ST. MARTINIS SUMMER 349 



Linnaeus was in Holland he heard a rumour that his 

 faithless friend was courting her. It was in sparing and 

 saving for Linnaeus at that early time that Elizabeth set 

 the root of that habit of stinginess which so impaired 

 their pleasure and took the gloss off their splendour. 



Linnaeus was glad at this period of his life to be 

 able to add to his work that first of a man's duties to 

 his country, the converting of a parcel of waste land 

 into a productive tract, calling fruitfulness out of a 

 stony wilderness. Those rocks, so like his Sm&land 

 home, where Zoega and Fabricius sought their insects 

 and rare mosses, it was the poem of his life to make 

 beautiful and profitable, an adornment to Sweden. It 

 was more than ' stubbing up Thornaby waste.' Here 

 he wrought out his Virgilian motto, ' Famam extendere 

 fact is.' ' My life is not being spent in vain, much less 

 spent in evil.' To show forth God's handiwork is an 

 exalted and ennobling task. 



Thus ever working and enjoying life out-of-doors 

 and within, he went on watching and promoting the 

 growth of natural science, first as foster-father, then as 

 tutor, the babe growing to a young giant under his 

 guidance. Still he ruled it with his strong hand, though 

 he had frequent warnings 6f the decay of his own 

 powers. He seems almost to have enjoyed bad health, 

 he apologised for it so pleasantly to other people. 



Nought cared this body for wind or weather 

 When youth and I lived in it together. 1 



Coleiidge. 



