344 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



disappointed. Such men as Linnaeus, who retain an eager 

 interest in their life's work, are ever young and happy. 



' On Sundays the whole family usually came to spend 

 the day with us. We sent for a peasant who played on 

 an instrument resembling a violin, to the sound of 

 which we danced in the barn of our farmhouse. While 

 we were dancing Linnaeus, who smoked his pipe with 

 Zoega, who was deformed and emaciated, became a 

 spectator of our amusement, and sometimes, though 

 rarely, danced a Polish dance, in which he excelled 

 every one of us young men. He was extremely delighted 

 to see us in high glee and liked us to be noisy.' l 



While Linnaeus, like another Vicar of Wakefield, 

 thus lived a good life in the bosom of his family, revolu- 

 tion was rolling onward towards destruction's brink 

 outside. The whole Christian world was more or less 

 convulsed by war. It was not altogether fortuitous that 

 science should have found its cradle in Sweden, where 

 life was at any rate tranquil and undisturbed. One 

 hears faint echoes of the wars outside, but all is hushed 

 round the cradle of science. The two forces just now 

 recognised in Europe man's knowledge of nature, and 

 of his own rights were moving like two wheels, side by 

 side, held by one axle, the awakened intelligence of man. 

 It was well that the guiding mind of the driver should be 

 kept calm above the dust and turmoil of the world that 

 he should be able to see his road. 



The seamy underside of this fair-seeming life was 

 1 Fabricius. 



