392 LINNiEUS IN I733 AND I734. 



be inferred from this, that he is endowed with the most acute judg- 

 ment and a large share of natural genius and inventive powers. His se- 

 dulity, perseverance and diligence are quite uncommon. Few can 

 equal him in zeal and eagerness to fathom and scrutinize whatever has 

 hitherto remained a secret to the most prying eye, and whatever 

 is worthy of any particular attention in the three reigns of nature. 

 Although he has only attained his twenty-eighth year, he has acquired 

 so much experience by his indefatigableness in reading and making 

 annotations, that he excels in this respeft many eminent men. 



The excellencies of his mind are heightened by the charms, of 

 a most amiable charafter. Endowed with a softness and sweetness of 

 temper uncommon among men of letters, he can also boast of a 

 natural candor, a love of truth and piety, a readiness of rendering ser- 

 vice, and a philanthropy free from all envy, asperity and ostentation. 



Among many curiosities he brought with him from Lapland, a 

 Laplanders dress made of rein-deer skins, and a very curious magic 

 drum. He will give a circumstantial account of all these things, as he 

 has been able to enquire into their use, by means of an interpreter 

 who was his guide through Lapland. He needs not therefore to have 

 recourse, like Scheffer, to the spurious accounts of others. 



LiNNiEus even took all possible pains to explore the greatest secrets 

 of the Laplanders. Among these their famous love of magic may 

 be reckoned as one of the foremost. He can imitate exaQly their 

 contortions of face and body, and assures us, that those grimaces 

 are more the effeft of gross superstition and a narrowness of imagina- 

 tioDj than of a pretended supernatural enchantment, performed by 



the 



