, afterwards Von Linne', the most eminent of modern naturalists, was born
, afterwards Von Linne', the most
eminent of modern naturalists, was born at Rashult, in
the province of Smaland, in Sweden, May 13th, 1707.
His father, Nicholas Linnæus, was assistant minister of the
parish of Stenbrohult, to which the hamlet of Rashult belongs, and became in process of time its pastor or rector;
having married Christina Broderson, the daughter of his
predecessor. The subject of our memoir was their first-born
child. The family of Linnæus had been peasants, but some
of them, early in the seventeenth century, had followed
literary pursuits. In the beginning of that century regular
and hereditary surnames were first adopted in Sweden, on
which occasion literary men often chose one of Latin or
Greek derivation and structure, retaining the termination
proper to the learned languages. A remarkable Lindentree, Tilia Europæa, growing near the place of their residence, is reported to have given origin to the names of
Lindelius and Tiliander, in some branches of this family
but the above-mentioned Nicholas, is said to have first
taken that of Linnæus, by which his son became so exlen--“sively known. Of the taste which laid the foundation of
his happiness, as well as his celebrity, this worthy father
was the primary cause. Residing in a delightful spot, on
the banks of a fine lake, surrounded by hills and valleys,
woods and cultivated ground, his garden and his fields
yielded him both amusement and profit, and his infant son
imbibed, under his auspices, that pure and ardent love of
nature for its own sake, with that habitual exercise of the
mind in observation and activity, which ever after marked
his character, and which were enhanced by a rectitude of
principle, an elevation of devotional taste, a warmth of
feeling, and an amiableness of manners, rarely united in
those who so transcendantly excel in any branch of philosophy or science, because the cultivation of the heart
does by no means so constantly as it ought keep pace with
that of the understanding. The maternal uncle of Nicholas
Linnæus, Sueno Tiliander, who had educated him with
his own children, was also fond of plants and of gardening,
so that these tastes were in some measure hereditary. From
his tutor he learned to avoid the error of the desultory
speculators of nature; and his memory, like his powers of
perception, was naturally good, and his sight was always
remarkably acute. He does not appear, however, to have
been very happy under this tutor, and at seven years of
age grammar had but an unequal contest with botany, in
the mind of the young student. Nor was he much more
fortunate when removed, in 1717, to the grammar-school
of Wexio, the master of which, as his disgusted pupil
relates,
” preferred stripes and punishments to admonitions and encouragements.“In 1722 he was admitted
to a higher form in the school, and his drier studies
were now allowed to be intermixed and sweetened with
the recreations of botany. In 1724, being seventeen
years of age, he was removed to the superior seminary or
Gymnasium, and his destination was fixed for the church;
but, having no taste for Greek or Hebrew, ethics, metaphysics, or theology, he devoted himself with success to
mathematics, natural philosophy,and a scientific pursuit
of his darling botany. The
” Chloris Gothica“of Bromelius, and
” Hortus Upsaliensis" of Rudbeck, which made
a part of his little library, were calculated rather to fire
than to satisfy his curiosity; while his Palmberg and Tillands might make him sensible how much still remained to
be done. His own copies of these books, used with the utmost care and neatness, are now in sir James Smith’s library.
Linnæus’ s literary reputation, therefore, made so little progress, that his tutors havino pronounced him a dunce, he
would probably have been put to some handicraft trade,
had not Dr. Hothmann, the lecturer on natural philosophy,
taken him into his own house, with a view to the studv of
physic, and given him a private course of instruction in
physiology. He first suggested to Linnæus the true principles upon which botany ought to be studied, founded on
the parts of fructification, and put the system of Tournefort into his hands, in the knowledge of which he made a
rapid progress.