238 
REMARKABLE OCCURRENCES 
Linnaeus gave even so late as 1772, a fine proof of the lasting vi- 
gour of his genius, which encompassed all nature ; and at the same time 
of that liveliness of fancy which heightened the charms of his ideas. 
When he resigned on the 14th of December his fun&ions of Refilor 
of the University, which he had thrice exercised, he made an oration 
on the delights of nature, (Delicice Natures). He had composed this 
oration in a short time, though overwhelmed with a variety of other 
important business. The whole academical forum found it so beauti- 
ful, that the students of all the Swedish provinces sent deputies to him 
on the next day to intreat him to translate it into the Swedish tongue 
from the Latin. This was the fifth public oration of Lin nje us, the 
first he made when he resigned his office as president of the Royal 
Academy at Stockholm-, the second he delivered in 1741, the third in 
1743, and the fourth in presence of the Royal Family of Sweden in 
1759. He was no professed orator; but his language was that of 
nature and truth. Without displaying the embellishments and the art 
of a Cicero or a Demosthenes this oration also captivated by its 
simplicity and energy, and occasioned rapturous admiration. As in 
his writings and in the professorial chair, so was he in his speeches, 
that systematic man, who concatenated phrase with phrase, and showed 
plainly the progressive course of his ideas. Nothing but death could 
dissolve his love and fondness of science, and his desire of obtaining 
the most minute knowledge of nature. In 1773 he wrote the follow- 
ing letter to Mr. Pennant, the celebrated British Zoologist at Lon- 
in adversaries, fatnee ejus insidiantes, expertus sum in eo animum placabileni. et aquum in 
nni'versum dt aiiorum meritis judicium, ut vel tniquisstmus met morosissimus censor hac au- 
diens, m amorem ejus raferetur necesse essetr — Murray in his Preface to the Sjstema Vege. 
mbilium. 
dbn, 
