SKETCH OF CAROLUS LINNjEUS. 839 



The numerous works of Linnaeus appeared now in rapid suc- 

 cession, and honors and invitations came to him. He declined a 

 liberal offer from the King of Spain to settle in that country ; 

 purchased the estates of Sof ja and Hammarby, at the latter of 

 which he built a museum of stone ; was made a Knight of the 

 Polar Star, and in 1761 received a patent of nobility, antedated to 

 1757, in deference to which he Gallicized his Latin name, inserted 

 a von in it, and became Carl von Linne". The last reward was, 

 however, not for his scientific achievement, but was granted in 

 recognition of his having devised a way to improve the quality 

 of the pearls of the fresh- water mussels of Sweden, When sixty 

 years of age, Linnseus's memory began to fail ; in 1774 he suffered 

 an apoplectic attack ; two years later he lost, by another stroke, the 

 use of his right side ; and he died of a hydropsy in 1778. While 

 all the academies of Europe made him their associate, and princes 

 gave him the most striking marks of their consideration, still " in 

 the simplicity of his life he was little accessible to the honors of 

 the world. Living with his pupils, whom he treated as if they 

 were his children, some singular plant, or some animal varying a 

 little from the ordinary form, would give him more joy than any- 

 thing else. He was never troubled by the attacks of his antago- 

 nists ; and although he had some distinguished ones — Haller, Buf- 

 fon, and Adanson — and they frequently treated him unjustly, he 

 was never at the pains of replying to them. . . . His society was 

 charming, and all who came in contact with him conceived a ten- 

 der attachment to him. His only weakness seems tojiave been 

 a too great fondness for praise. Strongly attached to religion, 

 he never spoke of the Deity but with respect, and embraced with 

 marked pleasure the numerous occasions which natural history 

 offered him to declare the wisdom of Providence." 



The publications of Linnaeus are described under more than 

 one hundred and eighty titles. The earliest in date was the 

 " Hortus Uplandicus," or list of cultivated plants of Upsala, in 

 which he first outlined his plan for classifying plants according 

 to their organs of reproduction — stamens and pistils — which ap- 

 peared in 1731 ; and the last was his " Plantse Surinamenses," 1775., 

 The period of his literary activity thus lasted forty-four years. 

 His great merits were the introduction of a system of botanical 

 classification which, though wholly artificial and unnatural, 

 served as an efficient tool till a philosophical system, based on 

 affinities, could be worked out, and the extension and general ap- 

 plication of an exact system of nomenclature. He sought to cover 

 the whole domain of nature, and therefore wrote on minerals, 

 animals, and plants. In mineralogy he paid particular attention 

 to the forms of crystals, and based his classification on them. In 

 zoology he looked to the organs of mastication and digestion, 



