7 6 
LINN£US IN HOLLAND. 
Lxnn/eus had only given a view of the three reigns of nature, 
with a better division and order, but this already manifested his 
vast and inventive genius. The small work, which made the be- 
ginning of his reform, created universal attention, and was re- 
ceived with the greatest applause. The author, however, could 
not conceive the least hope of making his fortune in Holland . His 
pecuniary resources were almost exhausted. He was preparing to re- 
turn to his native country, although no charming prospeft invited him 
thither. The most eminent man then at the University of Leyden , and 
who made a great epoch in its annals, was Hermann Boerhaave, the 
general oracle of medicine. Linnaeus had particularly wished to see 
and converse with him, but it was in vain. Indeed there was no room for 
surprise at his disappointment. No Minister could be more overwhelmed 
with intreaties and invitations, nor more difficult in granting an audience 
than Boerhaave. His menial servants reaped advantages from this 
circumstance; for them an audience was always a profitable money- 
job; by the weight of gold it could alone be accomplished. Without a 
douceur it was hard for any stranger or foreigner to gain admittance. 
Linnjeus was quite unacquainted with this method, and had it not in 
his power to make presents. Owing to Boekm aave’s infinite occupations, 
-md ine strict regularity which he observed, Ambassadors, Princes, and 
Peter the Great himself, were obliged to wait several hours in his 
anti-chamber, to obtain an interview*. How much more difficult must it 
have 
* The following historical and cliaiterislic anecdotes of this great man, will perhaps not 
bt, unpleasant to the reader. Boerhaave was born in 1668, at Voorbout, near Leyden. 
His father was a preacher, and had destined his son for the same sacred funfition. But the 
inclinations of the latter to study divinity ; however great his progress appeared in the be- 
ginning, was rather more compulsive than spontaneous. Like Luther, who, vowed to 
study divinity, during a tempest in which a friend of his was struck dead by a flash from the 
bursting element, so Boerhaave met with an accident which made him resolve to renounce 
his 
