Nothing illustrates so clearly the steps in the
evolution of science as a review of the relative status of its
representatives. As in the political history of the world an epoch like
that of the French revolution stands out like a mountain peak, so in the
history of science an epoch occurs rather by evolution than revolution,
when a hitherto chaotic, heterogeneous mass of knowledge is rapidly
given shape and systematized. Previous to the seventeenth century an
immense mass of facts had accumulated through the labors of
investigators working under the Baconian philosophy, but these facts had
been thrown together in a confused, unsystematic manner. A man of master
mind was then needed to grasp the wonders of nature and formulate the
existing knowledge of them into a scientific system with a natural
basis. Such a system was given by Linnaeus, and so great were its merits
that it continues the foundation of all existing systems of
classification.
Charles Linnaeus was born May 13, 1707, in a country place named Roshult
in Smaland, near Skane, Sweden. He was called Charles after the well
known Swedish knight errant, King Charles XII., then at the height of
his renown.
The natural beauty of his native place, with its verdure-clad hills, its
stately trees, and sparkling brooks fringed with mosses and flowers,
inspired the boy Linnaeus with a love of nature and a devotion to her
teachings which tinged the current of his whole life.
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