io8 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



Cartes. In anatomy and chemistry there was profound 

 silence ; neither did our botanist ever hear a single lec- 

 ture, public or private, on the study of plants. 1 Oh, when 

 would Celsius come and disperse this gloom, stir this 

 stagnation, and begin to teach ? 



c During this period of intense receptivity ' 2 Linn&us 

 read in the Leipsic commentaries a review of Vaillant's 

 treatise on the sexes of plants. Here was a ray of 

 light. Oh, for Celsius to come and help him to read 

 by it! 



Linnaeus was beginning his second year at the 

 university. His pockets were empty ; subsisting on 

 accidents, he picked up a meal here and there by 

 helping duller students, and from their charity. He 

 learned by heart that marvellous lesson in natural 

 history, that ' of all God's creatures, man alone is poor.' 

 Now his clothes gave way completely, and winter was 

 coming on. Winter begins to bite early in Sweden. 

 Carl, who was proud of his personal appearance, and 

 had always taken pains with his dress, was now glad to 

 cover himself with the cast-off clothes of his more 

 wealthy companions. He grew used to ' the mean and 

 bitter shifts of poverty,' and gaunt and haggard with 

 actual famine. 



He often spoke of this in later life (as well as in his 



installation speech in 1741 as professor at Upsala), 



telling how under severest poverty he could return 



thanks to God whose Divine Providence guarded and 



1 Stoever. 2 Jackson. 



