28 MEMOIR OP LINN^US, 



and he endeavoured to advance the clerical education 

 of his son as far as his means would permit. At 

 the age of seven, Linnaeus was placed under the pri- 

 vate charge of John Tiliander, and two years after- 

 wards, was entered at the school of Wexio ; but in 

 both these places, the discipline is said to have been 

 severe, and not well fitted for the advancement of a 

 young man of his mild temper, and he was soon after 

 placed under another private tutor, who possessed a 

 more conciliating disposition. His distaste for ordinary 

 studies could not be so easily overcome, and it was not 

 till three years after that he received promotion to a 

 higher form in the school, called the circle. In this 

 rank he was allowed more leisure, which was inva- 

 riably devoted to his favourite pursuits, and chiefly his 

 earliest, that of plants. 



According to the system of education at this time 

 employed in Sweden, it was necessary that young 

 men should pass from the schools, or from private 

 teachers, to what was called the Gymnasium, where 

 the higher branches of literature were taught ; and at 

 the age of sixteen, Linnaeus was placed at this semi- 

 nary. Here he still continued his dislike for those 

 studies particularly necessary for a divine, and began 

 to show a more decided taste for botany, by forming a 

 small library of such books upon this science as he 

 could procure, and from his studious perusal of them, he 

 acquired the college name of the " Little Botanist." 



Nearly two years after, the elder Linnaeus came to 

 Wexio to ascertain the progress of his son's studies, 



