46 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



An actor or actress should not be overweighted by per- 

 sonal unfitness. 



With a shrug of the shoulders at parental weakness, 

 the masters who had urged his being articled to a shoe- 

 maker received back young Linnaeus as one who was 

 to fail in medicine likewise. They showed even less 

 penetration than the easily-blinded father. Dr. Roth- 

 man had the clearest eyes of any of them. They gave 

 it as their opinion that Carl was not endowed with such 

 parts as would qualify him for any learned profession, 

 grounding this judgment on the little progress Linnaeus 

 had made in Latin. No sooner, however, had Roth- 

 man directed him to read Pliny than his progress be- 

 came rapid ; because the contents of that author corre- 

 sponded entirely with his own natural propensity. To 

 this circumstance may be ascribed his predilection for 

 Pliny and the laconism of his style. Yet he loved the 

 Georgics even better. 



The father had still to consult with his wife, who 

 would be deeply hurt at the ruin of her hope of seeing 

 her son a minister. Equally disappointing was it to the 

 father, who had himself raised the family from the peasant 

 station, to find it must return to the clay from whence 

 it sprang who had hoped to see himself surpassed in his 

 boy. How should he break it to the mother, the proud 

 ambitious mother, who was waiting at home listening 

 for the splash of oars on Lake Mockeln for her husband's 

 return with details of the lad's triumphs, that her boy 

 was considered good for nothing ? 



