Carl von Linné, commonly called Linnæus, was born at Rashult, in the
province of Smaland, in Sweden, May 24, 1707. His father, the Protestant
minister of the parish of Stenbrohult, was a collector of curious
plants; and Carl soon became acquainted with the plants in his father’s
garden, as well as with the indigenous species in the neighbourhood.
Being intended for the church, he was placed, first at the Latin school,
and then at the Gymnasium of the neighbouring town of Wexio; but he
neglected his professional studies to devote himself almost exclusively
to the physical sciences. Botany, which was then little cultivated in
Sweden, more particularly engrossed his attention: he formed a small
library of botanical works, and although unable to comprehend some of
the authors he possessed, yet he continued to read them day and night.
He even learnt some of them by heart, and acquired, among his teachers
and fellow scholars, the name of the Little Botanist. His father, whose
object was to fit his son for gaining a livelihood in his own sacred
calling, and who was ill able to defray the expenses of a learned
education, was greatly mortified by this misapplication of time. He
determined therefore, without wasting, as he considered it, any more
money, to employ Carl in some manual occupation. His design was changed
by the interference of Dr. Rothman, a physician of Wexio, who advised
him, instead of forcing his son into a profession for which he had no
taste, to let him follow the study of medicine and natural history.
Rothman rendered this scheme practicable, by taking Carl into his own
house for a twelvemonth; during which he instructed the youth in
physiology, and likewise upon the right method of studying his favourite
science of botany, according to the system of Tournefort.
Linnæus was equally fortunate in gaining admission into the family of
Dr. Stobæus, professor of physic and botany at the University of Lund,
whither he repaired in 1727. Here he pursued his botanical studies with
zeal, and acquired the esteem and affection of his host. He went to the
University of Upsal in 1728, by advice of his early friend Dr. Rothman,
hoping to obtain some situation in it. But he was disappointed: and, his
scanty means being soon exhausted, he found reason to repent of having
quitted the friendly roof of Stobæus, who was much offended that a
pupil, whom he had treated so kindly, should have left the University
without consulting him. A fortunate incident relieved him from this
state of anxious suspense. One day, in the autumn of 1729, while
examining some plants in the University Garden, he was accosted by an
aged clergyman, Dr. Olaf Celsius; who, after some inquiry into the
nature and extent of his botanical studies, received him into his own
house, and employed him to assist in a work on the plants mentioned in
Scripture, and to collect botanical specimens around Upsal.
Linnæus enjoyed great advantages in his new situation. He had the full
use of an extensive library, rich in botanical works; he lived on most
familiar terms with his patron, by whom he was introduced to Dr.
Rudbeck, the professor of botany; and Rudbeck, obliged by age to execute
the duties of his office by deputy, obtained that office for Linnæus in
1730. The young man’s reputation as a naturalist was now established in
the University; and, in 1731, the Royal Academy of Sciences at Upsal
deputed him to make a tour through Lapland, with the sole view of
examining the natural productions of that desolate region. He set out,
on horseback, May 12, 1732 (O.S.) without incumbrances of any kind, and
bearing all his luggage at his back. In the flower of youth, bold,
enterprising, and in robust health, he was well adapted to traverse the
wild countries of northern Sweden and Lapland, in which he met with some
romantic and dangerous adventures. When in the districts of Pithea and
Lulea, on the Gulf of Bothnia, he was near perishing from a danger of
which he has given the following animated account:—
“Several days ago the forests had been set on fire by lightning, and the
flames raged at this time with great violence, owing to the drought of
the season. I traversed a space, three quarters of a mile in extent,
which was entirely burnt, so that the place, instead of appearing in her
gay and verdant attire, was in deep sable: a spectacle more abhorrent to
my feelings than to see her clad in the white livery of winter. The fire
was nearly extinguished in most of the spots we visited, except in
ant-hills and dry trunks of trees. After we had travelled about
half-a-quarter of a mile across one of these scenes of desolation, the
wind began to blow with rather more force, upon which a sudden noise
arose in the half-burnt forest, such as I can only compare to what may
be imagined among a large army attacked by an enemy: we knew not whither
to turn our steps. The smoke would not suffer us to remain where we
stood, nor durst we turn back. It seemed best to hasten forward, in
hopes of speedily reaching the outskirts of the wood; but in this we
were disappointed. We ran as fast as we could, in order to avoid being
crushed by the falling trees, some of which threatened us every minute.
