LINN^US. 387 



every affront and persecution that her situation gave 

 her the means of inflicting on his susceptible and 

 naturally amiable mind.* 



Charles Linnaeus was born on the 20th January 

 1741, at the house of his maternal grandfather, 

 Morseus, at Fahlun. From his earliest childhood 

 he WRS encouraged by his father in the attachment 

 which he manifested to natural objects, especially 

 plants ; and when only ten years old, he knew by 

 name most of those which were cultivated in the 

 botanic garden at Upsal. A stranger, however, to 

 the '' stimulus of necessity," which had urged his 

 parent to surmount every obstacle, he appears not 

 to have exhibited any indications of enterprise or en- 

 thusiasm. Notwithstanding this, in his eighteenth 

 year, he was appointed demonstrator in the botanical 

 garden, and at the age of twenty-one commenced 

 authorship by publishing a decade of rare plants. 

 Within twelve months another decade was pro- 

 duced, but the work was discontinued, for what 

 reason is not known. In 17^3, he was nominated 

 conjunct professor of botany, with the promise 

 that after his father's death he should succeed him 

 in all his academical functions. In 1765, he took 

 his degree of doctor of medicine, and began to give 

 lectures ; but, owing to the causes already alluded 

 to, his fondness for science soon degenerated into 

 disgust. 



When he was thirty- seven years of age his 

 father died, and he succeeded to his offices; but 

 his mother forced him to pay for the library, ma- 

 nuscripts, herbarium, and other articles, which he 



* Life by Sir J. E. Smith. 



