CHAPTER VII 
LIFE IN STOCKHOLM, SEPTEMBER 1738 -OCTOBER 1741; 
APPOINTMENT AS PROFESSOR AT UPPSALA 
It was in September 1738 when Linnaeus, by the 
advice of his future father-in-law, settled in Stock¬ 
holm as a practising physician. As he was quite 
unknown, nobody ventured to entrust his life to an 
inexperienced doctor, so that he often doubted as to 
his future. He who had everywhere abroad been 
honoured as “ Princeps botanicorum,” was at home 
a Klimius, come from the underground regions (a 
reference to Holberg’s well-known “ Niels Klim’s 
underground journey,”) that had he not been in love, 
he would infallibly have left Sweden. 
It was only the want of opportunity that stood in 
the way of the realization of his plans. At that time 
Linnaeus was intimate with A. von Haller, always 
changeable and restless, who was seriously thinking 
of quitting his professorial chair at Gottingen, and 
returning to his beloved native country, Switzerland, 
a project he ultimately carried out. In November of 
the same year he advised Linnaeus, “of whom Flora 
hopes more than of any other botanist,” to come to a 
milder climate, and promised when he himself was 
recalled to Switzerland, which he hoped would be 
soon, he would take care that Linnaeus should be his 
successor at Gottingen. “ I have,” he said, “ already 
consulted those who have the entire disposal of the 
post.” This letter, sent by the medium of a travelling 
German priest, only reached Linnaeus on the 12th 
August, 1739, when circumstances had substantially 
174 
