154 Life of Linnceus. 



natural history. His Systema JVatura, the editions of which have 

 been so much multiplied, fixed upon him the eyes of Europe. 

 Academies disputed for the honor of his name; his pupils travelled 

 over the world, and transnutted its productions to him. Favors 

 from his sovereign succeeded ; he was raised to the rank of noble, 

 on account, it is said, of having discovered the generation of pearls, 

 Mya margaritifera ;* pensions were granted him, as well as do- 

 mains to him and his posterity; and he who in his youth had been 

 obliged to mend his own shoes, found himself, from the lustre of his 

 labors, placed in old age in a state of great ease and social elevation. 



The latter years of his life were passed in supplying new editions 

 of his works, in publishing, under the form of academic theses, sev- 

 eral piquant dissertations, which have been collected together under 

 the title o{ Jlmcenitates, in giving private lessons (often during eight 

 hours a day) to select pupils, in looking after the interests of the 

 Academy and the public collections, and in arranging his own herbal. 

 In 1773, he was attacked with a severe quinsy; in 1774, while giv- 

 ing a lesson in the botanic garden, he was struck with paralysis, to 

 which succeeded a tertian ague. He ceased in 1776 to write his 

 own life ; his intellectual faculties declined, — a state the more pain- 

 ful from his being sensible of it himself. His writing became illegi- 

 ble, and he sometimes mixed Greek and Latin letters in the same 

 word. Finally, he forgot even his own name. In this condition, 

 the only thing which appeared to reanimate him was the sight of his 

 united collections at his country house at Hammarby. He expired on 

 the 10th of January, 1778, aged seventy years and seven months. 



The second part of Mr. Fee's work contains extracts from the 

 correspondence of Linnaeus with the naturalists of his time. This 

 correspondence was immense, and Linnaeus said himself to the Abbe 

 Duvernoy, that ten hands like his own would not suffice to answer all 

 the letters which were addressed to him. More than a thousand of 

 his letters, addressed to one hundred and sixty correspondents, have 

 been preserved, almost all were written in Latin ; that of the earliest 

 known date is addressed to Rudbeck, his benefactor, dated 29th of 



* It was there that he received the name of Von Linne instead of that of Lin- 

 ncBUS, which he had always borne, not for the purpose of Latinizing his name, as 

 has been believed, but because it was the true name of his family. The name of 

 Linnfee, which has often been given him in French is erroneous, and belongs only 

 to the plant which is dedicated to him. 