Sometimes the fall of a huge trunk was so sudden that we stood aghast,
not knowing whither to turn to escape destruction, and throwing
ourselves entirely on the protection of Providence. In one instance a
large tree fell exactly between me and my guide, who walked not more
than a fathom from me; but, thanks to God! we both escaped in safety. We
were not a little rejoiced when this perilous adventure ended, for we
had felt all the time like a couple of outlaws, in momentary fear of
surprise.”
In the space of five months Linnæus performed, mostly on foot, a journey
of 3798 English miles, and with the approach of winter he returned to
Upsal. On that occasion he was admitted a member of the Academy, and
received about ten pounds for his expenses. The ‘Flora Lapponica’ was
the result of this journey. Scarce recovered from the fatigues of this
tour through Lapland, he again felt the pressure of poverty. He
commenced a course of lectures on the assaying of metals, but his
success excited the jealousy of Dr. Rosen, the successor of Dr. Rudbeck,
who insisted that, in conformity with the statutes, Linnæus should no
longer be allowed to lecture. The Senate had no choice but to enforce
the statutes, and this severe blow deprived Linnæus of all present means
of advancement. He quitted Upsal, and took up his residence at Fahlun,
the capital of Dalecarlia, where he gave lectures on assaying to the
copper miners of that district. In 1735, having saved a small sum of
money, he resolved to travel, and take a medical degree at some foreign
university. He bent his course through Hamburgh to Holland, and obtained
the degree of M.D., at the little University of Harderwych. He gained
the friendship of Gronovius and Boërhaave, by whom he was strongly urged
to settle in Holland, then in the height of its commercial prosperity.
But Linnæus’ mind was set upon returning to Sweden, where he had formed
an attachment to the eldest daughter of Dr. Moræus, a physician at
Fahlun. Intending to pass homewards through Amsterdam, he obtained from
Boërhaave an introduction to an eminent botanist, Dr. Burman, with whom
he resided for a short time. During this visit he became acquainted with
Mr. Clifford, a rich burgomaster of Amsterdam, who had a magnificent
country-seat and garden at Hartecamp, near Haarlem. This gentleman
wished for the assistance of a man who could arrange his collections of
natural history, and put his garden into order. Linnæus entered into his
employment in this capacity, and the connexion proved equally
satisfactory to both parties.
In 1736, Linnæus made a tour to England at the expense of Mr. Clifford,
who wished him to inspect the gardens of our country, and to communicate
with the eminent botanists then alive. The English professors were
warmly attached to the system of Ray; but Dillenius, the botanical
professor at Oxford, was so impressed with the talents of Linnæus, that
he urged him to take up his residence there, offering to share the
profits of his professorship with him. Professor Martyn of Cambridge,
Miller, Collinson, &c., held friendly intercourse with him, and he
returned to Holland with the most favourable impressions of the
scientific men in England. Contrary to the wishes of Mr. Clifford, he
left Hartecamp towards the close of 1737, with the intention of
returning to Sweden. No stronger proof can be given of the estimation in
which Linnæus was held in Holland than the regard expressed for him by
Boërhaave, even on his death-bed. Before the time of Linnæus’ intended
departure from Leyden, Boërhaave became too ill to admit visitors.
Linnæus was the only person in whose favour an exception was made, that
the dying physician might bid him an affectionate farewell. “I have
lived,” he said, “my time out, and my days are at an end; I have done
every thing that was in my power: May God protect thee! What the world
required of me it has got; but from thee it expects much more. Farewell,
my dear Linnæus!”
When upon the point of leaving Leyden, Linnæus was attacked by illness;
and upon his recovery he determined to visit Paris before his return to
Sweden. At Paris he experienced great kindness from the Jussieus; and he
received the high compliment of being elected a corresponding member of
the Academy of Sciences.
