of 



