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LINNAEUS 
name as studying in the University, in whose album 
it remained as late as 1739. 
Unquestionably it now looked black for Linnaeus, 
so far as the realization of his hopes to get the books 
he carried with him printed. What helped him was 
the same quality which had already stood him in good 
stead in Lund, Uppsala and Falun, namely his great 
power of winning confidence. To push forward his 
new, and for that time, daring, almost revolutionary 
scientific views, his devoted friends did not hesitate, 
though with no small trouble and sacrifice, to try and 
smooth his path. He had not been long in Holland, 
but he had had time to secure many such friends, 
some of whom may now be mentioned, because 
they came to exercise a considerable influence on 
Linnaeus’s career. 
One of these was a senator in Leyden, Dr. Jan 
Fredrick Gronovius, whose keen interest in natural 
history gained for him the testimony that “ he was the 
most inquiring man Linnaeus had met in Holland, and 
his herbarium had not its equal.” On returning Lin¬ 
naeus’s visit, Gronovius saw his “ Systema Naturae ” 
in manuscript, with great astonishment. Being well 
to do, he wished to publish the same at his own ex¬ 
pense, and a common friend, Isaac Lawson, a learned 
Scot, who had travelled much but was then in Leyden, 
joined in the same request. Linnaeus thankfully 
accepted this offer; it was put in hand on the 10th 
July, but the printing progressed very slowly, lasting 
into December. Thus this celebrated work, the 
naturalist’s golden book, saw the light, and at once 
displayed the author to be of sharp intelligence, with 
insight, and a courageous reformer of system in all 
three kingdoms of nature. As to its extent, it was 
extremely modest, only eleven printed folio pages, 
but its great worth appears from this circumstance, that 
during Linnaeus’s lifetime, no fewer than sixteen ever- 
increasing editions or reprints came out. In the 
preface, dated 23rd July, 1735, Linnaeus openly 
