THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For JANUARY, 1795.

Art. I. The Life of Sir Charles Linnæus, Knight of the Swedish Order of the Polar Star, &c. &c. To which is added, a Copious Lift of his Works, and a Biographical Sketch of the Life of his Son. By D. H. Stoever, Ph. D. Tranflated from the original German by Jofeph Trapp, A. M. 4to. PP. 435. 11. rs. Boards. White. 1794.

A

FEW men exist in every age who make fo confpicuous a figure in the temple of fame, as to render the minutest circumstances refpecting them peculiarly interefting. It cannot, indeed, be faid that the collection of fuch circumftances is an object of capital importance to literature or the ftudy of mankind: but, as they are found to afford very general amusement, the public are under obligations to those who bestow much time and labour in order to entertain them in this manner. The celebrated Linné will fcarcely be refufed a place among those who ftand forward on the lift of eminent men in the period in which they have refpectively lived. He formed an era in a very extenfive, pleafing, and interefting fcience, and threw a luftre not only on his own name and profeffion, but on his country. A biographical account of fo extraordinary a genius cannot, therefore, fail of engaging the curiofity of a great number of readers; and, as the author before us feems to have spared no induftry to make his work as accurate as poffible, we do not wonder at the favourable reception which it has experienced on the Continent in its original form; nor can we refuse our approbation of the prefent attempt to make it acceffible to English readers. How much the name of Linné has already excited the attention of the learned appears from the lift of biographical writings refpecting him, prefixed to this volume, amounting to 34, in various languages :-but, notwithstanding this apparent abundance of materials for a complete hiftory, Dr. Stoever found much additional inquiry neceflary, in order to accomplish his purpose of uniting minutenefs with all poffible accuracy and fidelity.

VOL. XVI.

В

Before

Before we proceed to the narrative, we would beg leave to fay a word concerning a hint thrown out in the preface, with regard to the motto placed under the arms of Linné. Without affecting any extraordinary degree of nicety, we confefs that our reli gious feelings are fomewhat offended at the fentence Deus creavit, Linnæus difpofuit, as expreffive of a kind of co-partnership in operation between a creature and the creator, the remotest idea of which is, to fay the leaft, abfurd and unphilofophical.

The firft fection of the Life takes Linné from the cradle to the period of his laying the foundations of his botanical character. He was the fon of a peafant-born village paftor, who brought up a family in the narrow condition attending that ftation in the north of Europe. The fondness of young Linné for plants, which fhewed itself at fo early an age as to appear almoft instinctive, may readily be derived from the father's tafte for horticulture, and for the collection of wild flowers from the woods and fields around his little manfion.

youth was destined for the church: but an impatience of confinement to ftudies which he did not relish, and the infuperable attachment to Flora which poffeffed his mind, fruftrated the intentions of his parents. When, in difpleasure and defpair, they were about to bind him apprentice to a fhoemaker, he was rescued by a phyfician of the neighbouring town, named Rothmann: who, difcovering in him the latent fire of genius, took him into his houfe as a pupil, and probably as an useful domeftic, initiated him in medicine, and decided his fate by putting into his hand Tournefort's Elements of Botany.

...The 20 fection of this work commences with the 21st year of Linné's age, when he went to the University of Lund. In this place he had the good fortune to ingratiate himself with Stobaus, profeffor of phyfic and botany, who took him gratuitously into his family, and gave him accefs to his museum and library. A pleafing anecdote is related of him during his refidence in this houfe:As he was of a focial convivial turn, and was known to fit up late at night, the profeffor fufpected that his vigils paffed in cards or romps with the fervants. He therefore came fuddenly into the young man's apartment at a late hour; when, inftead of amufements of that kind, he found him entrenched amid the works of Tournefort, Bauhin, Cæfalpinus, and other great botanists. This difcovery, as might be fuppofed, rendered him a greater favourite with the profeffor than before.

The univerfity of Upfal, however, the chief feat of the Swedish Mufes, was the great object of his longing; and, notwithstanding the pecuniary difficulties which ftood in his way, he accomplished his journey thither in the next year. The medical

profeffors

profeffors there at that period (1728) were Olaus Rudbeck, jun. and Roberg, both old men, and little inclined to improvement:but Olaus Celfius, the profeffor of divinity, was the beft botanift in Sweden, and zealous for the fcience. He was abfent for fome time after the arrival of Linné; and the poor youth, unknown and unpatronized, fell into a lamentable ftate of indigence. He was glad to accept of a meal, and to wear the caft cloaths of his fellow ftudents; nay he even was forced to patch their old fhoes with cards and the bark of trees, in order to be able to make his botanical excurfions. The mind, which poffeffes energy and refolution enough to rife above fuch difficulties as thefe, is of the very first class, and may claim praise to which those who are nurfed in the lap of eafe and profperity can never establish an equal right. On the return of Celfius, fortune proved more favourable: Linné made himself known to him, engaged his efteem, and obtained free board and lodging in his houfe; which he in fome measure repaid, by his fervices in affifting the profeffor in compofing his Hiercbotanicon.

About this time, a fmall work of Vaillant, a very ingenious French botanist, (his Sermo de Structura Florum,) falling into the hands of Linné, afforded him the firft notions of those fexual diftinctions of flowers which afterward became the groundwork of his celebrated fyftem. Attracted by thefe new views of the vegetable creation, he pursued the fubject with many additional obfervations, and drew up a manufcript treatise on the fexes of plants. This attempt came to the knowlege of Profeffor Rudbeck, and gave him fuch an opinion of the writer, that he took Linné into his houfe, and appointed him his affiftant lecturer. This was in 1730, when Linné had completed his 23d year. Thus the path to fame and advancement was laid open to him, and the whole remainder of his life confifted in a continual and rapid progress through it.

