"I have received from a friend Professor Siegesbeck's Verioris Botanosophiae Specimen, with his Epicrisis on my writings. This author has been very hard upon me. I wish he had written these things when I was first about publishing. I might have learned when young, what I am forced to learn at a more advanced age, to abstain from writing, to observe others, and to hold my tongue. What a fool have I been, to waste so much time, to spend my days and nights in a study which yields no better fruit, and makes me the laughing-stock of all the world! His arguments are nothing; but his book is filled with exclamations, such as I never before met with. Whether I answer him or keep silence, my reputation must suffer. He cannot understand argument. He denies the sexes of plants. He charges my system with indelicacy; and yet I have not written more about the polygamy of plants than Swammerdam has about bees. He laughs at my characters, and calls upon all the world to say if any body understands them. I am said to be ignorant of scientific terms. He judges me by the principles of Rivinus, and hundreds of the vilest scribblers. Inasmuch as the man humbles me, so do you, whose learning and sense have been made sufficiently evident, exalt me. It distresses me to read the commendations you are pleased to heap upon so unworthy an object. I wish there might ever be any reason to expect that I could evince my gratitude and regard for you. I hope life will be granted me, to give some proof of my not being quite unworthy." Linnaeus was now, however, in his proper element, and commenced his academical career with great ardour. The botanical garden, founded by the celebrated Olaus Rudbeck about fifty years before, was entirely destroyed by the dreadful fire which, as already mentioned, had, in 1702, converted the greater part of Upsal into a heap of ruins, and now served no more important purpose than that of pasturing a few cows. His first efforts were directed towards its renovation, which he soon succeeded in accomplishing. Count Gyllenborg, who was then chancellor of the university, was a man of considerable scientific attainments, and had a special love for botany. This circumstance, as well as his interest in the prosperity of the institution, induced him to lend a ready ear to the solicitations of the professor, and to give his important aid to the undertaking. Baron Harlemann, the king's architect, furnished the plan. Hothouses were erected, walks formed, ponds dug, plots furnished with plants; in short, the garden soon assumed a most promising appearance. A house was also built for the accommodation of the teacher, who had no longer any cause to complain of the neglect of his countrymen. In the early part of this year his wife presented him with a son; so that in all respects he was a happy man.