GAEL LINNAEUS. 51 



so loved and developed, and go over the two-and-a- 

 half-story stuccoed house, cream-colored, where the 

 great naturalist lived and entertained princes. 

 Under these dark poplars, enormous in size, he 

 taught the pupils who came from all parts of the 

 world to hear him. The dark, closed blinds are as 

 he left them, for Sweden would not change one 

 thing about the precious home. Too little in our 

 own country do we treasure the homes of those 

 who give honor to the nation. 



The history of Linnaeus is, indeed, a romance. 

 Few have had such great struggles with poverty ; 

 few have come off such conquerors. Few lives 

 have given to the world such lessons of cheerful- 

 ness, of perseverance, and of untiring industry. 

 He was born, May, 1707, at Eashult, in the south 

 of Sweden, the son of a poor minister, and the 

 eldest of five children. The father, Nils Linnaeus, 

 had obtained his education by the hardest toil, and, 

 while he had only poverty to offer his family, he 

 gave them what money could not buy, tender af- 

 fection, and the inspiring influence of a cultivated 

 mind that loved nature and studied her closely. 

 His mother, Christina, a woman of sense, pru- 

 dence, and good judgment, was his idol. He wrote 

 of her in later years : " She possessed all the vir- 

 tues of her sex, devoting the utmost attention to 

 impressing on my mind the love of virtue, both in 

 precept and example." 



From a child he was fond of his father's garden, 

 and gathered from the fields all kinds of wild 