In the summer of 1738, he embarked at Rouen for Helsingburg. Soon after
his arrival in Sweden, he married the lady to whom he had been so long
attached.
Dr. Pulteney, in his “View of the Writings of Linnæus,” gives a full
account of the numerous publications put forth by him during his
residence in Holland, and adds,—“It is scarcely to be conceived how this
great man found time to finish so many works, any one of which would
have been sufficient for establishing his character as a botanist.” The
most important of these were the “Systema Naturæ,” 1735, and the “Genera
Plantarum,” 1737, in which the sexual system of plants is fully
developed.
In 1738 Linnæus settled as a physician at Stockholm, where he met with
so much opposition, that he almost resolved to quit his native country.
But by perseverance he worked his way into practice; and he was
fortunate enough to be employed by the Queen of Sweden. In 1739 he
contributed, with some other spirited persons, to form an Academy at
Stockholm, of which he was elected President.
His professional success did not lead him aside from his favourite
studies; and he kept his eye steadily on the great object of his
ambition, the botanical chair at Upsal. In 1741 he was appointed medical
professor. He soon entered into an agreement with Professor Rosen to
allow him to perform the duties of the botanical chair, while his
colleague lectured on physiology and other subjects. Before entering on
the duties of his professorship, he pronounced a Latin oration before
the University, “On the Necessity of Travelling in our own Country.”
Linnæus was now placed in the situation which of all things he had most
coveted. The academical garden was soon laid out on a new plan. When he
was appointed professor, it did not contain above fifty exotic plants.
In 1748, six years afterwards, he published a catalogue, from which it
appears that he had introduced eleven hundred; besides the vegetable
productions of Sweden itself.
He now applied to all his correspondents for plants; and, writing to
Albert Haller, he says, “Formerly I had plants, but no money; and now,
of what use is my money without plants?” His exertions so much extended
the fame of the University, that the number of students considerably
increased, particularly during the time he held the office of rector.
They came from Russia, Norway, Denmark, Great Britain, Holland, Germany,
Switzerland, and even from America. He made summer excursions attended
by his pupils, often to the number of two hundred. When some rare or
remarkable plant, or other natural curiosity, was found, a signal was
given by a horn, at which the whole party assembled round their leader.
Linnæus published his “Amœnitates Academicæ,” “Philosophia Botanica,”
and “Species Plantarum,” respectively in 1749, 1751, and 1753. Of these,
the first is a collection of treatises on various subjects; the second
is the foundation of the Linnæan system of botany, and from it most of
our popular introductions have been compiled; the third is termed, by
Haller, “Maximum opus, et æternum!” In this work he first employed
trivial words as specific names: thus, the species of every genus is
designated by a single epithet, expressive of some obvious character,
and the tiresome plan of quoting an entire description to distinguish
the species was abandoned. His fame had now rapidly increased, and his
scientific connexions and correspondence with foreign countries had
become very extensive.
In 1753 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London; and in
the same year his sovereign, Gustavus III., bestowed upon him a most
flattering mark of his regard, by creating him a Knight of the Polar
Star. This order had never before been conferred on any literary
character; nor had any person below the rank of a nobleman been honoured
with it. Foreign countries were not backward in testifying their sense
of his merits; he was a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of
Paris, of St. Petersburgh, and of Berlin; and there was hardly a learned
body in Europe but was anxious to enrol his name among their numbers.
The most flattering compliment which he received was from the King of
Spain, who invited him to settle at Madrid, with the offer of an annual
pension for life of 2000 pistoles, letters of nobility, and the free
exercise of his own religion. He, however, did not accept of this offer,
but answered, that if he had any merit, his services were due to his own
country.
