THE DREAM FULFILLED 



143 



was the dawn of a new era in Upsala, this proclamation 

 of science as ' the understanding of things worth know- 

 ing.' 



The drier philosophers, doubtless, laughed in their 

 sleeves at the wandering Linnaeus as Pegasus in har- 

 ness ; but Linnaeus did not reckon a fixed position as 

 harness, but as roots. He sought to round himself and 

 fill a sphere, adjusting himself to facts. 



As a speaker he was always energetic, instructive, 

 entertaining, and full of illustration ; but on this occa- 

 sion of happy excitement he was more than usually 

 brilliant. Science streamed with electric fluency from 

 his lips. To us, accustomed to telegraphic phrases, 

 and close reasoning in concise language, his discourses 

 seem over-ornate and rococo ; but to his hearers, used 

 either to long-winded emptiness or dry solid matter, 

 they beamed with light and interest. It must be borne 

 in mind, too, that we know his writings principally at 

 third or fourth hand, having passed through his own 

 Swedish mind into the Latin, thence into English. 

 Many of his speeches and writings have come to us 

 through the German the magniloquent German of 

 Stoever. The Lapland tour, translated directly from 

 the Swedish, is lively enough. 



I give a sketch of this discourse in such parts as 

 best unfold his character, or which picture to us the 

 Sweden of his day. 



( Anatomy schools,' he says, 'are erected that we 

 may behold in another's body, as it were in a glass, 



