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hemmed in the sphere of its operations, no outlook was 

 open to him. l The bitterest of griefs is to know much 

 and accomplish nothing.' l Linnaeus was terribly sore, 

 and no wonder. It was his ruin. c When roused I am 

 like a furious bard of ancient days. I poured forth such 

 a dreadful torrent of sarcasm and truth that I shook 

 him to death,' says our English painter, 2 when likewise 

 chafing under ill-treatment. 



No wonder if the wrath of Linnaeus burst forth in a 

 most unbounded manner. The wild-beast vein of the 

 ancient Goth rose in him. In the tempest of his pas- 

 sion he forgot himself, his future happiness, and every 

 moral consideration, but ' who ever saw far in a storm ' ? 

 Boiling with pugnacity and rage, with flaming eyes more 

 piercing than his knife, he swore ' By all the Valkyrs ! ' 

 he would slay his foe. 



When Rosen left the senate Linnaeus waited for 

 him, and with desperate fury drew his sword, and would 

 have run it through the body of his enemy had not the 

 bystanders fortunately wrested it from him. He flew at 

 Rosen's throat and grappled with him in a fierce struggle. 

 He was with difficulty separated from his prey. 3 Rosen, 

 who was a member of the academy, complained of this 

 gross assault and of this daring violation of the laws of 

 public safety. The rigour of the law threatened Lin- 

 naeus with proscription, and he could never afterwards 

 have made his appearance at Upsala. Dean Celsius 

 interposed, allayed the resentment caused by this event, 

 1 Herodotus. 2 Haydon. * Stoever. 



