DEAN CELSIUS COMES 123 



thesis, which he did in the most brilliant style. With- 

 out a copper dollar in his pocket, though no longer in 

 rags, he was an object of great attention. This was 

 life indeed. It was as if he had dropped from the stars, 

 so little had he been recognised in Upsala. ' Thought 

 is the soul of act.' He had prepared his soul in unre- 

 cognition, as all such souls must be prepared. Now he 

 could expand, give wings to thought, ply act on act ; 

 build an edifice on what was once but a theory, like an 

 architect's design set in accomplishment. To work out 

 both demands outward influence. His was a fresh soul 

 created, late in space, as the new stars are, when the 

 world was ready to receive it. 



Professor Rudbeck, under whom he had been prin- 

 cipally working, was the most amazed. Celsius' swan, 

 then, really was a swan. We can readily fancy the 

 triumph of the worthy dean in having at once made 

 the discovery that the other professors in over eighteen 

 months had failed to make. Of course some envy was 

 excited, but Rudbeck was too generous to feel piqued 

 with either Celsius or the youth. 



Most people know who Rudbeck was, but in case 

 overloaded memory should confound him with a greater 

 Olaus Rudbeck, his father, I will faintly outline the 

 lives of both. Olaus Rudbeck, junior, born 1660, was 

 the son of Rudbeck, an anatomical discoverer, or more 

 like what we now call a comparative anatomist, protected 

 by the clear-sighted Queen Christina of Sweden. The 

 senior Rudbeck established the botanical garden at 



