14'^ I.INN^US AT UPSAL. 



now expefled to reap honours and respe£l, as the reward of his long 

 noble exertions. But how sooli did he experience the truth of the 

 adsgCj which tells us, that a prophet is no where less valued than in 

 his own country. The treatment which Haller met with on his first 

 return to jB^rw, and that which ^ell to the share of many other great 

 men, was also reserved for Linn^us. Celebrated and respeded 

 'abroad, he now was a stranger in his native land, and the sport of ob- 

 loquy and derision. The winter of 1738, nipt the laurels he had 

 gathered in Holland. The rude climate of Sweden did not seem pro- 

 pitious to their growth. For the sake of his daily support he now be- 

 gan to follow the advice of his intended father-in-law, by applying him- 

 self to the praftice of medicine. But ^sculapius, at his first setting 

 out, proved as unkind as Flora. Nobody would [entrust a botanist 

 '^v ith the curing of patients. 



This perplexed situation still continued in tiie beginning of 

 1739. Haller resolved to become the benefa£lor of Linn Aus. He 

 reserved for him his own professorship of botany at Goettingen. 



The following are the contents of the letter, v;hich Haller had 

 already written to him, on the 24th of November 1738^ 



« Be happy in your destinies ! You, of whom Flora conceives greater 

 <* hopes than of all other botanists- Return once more to gentler 



climes! if evej my country recalls me to its bosom, — and this I hope 

 «« wilLbeihe >case — I have pitched upon you, if you like the offer, to be 

 «< the heir of the garden of this city, and of all my dignities. I have 

 ** already mentioned it to those at whose disposal all is left*." 



And 



* Tu a quo Flora sperat pliira quam ab otnni alio botanic©, uterc quaeso felicibus fatis, €t 

 aliquando ad nittiora climata redi. Si unquam me patria repetit, et spero repetituram, te 



quidem. 



