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who have gone before us. If you ask us by what alchemy we thus elicit gold, while others would find nothing but dross, we answer, by bearing in mind that fine old apostolic rule, "Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth." We read with watchfulness and prayer-with watchfulness against the treachery of our own proud hearts, and with prayer for that largeness of mind, without which we are not likely to exhibit the generous and catholic spirit inculcated in the gospel. Those who are but partially informed, are generally illiberal in proportion to their ignorance; and though it is perhaps true that many clever men are bigoted and narrowminded, it will be generally found that their intolerance respects what they do not understand, rather than what they do. Moses, Job, Solomon, Isaiah, Paul, were men of capacious minds-men whose knowledge was dignified, and directed by a glowing love to all, and whose desire was that their mental wealth might minister to the edifying of their several disciples. Moses was “learned in all the wisdom of Egypt;" but it did not wean him from the greater riches of a simple faith in Christ. Job was conversant with the stones of darkness, the treasures of the mine, the wonders of zoology, and the greater mysteries of atmospheric influence and meteorology; but they never interfered with his contemplation of a coming Redeemer, who was to stand at the latter day upon the earth, and, avenging all his wrongs, to introduce him to the heavenly places, where he should no more suffer from the wounds he had received in the house of his friends below. Solomon "spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes." Yet he found time for praise" his songs were a thousand and five." His studies in the ample and glorious field of nature supplied him with similitudes in his moments of spiritual ecstacy, as he poured out the ardours of his well-stored mind on the bosom of his Beloved-" As the apple-tree amongst the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons: I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet unto my taste." The courtly eloquence and splendid oriental imagery of Isaiah, bespeak no mean acquaintance with the amenities and beauties of science, but these had no injurious influence on his habitual converse with the thrice holy Messiah. "He saw his glory, and spake of him" in terms of loftiest

rapture; nor was that rapture anything diminished by the knowledge that the Holy One of Israel was the ruler of created nature, calling forth the stars by name, and holding the waters of the ocean in the hollow of his hand. Paul's was a master-mind; and if ever the name of philosopher might be well bestowed, the apostle of the gentiles was the man to bear it. Will it be supposed that there was nothing of human learning in that thrilling oratory that awed the Areopagites into unwilling silence, and won over the attention of the very men who had scouted Demosthenes from their assembly? Yet all his great attainments were baptized in the charity which edifieth, enabling him to become all things to all men, that he might by all means save some. This appears to be the true end of human acquirements; but the mode by which they are to be pursued demands farther remark.

We have a book lying before us that has before called forth our feeble testimony of approbation. Let us open it and read the title. "Lachesis Lapponica, or a Tour in Lapland, now first published from the original manuscript Journal of the celebrated Linnæus; by James Edward Smith, M.D. F.R.S. President of the Linnaan Society, 1811."

In what compartment of our mental store-room shall we place it is it worth reading at all; and if so, how shall we set about it? The names upon the title-page are enough to command attention it is an original journal of the great Linnæus, interpreted and edited by one of kindred mind-the record of a journey undertaken in 1732, through an interesting country, and under the sanction of the University of Upsal. Yet it has a homely look about it, vastly different from the parade and studied step of scientific bodies now-a-days, when they make a progress through the land to theorize on what they should have seen. It forms therefore an episode in the annals of Sweden during the eighteenth century, relating mainly to that enchanting department of science the natural history of the north-western parts of Europe.

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But who was Linnæus, and how was he fitted for the work? "From the very time that he first left his cradle, he almost lived in his father's garden, which was planted with some of the rarer shrubs and flowers; and thus were kindled, before he had well left his mother's arms, those sparks which afterwards produced such a

blaze. As he advanced in youth, he never ceased harassing his father with questions about the names, qualities, and nature, of every plant he saw, and used often to enquire more than even his father, who was an expert botanist, was able to answer. Whilst at school, he employed his play-hours in hunting after plants; and was hence called "The Little Botanist."

Can we doubt that his heart was in the cause; or that a journal such as his, must contain materials for thinking, and details of the greatest interest? "The composition," says the editor's preface, "is entirely artless and unaffected, giving a most amiable idea of the writer's mind and temper; and it cannot be considered but as highly curious to contemplate in these pages the development of such a mind as that of Linnæus. As not a word throughout the whole was written for the use of any person but the author, the reader may perhaps be disappointed at not meeting with anything like a professed description of Lapland, or even a regular detail of the route of the traveller. What was familiar to Linnæus, either in books or in his own mind, is omitted." So much the better; we luxuriate in a work of this description. Nothing is more disagreeable than to take up an original narrative, as it is often called, and find it filled with diluted common-place that has never passed through the writer's mind at all, but merely dribbled from his fingers' ends we like a journal that is thought out; one that takes us into the sanctum sanctorum of the author, and shows us the whole machinery at work-and such a volume we have now before us. How shall we approach it?

We have already referred it to its proper column in the schedule of our mind as regards time and place-we must now look a little at the field of observation. The author, a young man full of ardour in the pursuit of knowledge, was appointed by the Royal Academy of Sciences at Upsal, to travel through Lapland, for the purpose of investigating the three kingdoms of Nature in that country; and set out upon his expedition on the 12th May, 1732, old style.

But where lies the country through which we are to follow our adventurer; where is Upsal, whence he set out; and did he go by land or water-on foot or on horseback? Some of these enquiries are best answered at once, in order that we may have clear and definite ideas upon the subject of his book. Let us get, then, the best map we can command, of the northern parts of Europe, and

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