LULEAN LAPLAND. 203 



replying that this phlegm is a vegetable 

 called Nostoc, I was, like St. Paul, judged 

 to be mad, and that too much learning 

 had turned my brain. This philosopher, 

 who was as fully persuaded of his own 

 complete knowledge of nature, as Sturmius 

 was of being able to fly by means of hollow 

 globes, was pleased to be very facetious at 

 my expense. At length he graciously ad- 

 vised me to pay some regard to the opi- 

 nions of people skilled in these abstruse 

 matters, and not, at my return home, to 

 expose myself by publishing such absurd 

 and preposterous opinions as I had now 

 advanced. 



The other, the pedagogue, lamented that 

 people should bestow so mAich attention 

 upon temporal vanities, and consequently, 

 alas ! neglect their spiritual good* ; and he 

 remarked that many a man had been ruined 

 by too great application to study. 



* I have known one instance of such bigotry, or 

 rather hypocrisy, out of Lapland. 