The University of Upsal had now become an object of curiosity: strangers
were attracted there, and prolonged their stay, solely with the view of
becoming acquainted with Linnæus. Among other visitors, the Earl of
Macartney, when he was English Minister at St. Petersburgh, went from
that city on purpose to visit him. His writings were soon appreciated in
foreign countries, and his system was first publicly taught in our own
by Professor Martyn, in the University of Cambridge. His pupils spread
themselves over the globe; they carried everywhere with them the spirit
of their master, and diffused the love of natural history. When Captain
Cook’s first voyage was undertaken, one of Linnæus’s most celebrated
pupils, Dr. Solander, accompanied Mr. Banks in the capacity of
naturalist. It was not, however, from his pupils alone that Linnæus
received information; in every part of the world persons were found
anxious to forward specimens to him, and his collections thus became
unrivalled.
The introduction of the Linnæan system was attended with such great
change, especially of nomenclature, that it experienced considerable
opposition from the older naturalists; and the biographers of Linnæus
have recorded several literary feuds with distinguished contemporaries,
and especially with Albert Haller, a genius of equal merit with himself.
The latter years of Linnæus were spent in a state of ease, affluence,
and honour, very different from the poverty and obscurity of his early
life. He was one of those great men, who have shown by example how much
the genius and activity of an individual are capable of accomplishing.
He was the reformer of botany, and perhaps the greatest promoter of
natural history that ever lived; and so much has never been done for
that science, in so short a space of time, as at the period he
flourished, and immediately after.
In 1773 the reigning King of Sweden appointed him, in conjunction with
others, to make a new translation of the Bible into the Swedish
language. In the month of May, 1774, whilst lecturing in the Botanical
Garden, he was attacked by apoplexy, the debilitating effects of which
obliged him to relinquish the more active parts of his professional
duties, and to close his literary career. In 1776 a second apoplectic
fit paralysed his right side and impaired his mental powers. Even in
this painful and miserable state the study of nature remained his
greatest pleasure, and he was constantly carried into his museum to
survey the treasures there accumulated. He died January 10, 1778, in the
seventy-first year of his age.
On his death a general mourning took place at Upsal. A medal was struck
upon the occasion, and a monument erected to his memory in the cathedral
church of Upsal. The King of Sweden himself pronounced a panegyric on
his distinguished subject before the Royal Academy of Sweden.
Nature was eminently liberal in the endowments of Linnæus’s mind. He had
a lively imagination; a correct judgment, guided by the strict laws of
system; a most retentive memory; and unremitting industry. He laboured
to inspire the great and opulent with a taste for natural history, and
he wished particularly that ecclesiastics should have some knowledge of
it. He thought such knowledge would sweeten retirement, and that pastors
had great opportunities for observing nature. He was decidedly religious
himself, and not one of his greater works begins or ends without some
passage expressive of admiration for the Supreme Creator.
His strength and weakness alike consisted in a rigid adherence to
system. He arranged, according to a system of his own invention, all
natural objects, from man down to the simple crystals. The Linnæan
school is more fitted to arrange and describe the materials of science
than to extend its boundaries. Its pupils have too rigidly adhered to a
system, which is ill adapted to our increased sphere of knowledge.
In botany, the merits of Linnæus were transcendent. He found it a chaos,
and reduced it to a system, which enabled the student to study it with
ease. The great objection to his arrangement, founded on the sexual
parts of plants, is, that it is artificial, and has rather retarded the
knowledge of a system more philosophical, and in stricter accordance
with the rules of nature. The labours of the Jussieus and De Candolle
have done much to introduce a better system; but much still is wanting
to complete it.
After the death of Linnæus’s only son, in November, 1783, the late
eminent botanist, Sir James Smith, purchased his museum of natural
history, books, and manuscripts, for 1029_l._ This collection consisted
of nearly everything possessed by the great Linnæus and his son. Sir
James Smith directed in his will that these treasures should be offered,
after his own death, to the Linnæan Society of London. They were
accordingly purchased by that body for 3000 guineas; and are now placed
in the Society’s rooms in London.
This memoir is compiled almost entirely from a Life of Linnæus written
for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and from the
article ‘Linnæus,’ in the ‘Biographie Universelle,’ by the late Baron
Cuvier.
[Illustration:
[Linnæus in his Lapland dress.]
]
[Illustration:
_Engraved by W. Holl._