.LINN^US IN HOLLAND. 81 



With labor and social recreation the winter-season glided very 

 pleasantly away in Holland^ and the ensuing year 1736 opened 

 with a prospeft which totally changed for some time the resolution 

 of LiNN^us to return to his country. BoerhAxIve, who had been 

 informed that he was at Ainsterdam^ having already evinced towards 

 him affeftion and esteem, now granted him his patronage. Docloi 

 Georgs Cliffort, Burgomaster of AmsterdaTn^ and one of the Di- 

 reftors of the Dutch East India Company, the most zealous lover of 

 natural science, expended vast sums of his princely fortune to pro 

 cure plants and natural curiosities; and was, in this rcspeft, like She- 

 RARD in England as a private gentleman, the most distinguished and 

 most extraordinary person in Holland^ and perhaps even in all the 

 world. These treasures, brought from all quarters of the globe, he 

 he hoarded up in his Museum and botanical garden at Hartecamp^ a 

 villa belonging to him near Harlem. But these valuable articles were 

 still left without order or scientific description. Cliffort wished for 

 a man adequate to fulfil this task. 



BoERHAAVE was his physician. Cliffort one day paid him a 

 visit' at Ley den. " Shall I give you some good advice," said the former. 

 " You have plenty of every thing, yet there is one thing alone you have 

 « not got to render your life completely happy. You are accustomed to 

 « live high, hence you are so frequently troubled with hypochondriac 

 " complaints. You must keep a physician of your own, to prescribe and 

 " order your diet, and to take daily care of your health — in cases of a 

 " more serious nature he may consult me." — Well proposed!" replied 

 Cliffort, " but where shall I find such a clever and skilful man.^*" — - 

 " Never mind, this I shall make my own business. I know a young 

 " Swede, who is now at Amsterdam, it is him I shall recommend as the 



M " best 



