228 



REMARKABLE OCCURRENCES 



1763, his son Chap.LiEs Linnaeus, then in the twenty-second year of 

 his age, appointed assistant professor of botany, with the promise that 

 he should once be his successor. 



Among tlie learned of his own country, he was a phenomenon of tlie 

 first magnitude. What Ferney and Bern were on account of Vol- 

 taire and Haller, the remote city of Upsal became in a similar pro- 

 portion with regard to Linn.eus. No foreigner of quality or of any 

 literary eminence passed though Upsal^ without wishing to see him. 

 Strangers of all denominations gave him the most flattering proofs of 

 rcspeft. Lord Baltimore, whose great fortune corresponded with 

 his love of natural history, went from Siockhohn to Upsal merely for 

 the purpose of seeing Lin N .Eus. He viewed the LinnvEan collec- 

 tions and after a few hours conversation with our luminary, conceived 

 so high an esteem for him as to present him with a valuable gold snuft' 

 box set in diamonds. His Lordship's liberality and munificence did 

 not stop here. On his travels through Germayiy he. sent Linnaeus a 

 service of silver plate, or what the French call ^necessaire^y^oxxh. 2000 

 rix dollars, or upwards of three hundred pounds sterling. Such an a6; 

 of munificence can only he the result of the generous sublimity of mind 

 which so peculiarly charatlerises the inhabitants of the British isles. 



LiNNyEus also received many proofs of the liberality and attach- 

 ment of the richer class of his foreign pupils. Among the latter Messrs. 

 Demedoros and Demi doffs, the sons of two most respectable and 

 wealthy Russian families, signalized themselves in a peculiar manner. 

 Owing to the universal love which Linn^us had gained, he even be- 

 came the benefaftor of his countrymen in our time. When the Swe- 

 dish officers and soldiers, taken prisoners and dispersed over the Rus- 

 3 sian 



