WEXIO 43 



to see each other's mind. The tutors had no opinion of 

 Carl's abilities, and again counselled his father to put 

 him to some mechanical trade a tailor, or better still a 

 shoemaker, a favourite craft in Sweden, and, I suppose, 

 therefore the most profitable ; it was, at all events, a 

 secure livelihood. 



The account in Linnaeus's diary runs thus : ' 1726. 

 The father came to Wexio, hoping to hear from the 

 preceptors a very flattering account of his beloved son's 

 progress in his studies and morals. But things hap- 

 pened quite otherwise ; for, though everybody was 

 willing to allow how unexceptionable his moral conduct 

 was, yet, on the other hand, it was thought right to 

 advise the father to put the youth as an apprentice to 

 some tailor or shoemaker, or some other manual em- 

 ployment/ Good as is the evidence of the diary, it is 

 only the rapid rough draft of the fuller and sometimes 

 slightly differing account in the autobiography begun 

 in Latin, and continued in Latin or Swedish by various 

 hands from dictation, or compiled from conversations. 

 This date of 1726 seems to be an error, as we know this 

 event occurred three years before his admission to Lund 

 University, where he went in 1727. With filial obedi- 

 ence Carl avowed his readiness to study divinity, but 

 owned at the same time his want of inclination, his 

 great aversion. His father therefore resolved to make 

 his son ' take absolute leave of the muses ' old Stoever's 

 expression and to bind him apprentice to some honest 

 cobbler. 



