13 
at the all too early removal of his friend, we cannot 
doubt, but that circumstance by no means detracts from 
the value to be attached to them. While recognising 
to the full the great and brilliant gifts with which LIN- 
N.EUS was endowed by nature, we may nevertheless 
venture without undue temerity to assume that ARTEDI 
was very considerably instrumental in assisting him on 
his path towards distinction as a scientific man. Being 
by some years the elder of the two, ARTEDI had already 
attained, as we have seen, a reputation for learning at 
the date of LINNAEUS' arrival at the university, and was, 
therefore, in a position to afford him advice and assist- 
ance of various kinds; he could, in short, become in 
some wise LINN^US' teacher and guide as well as his 
friend and comrade. We have LINNAEUS' own authority 
for knowing that ARTEDI was always most willing and 
eager to lend him all the aid he possibly could. Doubt- 
less the most fruitful feature of their intercourse to- 
gether was those frequent talks they had in each other's 
rooms, when they had an opportunity of communica- 
ting to one another and discussing what they had each 
been engaged in learning or studying, and of disputing 
about the conclusions they were themselves to come 
to upon each matter in hand. On those occasions the 
various opinions and statements of their predecessors 
in natural history investigation were keenly debated, 
new theories were evolved and criticised, and ultimately 
approved or discarded. 
The two young men differed so much in disposi- 
tion, and their abilities were so widely diverse in cha- 
racter, that they complemented one another in a singu- 
larly happy manner. LINNJEUS, "small of stature, bois- 
terous, hasty and of ready wit", as he characterises 
himself in his youth, was possessed, we may be sure, 
of a more active imagination and was consequently the 
readier with new ideas or theories, whereas the some- 
what sluggish ARTEDI was more deliberate, though al- 
ways more severely logical, in forming and expressing 
his judgments. Hence it might often happen that the 
