222 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



express command that he was to be taught to draw from 

 nature, and to converse habitually in Latin. Loefling, 

 Falk, and Rolander were in turn little Carl's tutors. 



His best and bravest pupils he sent out into the 

 world to fight against its ignorance : Kalm to Canada, 

 Hasselquist to Egypt, Osbeck to China, Toren to Surat, 

 Solander to England, Alstroemer to Southern Europe, 

 Martin to Spitzbergen, Montirf to Lapland, Pontin to 

 Malabar, Kohler to Italy, ForskShl (of the ForskShlea) 

 to the East, Loefling to Spain. Soldiers of science all 

 them ; some of them, as Hasselquist and Bartsch, Falk 

 and Loefling, its martyrs. No science has ever had so 

 many martyrs as natural history. Naturalists learning 

 nature and human nature pioneered the way for mis- 

 sionaries. 1 They all died prematurely : Ternstoern fell in 

 the East Indies, Hasselquist in Syria, ForskShl in Tar- 

 tary, Loefling in Samaria, Bjoernstahl in Macedonia. 



These itinerant Swedes are called by Stoever * the 

 ambassadors of Flora,' and he proceeds to lament them 

 in the loftiest strains of his magniloquence. It is a 

 pity dear old Stoever never heard the Eastern metaphors 

 concerning Saadi ; he would have relished them so much. 

 This one, to wit, which he put in practice ' He sought 

 his only happiness in perforating with the diamond of 

 his soul the precious stones of his experiences, and after 

 gathering them on the string of eloquence, hanging 



1 * As Clements Markham penetrated, in the face of danger and 

 death, the trackless forests of the Andes, to bring home from thence 

 the plants of Peruvian bark to save the lives of thousands.' 



