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round them, he formed his theory of the sleep of plants, and proved that it took place at regular intervals, like that of animals. This discovery enabled him likewise to form a vegetable time-piece, wherein the hours of the day were marked by the different periods at which certain flowers began to close their blossoms; and in the same manner he framed a rural calendar for the regulation of the labors of husbandry, according to the appearance of the blossom of plants at stated intervals.

"Such were the ingenious occupations with which Linnæus diversified his more assiduous studies, while the garden, and its varied productions, engaged the strength of his mind. There,' he said in a speech which he delivered from the professor's chair, on the anniversary of the King of Sweden's birth-day, in 1752; 'there I receive and impart instruction! There I admire the wisdom of the Creator, which manifests itself in so many various modes; and there I demonstrate it to others." "

The greatness of his mind will, however, not be understood, except it be observed when struggling for exertion under the pressure of poverty. At one period, "too honest to avail himself to any considerable degree of credit, which he might not be able to redeem, and too just to ask that farther assistance from his Father which he knew must injure the younger branches of his family, Linnæus submitted to the greatest privations with cheerfulness. His countrymen and fellow-students, admiring his genius and respecting his fortitude, frequently ministered to his wants, which were so urgent, that he was forced, not only often to accept a meal from their kindbut was glad to recruit his wardrobe with their castoff clothes. He could not even afford to pay a cobbler for mending the old shoes which he was constrained to accept of his companions, or to go barefooted on the excursions where, amidst the treasures and delights of nature, all recollections of his own difficulties and anxie ties vanished like a painful dream. To have seen him lining his worn-out shoes, as he frequently did, with strong paper, and stitching the soles afresh, with thread formed

ness,

of the bark of trees, it would have appeared as if he actually must have taken up the humble occupation for which his Father had once designed him, that of a shoemaker; but the mind that can bear, without complaint, the hardships of poverty, almost invariably extricates itself at last from its disadvantages." So Linnæus lived to offer up his solemn thanks to God, in the Installation-speech which he made in 1741, when entering on his office of professor, for the sustaining mercy which had enabled him to bear up under the most trying circumstances of want and disappointment.

These few particulars, illustrative of the character and attainments of this extraordinary man, have been introduced, only with the view of directing the reader's attention to the rise and origin of so much eminence in the delightful walk of Nature.

Charles Linnæus was born on the 13th of May, 1707, at Rashult, a village in the province of Smaland, in Sweden. "His ancestors were peasants; but, by gradual refinement in their ideas, being induced to leave the plough, they relinquished their original name with their primitive occupation; and, in conformity with a pleasing custom in Sweden, of choosing fresh appellations, on any particular occasion, from natural objects, took the name of Lindelius, Tiliander (Linden-tree-man), from a lofty Linden-tree, which stood, and continued to flourish, till within a few years, in the vicinity of their native place. The Father of Charles Linnæus was the pastor of the village; and, being passionately fond of gardening, he followed the example of his kindred, in borrowing from the same tree a name, which his son has rendered familiar to the ear in every quarter of the civilized globe. The love of plants and flowers in the elder Linnæus was increased by his obtaining, about a year after the birth of his son, the living of Stenbrohult, which had the advan

tage of an extensive and good garden annexed to the house. This garden he soon rendered the finest in the whole district, enriching it with upwards of four hundred species of flowers, many of them of foreign growth and great rarity. Thus were the infant steps of young Linnæus guided by his father's hand, amid

"Queen lilies, and the painted populace,

Who dwell in fields, and lead ambrosial lives."

At eight years of age he had a separate plot of ground assigned him by his Father, which was dignified with the name of "Charles's garden;" and many an excursion did he make to the neighboring woods and meadows, for plants and flowers, wild herbs and weeds, wherewith to increase its stores. He even colonized it with wild bees and wasps; but their hostile demeanor, threatening the safety of the paternal hives, and his poor weeds verifying the old proverb of thriving apace, he was forced occasionally to submit his little domain to the more discriminating eye and experienced hand of his Father.

The allotment of a piece of garden-ground to Charles was, however, rather an advanced step in the influence which his Father's love for nature had exercised over him. Before he was well out of his Mother's arms, this influence was observable; but the bent of his mind was first decidedly displayed on the following occasion. "He was scarcely four years of age, when he accompanied his Father one day to a feast at Mohlen; and, in the evening, it being a very pleasant season of the year, the guests seated themselves on some flowery turf, listening to the pastor, who made various remarks on the names and properties of the plants, showing them the roots of the Succisa, Tormentilla, Orchides, &c. The child paid the most uninterrupted attention to all he saw and heard, and from that hour never ceased harassing his Father

with questions about the name, the quality, and the nature of every plant he met with." Being so very young, the names of plants he found it most difficult to retain, so that his Father, submitting to far more than any instructor in natural history ever would, had to tell at many a call "the story ten times told." At last, in return for his informing his child of the name of any plant or flower, the Father exacted from him a promise that he would endeavor to remember it; and thus did he lay the foundation of that eminence to which his son arrived, who, whatever were his failings, certainly proved the most enthusiastic lover of nature, and the most indefatigable inquirer into her productions, that perhaps ever adorned the annals of that science.*

PASCAL.-Pascal is generally regarded as an extraordinary character, inheriting from nature all the powers of genius. "He was a geometrician of the first rank, a profound reasoner, a sublime and elegant writer." Though oppressed by continual infirmities; not having passed a day without pain during twenty-one years of the thirtynine that he lived; if we consider that " he invented a curious arithmetical machine, the elements of the calculation of chances, and the methods of resolving various problems respecting the cycloid; that he fixed the wavering opinions of the learned respecting the weight of the atmosphere; that he wrote one of the most perfect works existing in the French language; and that in his 'Thoughts' there are passages, the depth and beauty of which are incomparable; we can hardly believe that a greater genius ever existed in any age or nation. All those who had occasion to be with him in the ordinary

* See Triumphs of Genius and Perseverance, by Eliz. Strutt, 1826; and Pulteney's View of the Writings of Linnæus, with Life, by Dr. Maton, 1805.

commerce of the world, acknowledge his superiority; but it excited no envy against him, as he was never fond of showing it. His conversation instructed, without exciting, in those who heard it, a mortifying sense of their own inferiority; and he was remarkably indulgent towards the faults of others; excepting, that, as he was particularly careful to repress in himself the passion of self-love, he could with difficulty observe the marks of it in others without reproving them. On this subject he used to declare, "that a worthy man should avoid naming himself; that Christian piety annihilates the worldly me; and that worldly civility hides and suppresses it."*

Now, as Pascal was the subject of such delicacy and disease, and lost his Mother when he was only three years old, we might never have heard of him, or read his writings, but for his amiable and judicious Father. This Father, an excellent scholar and able mathematician, who, during the short period of his married life, had been assisted by his amiable wife in the duties of educating their family, upon her decease determined to take upon himself the whole charge of his son's education, and that of two sisters, one older, and the other two years younger, than Pascal. In pursuance of this design, the duties of a public station, first President of the Court of Aids, he resigned in favor of his brother, and in 1631 removed to Paris. Books of every description being here easily procured, he determined that his son should enjoy every advantage which these could afford. He sent him to no college; but, at home, himself, instructed him in logic, natural philosophy, and other branches. When young

Pascal had reached his 24th year, though his passion for mathematics remained, and would show itself occasionally, his attention was drawn to the subject of religion during

* Bossu.

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