4 
MEMOIR OF LINN.EUS. 
enjoyed nearly forty years, discharging his duties with piety and 
moderation, and employing the greater part of his leisure in the 
cultivation of his garden. 
Carl Linnaeus, eldest son, was born 24th of May, 1707, at 
Rashult, in the province of Smaland, while his father was still a 
clergyman. With an inheritance of his father's love for plants 
and their cultivation, he is thus recorded by one of his pupils : — ■ 
" From the very time that he first left his cradle, he almost lived in 
his father's garden, which was planted with some of the rarer 
shrubs and flowers ; and thus were kin'dled, before he was well 
out of his mother's arms, those sparks which shone so vividly all 
his life time, and lastly burst into such a flame." 
The elder Linnaeus wished and intended that his first-born 
should succeed him in the office of pastor, and he endeavored to 
regulate the clerical education of his son, as far as his means 
would permit. At the age of seven, Linnaeus was placed under 
the private charge of John Tiliander, and two years afterwards 
was entered to the school of Wexio ; but in both these places, the 
discipline is said to have been severe, and not well fitted for the 
advancement of a young man of his mild temper, and he was 
soon after placed under another private tutor, who possessed a 
more conciliating disposition. His distaste for ordinary studies 
could not be so easily overcome, and it was not till three years 
after that he received promotion to a higher form in the school, 
called the circle. In this rank he was allowed more leisure, which 
was invariably devoted to his favorite pursuits, and chiefly his 
earliest, that of plants, and at this time began to show a more de- 
cided taste for botany, by forming a small library of such books 
as he could procure upon this science ; and from his studious pe- 
rusal of them, acquired the college name of the " Little Botanist." 
Nearly two years after, the father came to Wexio, to ascertain 
the progress of his son's studies ; and the disappointment of the 
sanguine hopes of a parent may be conceived, when the recom- 
m 
