L I N N M U S. 
11 
rice, Paris. 1700./’ This book became the torch which illuminated 
the path of the youth, and opened new prospers to his eager views ; 
it was at the same time the source of the purer and greater light which 
he afterwards himself diffused. He now contemplated Nature, and 
that part of her creation which he loved so much, in a quite different 
point of view than he had done before! How little could Rothmann 
imagine that the young pupil then under his auspices, would one day 
be greater than the greatest botanist of his time — greater than even 
Tournefort himself! The more Linnaeus began diving into the 
wonders of Nature, the more extensive became his admiration and 
love of her study. As in his father’s house, so he now continued at 
Wexicoe , to make the collefting of flowers, plants, insefts, See. the 
chief aim and result of his rural excursions. By which means he 
soon gained a considerable pre-eminence in botany over his fellow- 
students. 
After having frequented college three years, and completed the 
twentieth year of his age, he prepared himself to go to the university; to 
that career which became so rough and thorny in the beginning, but so 
honourable and grateful at its conclusion. 
