MEMOIR OF LINN^US. 55 



render him fit for, and to see him his successor in, the 

 botanical chair. Let us see how these wishes were 

 .-achieved.* 



We have now brought down the principal incidents 

 in the life of this great naturalist, to the time, when, 

 though only fifty-six years of age, he felt the vigour 

 of his constitution impaired, and his versatile mind - 

 commencing to wane. He was conscious that he had 

 fulfilled his adopted motto, " Famam extendere factis," 

 and was willing to relinquish his office before its duties' 

 became too severe for his declining health ; and after 

 academical services for a period of thirty years, Lin- 

 naeus respectfully entreated his majesty, Gustavus, 

 who had succeeded to the throne upon the demise of 

 his parent, to accept his resignation. His request 

 was declined with the most flattering objections, and 



* Young Linnaeus "was born on the 20th January 1741, at 

 Fahlun, the capital of Dalecarlia. At an early age he was placed 

 under private tutors, and it was intended that he should study the 

 science in which his father had gained so much reputation and 

 honour. When only eighteen years of age, he was appointed 

 demonstrator in the botanic garden at Upsala ; three years after 

 he became an author, and published descriptions of the rarer plants 

 in the garden, and in the year following, was made assistant and 

 successor to his father in the professorship. After his appoint- 

 ment, he travelled through France, England, Holland, and Ger, 

 many, and his father's name everywhere procured him introductions. 

 Upon his return to Upsala, he was taken ill of a bilious fever, 

 which was succeeded by an apoplectic stroke, and terminated hit 

 life in the forty-second year of his age. With his death termini, 

 ted also the male branch of the family of Linneeus. 