The next fection of the work begins with the appointment of Linné, by the Swedish Academy of Sciences, to make a journey of difcovery in Lapland. Such was the poverty of Sweden, that the fum devoted to this purpofe amounted only to 71. 10s. fterling! He undertook this long and most uncomfortable expedition with all the ardour of an enthufiaft; and, during the course of it, (from May to the end of October,) he underwent dangers and difficulties which, accustomed as he was to hardfhips, exercifed all his patience and refolution :but he returned rich in many undefcribed objects of nature, and in obfervations on the country and its inhabitants. His diary kept on this tour remains in MS. but the botanical matter was públished in two parts of a Florula Lapponica, inferted in the

B 2

Swedish

Swedish Tranfactions. The plants in this catalogue were arranged according to his newly projected fexual fyftem.

Having now acquired fome celebrity, he began, in the year 1733, to give lectures on botany, chemistry, and mineralogy, at Upfal; which were well received. The fpirit of envy and rivalry, however, inftigated Profeffor Rofen to enforce a ftatute of the Univerfity, which excluded every one, who had not taken his degrees, from the office of a public lecturer. Stung to the quick with this ungenerous treatment, which blasted all his profpects, Linné was provoked to fhew his refentment in a very unwarrantable manner. He drew his fword on Rofen as he came out of the fenate-house, and was with difficulty prevented from running him through the body: nay, he for fome time continued to meditate a bloody revenge, and would probably have executed it, had he not, as he himself related, been diverted from the defign by the impreffion which his mind received one night on waking from a horrid dream. From this anecdote, an idea may be formed of the fiery and refentful. temper which, through life, too much characterized the hero of this narrative.

A journey to Dalecarlia, with fome young nobles his pupils," was the occafion of his tarrying at the mining town of Fahlun, where he established a kind of college of mineralogy under the aufpices of the governor of the province. Here he became acquainted with the daughter of Moræus, a man of eminence, and phyfician to the province, and with difficulty obtained the father's confent to marry her in three years, if the should remain fingle till that period. His great object now was to gain a doctor's degree and to fettle in the practice of phyfic. By the help of his intended bride, he was equipped for a journey to Hardenwyk in Holland, where he meant to graduate; and with his departure the fection ends.

Sect. 4, is employed in giving a hiftory of botany, from its. origin among the Greeks to the time in which it was newly modelled by Linné. From this part of the work we think it unneceffary to make extracts, fince it is itself an abridgement, and, in our opinion, inferior to Dr. Smith's difcourfe on the fame fubject, prefixed to the first vol. of the Linnaan Tranfa&tions.

The travels of Linné to foreign countries form an interefting topic for the fifth fection. He took his courfe by Hamburgh to Hardenwyk; at which univerfity he obtained the degree of doctor of phyfic. For his academical exercise, he defended a new hypothefis concerning the caufes of intermitting fevers, one of the principal of which he afferted to be, the ufe of water impregnated with argillaceous particles. His thefis. bears the date of June 24, 1735, when he was in his 28th

year.

year. Leyden was the next place which he vifited; where his great object was to obtain an introduction to Boerhaave. This was no eafy matter, as that celebrated man fet too high a value on his time to be liberal of it in conferences with strangers: -but the profpectus of his Syftema Natura, which Linné printed for the first time at Leyden, and prefented to Boerhaave, obtained for him the honour which he folicited. great man appointed an interview at his villa; which fucceeded. fo well for Linné, that the old profeffor advised him to give up all thoughts of returning home, and to feck his fortune in Holland. Linné pleaded his difability, on account of indigence, and mentioned his defign of leaving Leyden the very next day. We are not told that Boerhaave (one of the richest men in his country,) made any effort to detain him. He gave him, however, a letter to Burmann, botanical profeffor at Amfterdam, which fecured him a good reception there; and Burmann conceived fo high an opinion of the Swede, that he took him into his houfe for the purpose of obtaining his help in his description of the plants of Ceylon. Boerhaave farther ferved Linné very effentially by recommending him to George Cliffort, the rich burgomafter and great collector, of Amfterdam, as his house phyfician and botanit. Cliffort, accordingly, made an exchange with Burmann of a copy of Sloane's Hiftory of Jamaica against the naturalift; and he took Linné home with him to Hartecamp, his villa, and at once raised him to a ftate of affluence fcarcely conceivable by a poor Swede, for he had an appointment of a ducat a day, exclufively of board.

The refidence in a paradife fraught with treasures from all parts of the globe, together with books, learned company, and good living, must have made Linné the happiest of mortals. He ftudied, wrote, and extended his fame and principles. An agreeable variation of his employments was a journey to England in 1736, at Cliffort's expence, for the purpose of enriching his garden. Sir Hans Sloane was at that time at the head of natural hiftory in this country: but a warm recommendation of Linné to him, from Boerhaave, procured only a cold and common reception. Linné vifited Miller at the Chelfeagarden, and, after fome unpromifing attempts, fucceeded in infpiring that botanift with a favourable opinion of him. A man of fuperior knowlege, Dillenius, at Oxford, received him at firft with jealoufy and diflike, but at last treated him with civility. The botanical garden at Oxford seems to have been what beft answered the expectations of the great Swedish botanist in England; and he returned to Hartecamp enriched with many natural treasures, and furnished with new connexions, which proved of fubfequent utility to him.