The life of Sir Charles Linnaeus ... : to which is added, a copious list of his works, and a biographical sketch of the life of his son / by D.H. Stoever ; translated from the original German by Joseph Trapp.

  • Stoever, Dietrich Heinrich, 1767-1822.
Date:
1794
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The life of Sir Charles Linnaeus ... : to which is added, a copious list of his works, and a biographical sketch of the life of his son / by D.H. Stoever ; translated from the original German by Joseph Trapp. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    49/488 (page 3)
    LINN JEUS. a in the banns of wedlock with ChristinaBrodersonj the daughter of his predecessor in office. His ancestors were peasants. Several of his re^ latives, who had quitted the plough for the Muses, in the last century, changed their family name with their profession, and borrowed the names of Li N DELI us, or TI LI ANDER, (Lindcn4rec-man) of a lofty Linden- tree, which still stood in our time, in the vicinity of their native place, between Tomshodadiudi Linnhult', a custom not unfrequent in Sweden^ to take freffi appellations from natural objects. The father of Linnaeus, as the first learned man of his family, could not withstand following the example which his kindred had fet before him. He likewife borrowed of the fame tree a name which his son rendered afterwards famous and immortal in every quarter of the globe. Our Charles was the first pledge of the young couple’s mutual love. He was destined for the pulpit; a destination which his parents con- sidered as the happiest, and through which they flattered themfelves their son would one day become the prop of their old age. But, fortunately for science, this plan was overturned, even by those who felt its execution nearest to their hearts;—-they themselves sowed, as it were, in the cradle, a seed in the infant’s breast, which, in process of time, yielded the finest fruits. The father was a singular lover of gardening. The smallness of his income, obliged him, at the same time, to make the best of husbandry. Flowers were the first things they gave the smiling babe, and it seemed to take a natural delight in the variety of their colours. The fragrant play-things thus instilled in the infant’s breast an early passion for the beauties of Nature, which a concurrence of favourable circumstances fostered and increased during the subsequent stages of his infancy. In