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THE AMERICANS CAN DIN A VI AN REVIEW 
Rashult Vicarage, the Birthplace of Likhe 
boundaries from all directions. It is true that these calamities in 
the realm touched but distantly the quiet parsonage at Stenbrohult, 
and yet the harshness of the times set its stamp on the child’s educa¬ 
tion. With many whippings his tutor taught him to read, and when 
at the age of seven he was sent in the company of this tutor to the 
school at Wexio, the same method was continued. For five long win¬ 
ters Carl studied in the big hall of the school where four classes were 
working at the same time “so that there was a noise worse than the 
stormiest parish meeting or the worst pot-house.” It was a nightmare 
of misery and confusion, Latin, catechism, glossaries, and whippings. 
It was taken for granted that Carl would be a clergyman like 
his father. His mother’s dearest hope was that some day she should 
hear him preach in Stenbrohult church. Carl, however, showed no 
inclination for theology, while he was more and more drawn to the 
study of natural history. Yet it was only after long deliberations and 
much pleading that he obtained his parents’ consent to begin the study 
of medicine which at that time was but little respected. In this field 
the instruction at Wexio was of little benefit to him, with the exception 
of the thorough familiarity he acquired with the Latin tongue which 
at that time was the common language of the whole learned world. 
It was characteristic of Linnaeus that he was able to infuse even into 
this learned language the color of his own personality. When later 
in life he revealed to all the world his epoch-making doctrines it was 
done with an art and a style that were wholly his own. 
After completing the course at the gymnasium, Carl was matricu¬ 
lated in 1727 as a student at Lund University. He soon found, how¬ 
ever, that he could not get any formal instruction in the natural sci¬ 
ences there. Fortunately his remarkable zeal and industry won for 
him the patronage of the learned Dr. Stobeus, who opened to the 
