292 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINN&US 



his ' System of Nature ' in MS., which so astonished 

 him by its novelty, that he requested Linnseus's permis- 

 sion to get it printed at his own expense. 



What a triumph for the youthful doctor ! His 

 talents were to be recognised at last. What mattered 

 poverty or even hunger now ? He was to be known as 

 the author of the New System ! He forgot that few 

 people saw the necessity for a new system, or indeed 

 for any system in botany at all. 



The publication of the work was accordingly com- 

 menced a matter of immense importance to his after 

 fame, and really better than bread and Dutch cheese in 

 the present. But an engraved work finely got up on 

 fourteen folio pages l takes some time to prepare, and to 

 distribute it profitably takes still longer. 



Though Carl wanted so little, it seemed as if his 

 life were always to be ' a progress from want to want, 

 not from enjoyment to enjoyment ' ; that he must still 

 cast about him to make something out of nothing, 

 daily to twine his rope of sand. Still the greater, 

 harder work, the chain of linked thought, was in pro- 

 cess of production, and it was the first time he had 

 tasted the exquisite cup of realising his dreams. 



It was hard that he could not afford to remain in 

 Holland till the birth of the great System, but he could 

 not live without work, and paying work had yet to be 

 "ound. 



In this year, 1735, he published the first edition of 

 1 Twelve folio pages, says Sir W. Jardine. 



