308 RAMBLES OF A NATUKALIST. 



his pulpit, had placed the boy at school when he was ten 

 years of age : instead, however, of attending to his 

 classes and learning his Latin grammar, the child ran 

 about the fields picking up wild flowers. The punish- 

 ments of his master, and the threats of his father were 

 alike unable to overcome this instinctive inclination, 

 and being considered incorrigible, the boy was at length 

 apprenticed to a shoemaker. In this capacity he had the 

 good fortune of attracting the attention of a physician, 

 named Rothman, who lent him the works of Tournefort, 

 and recommended him to Stoboeus, Professor of Botany, 

 who employed him to copy manuscripts for him, and who, 

 being struck by the strange tastes of the youth, sent him 

 at his own expense to the university of Upsala. The 

 allowance made to Linnaeus was, however, anything but 

 munificent ; and to increase his means he gave lessons, 

 and occasionally even, availing himself of the art which 

 he had learned during his apprenticeship, mended the 

 shoes of his brother students. Happily for himself, he 

 soon rose to some distinction, and the Professor of 

 Botany, after having first entrusted him with the manage- 

 ment of the botanical garden, employed him as his sub- 

 stitute in lecturing, and some time afterwards the town 

 of Upsala engaged him to make a scientific expedition to 

 Lapland ; an undertaking in which he exhibited no 

 less personal courage than ardour in the cause of 

 science. 



Having met on his return with the annoyances which 

 the local jealousies of a little town are apt to entail upon 

 all who have the talent of raising themselves above the 

 ordinary standard of their fellow-citizens, Linnaeus would 

 have been thoroughly disheartened if there had not been 

 a feeling which tended to keep alive his ambition. A 

 young girl, to whom he was much attached, and who 

 reciprocated his affection, exacted a promise from him 



