280 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



CHAPTER XXI. 



THE KNIGHT OF THE POLAR STAR. 



Above may the Soul spread wing, spurn body and sense beneath her ; 

 Below she must condescend to plodding unbuoyed by gather. 

 In heaven I yearn for knowledge, account all else inanity ; 

 On earth I confess an itch for the praise of fools that's Vanity. 

 Solomon and BalMs, R. BROWNING. 



LINNAEUS has been as a dried flower to this generation 

 a dry and dusty thing, with colour lost and form flat- 

 tened, spoiled. In our meagre idea of his system as 

 merely a scaffold, now removed to show the solidity of 

 some grand structure behind it we have neglected him 

 who was really the architect of the beautiful temple of 

 natural history that we respect but care very little about. 

 It was he who first planned on paper for the world, 

 and in practice for his own country that science of 

 insentient things, as well as of all the exquisite lesser 

 life around us, and the application of that science to the 

 well-being of man, that has since been worked out on 

 his plan and foundation by men able to carry forward 

 his ideas. 



The Polar Star was essentially his emblem. He 

 guided the way. 



Into dusty drawers and tomes a young generation 



