THE KNIGHT OF THE POLAR STAR 321 



Linnaeus scarcely felt the disadvantage of his hyper- 

 borean situation ; plants poured in from all climes ; 

 disputes about methods and systems now laid aside, 

 everyone was employed in practical observations and 

 discoveries. He had taught men the way to learn 

 natural history, and we now see how they profited by 

 his teaching for he taught them well. He reaped the 

 firstfruits of his teaching in his lifetime, and had the 

 joyful conviction that the succeeding generation would 

 see a rich harvest of knowledge all over the globe. 



What Ferney and Geneva were on account of Vol- 

 taire and Rousseau, what Abbotsford was because of 

 Scott, the remote city of Upsala became on account of 

 Linnaeus. 1 Other naturalists may amass larger fortunes, 

 or even be greater men ; but we shall never again see 

 a splendid sunrise like that of natural science in the 

 person of Linnaeus. 



1 To pursue this reflection would lead to a whole bookful of 

 thoughts on decentralisation, and the mental starvation one feels 

 in living anywhere out of reach of a metropolis. Great men are 

 always needed to form in many places centres of intellectual life. 

 How great is even one man's influence ! When I think of Hall 

 giving perfect music to Manchesterlifting that city out of a con- 

 dition of being one vast factory I wish it had been an English- 

 man who had done this. I trust that England will not forget what 

 Milton calls * her precedence of teaching nations how to live.' 



VOL. II. 



