244 
TRAVELS 
firmly believing that her high encomium had wounded the feel¬ 
ings of the great philofopher. One day, being in a melancholy 
temper, he gave orders that no perfon fhould be admitted to him, 
and placed himfelf, in his bed-gown and night-cap, fad and pen- 
five upon his fofa. An officer in the Swediffi fervice arrived with 
a party of ladies, who had made a journey for the exprefs pur- 
pefe of feeing the Linnaean collection. The officer was denied 
admittance; but being aware of Linnaeus’s caprice, he would not 
be refufed by the fervant, but pufhed by him, and entered the 
chamber where Linnaeus w r as fitting. At firft fome indignation 
was ffiewn at this intrufion ; but the officer introduced the ladies 
with a moft extravagant panegyric, to the illufrious philofopher , 
who was the foie object of their journey ; to the man whom the whole 
world allowed to be the greatef ; to that man who had put nature 
herfelf to the rack in order to difcover her dearef fecrets, &c. Lin¬ 
naeus’s furly humour inftantly forfook him, and he never appeared 
more amiable in his manners than to this officer, w T hom he em¬ 
braced tenderly, calling him his true friend, &c. &c. He was fo 
fingularly enamoured of praife, that his mind was never in that 
fedate Rate which would have enabled him to diftinguifh true 
commendation from flattery and deception. The clergyman, 
who at firfl: could not credit fuch reports, w r as convinced of their 
reality by one of his friends, who compofed fo ridiculous an eu¬ 
logy for Linnaeus, that the weakefl: child might have treated it as 
a farce or fatire: it was warded in the bombaft of the middle 
ages, or in the Afiatic Ryle : he called him the fun of botanifts, 
the 
