TAKES HIS DOCTOR'S DEGREE IN HOLLAND 285 



' Now all the money he had carried with him from 

 Sweden was expended, and being unwilling to trouble 

 his father-in-law (that was to be), whose disposition he 

 well knew on this score, he accompanied Claes Sohlberg 

 from Harderwyk to Amsterdam.' 



Thoughts of his doubtful future would obtrude 

 themselves even during his eager study of the natural 

 objects round him in a country where he found so 

 much food for reflection. In Sweden he had seen how 

 subordinate a part man plays in fashioning the ap- 

 pearance of the country, whereas at Amsterdam the 

 mighty works of man's device a miracle of human in- 

 dustry had literally made the land. It was the 

 reverse in this place. On looking at the wilds round 

 the Zuyder Zee it was difficult to realise their possible 

 transformation into a prosperous country. The magic 

 wand of capital had never touched them. Yet there was 

 hope even for these natural dykes and banks shielding 

 the salt marshes and crossing the dull flats ; for the c good 

 God was watching them as carefully as He did the plea- 

 sant hills inland ; perhaps even more carefully, for the 

 uplands He has completed and handed over to man that 

 he may dress and keep them ; but the tide flats below 

 are still unfinished dry land in process of creation, to 

 which every tide is adding the elements of fertility.' J 



And God would care for the student too, for he had 

 it in him to be industrious and patient. Linnaeus looked 

 at the tender flowers ; the thrift beneath his feet and 

 1 Kingsley, Glaucus. 



