TEACHER AND PUPILS 
221 
in which he excelled all us youngsters. Unless he 
saw that we were cheerful, and even noisy, he feared 
that we were not enjoying ourselves. Those days 
and hours will never be forgotten, their remembrance 
being delightful to each one. He was also my 
teacher, and with grateful heart I recall how much I 
have to thank him, both for his instruction and for 
his gracious behaviour.” 
Fabricius was not alone in these feelings of 
respect, affection and gratitude; but to this witness 
we owe many valuable expressions of regard, printed, 
or in letters to Linne, both father and son. A 
particularly handsome testimony was given by one of 
the Demidoffs. When the Swedish prisoners of war 
passed by St. Petersburg on their return home in 1790, 
he met some of them, giving them help and in other 
ways showing his kindness, in order to make manifest 
his gratitude, as he said, for the pleasant time, which 
he, as Linne’s pupil, had spent in Sweden. 
As may be seen from the above, he practised his 
oft-repeated rule of life: “ Mingle your joys some¬ 
times with your earnest occupation ” (Interpone tuis 
interdum gaudia curis). Work was for him his 
principal aim, finding in it his chief pleasure, and 
even after lectures, he would spend some hours in 
steadfast investigation and authorship. But it is hard 
to understand how he could go through such bodily 
and mental toil, when one calculates the time he 
devoted to teaching. An extract from a letter to his 
intimate friend, Back, in 1761, will show this. “ I 
lecture five hours each day: at eight o’clock with 
Danes; at ten, publicly; at eleven and twelve, with 
Russians; at two, privately with Swedes. On 
Wednesdays and Fridays three hours are spent in 
proof reading on my c Fauna.’ The rest of the time 
is hardly enough for writing additions to the same 
work; I have no time to think about myself, so 
I write till two in the morning.” On another occasion, 
in 1766, he writes: “ My dear fellow, do not talk about 
