AN OVERDOSE OF PROSPERITY 15 



which formed part of his splendour. It was difficult to 

 draw up to the doors where his poorer friends lived ; 

 the splendour restricted his liberty, every short-cut was 

 a verboden toegang to him. This is one of the incon- 

 veniences of wealth. On the other hand, he arrived 

 dry a consideration in Holland, where to pedestrians 

 it is heavy rain, and not scorching sunshine, that makes 

 the umbrella the staff of life. The storks enjoy it, and 

 wild-duck and plover abound among the polders of the 

 Hartlemer Mere ; but the cows wear jackets, and the 

 calves, sheep, and tethered goats look rheumatic. At 

 Haarlem and Ley den, beyond anywhere, is the display 

 of grandes eaux remarkable, the water spouting from 

 everywhere and turning all the umbrellas to fountains. 

 No wonder Dutch towns are cleanly, Mother Nature 

 washes their streets so diligently. 



Linnaeus also attended all Boerhaave's lecture* at 

 Leyden and visited him whenever he chose in Herman 

 Boerhaave's happy home, where the great physician en- 

 joyed life with his wife and daughter, to whom he was 

 much attached, his garden and his violin. Boerhaave, 

 seeing the merit of Linnaeus, let him travel over his mind. 

 The club were Carl's companions, his equals ; in Boer- 

 haave he found ' a soul,' in Palma's phrase, * above his 

 his soul ; power to uplift power,' l as the moon controls 

 the sea-depths. 



Linnaeus's severe intellectual strain had prepared 

 him for a reaction on the emotional side, and the 

 1 Bordello. 



