Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/220

236 thought. And profound labors of the human mind sprung up on its free soil, as its noblest flowers.

It was in the gardens of Haarlem, that Linnæus grew great, under the fatherly care of Boerhave. Sweden did not understand her great sou. Boerhave recognized his genius. Upon his death-bed, when the grateful disciple kissed his hand with tears, Boerhave drew his to his lips and said; “My dear Linnæus, it is I who ought to kiss your hand, because you will do more for science than I; you will become a new light to it!”———

May heaven smile above thee, thou good, little country; nurse of great men; keeper, at the present time, of the noblest treasures of humanity. I am now not able to tread thy free, peace-illumined soil—perhaps another time!

Yet once again, I returned to Brussels and to the beautiful home of my friends. I left it, grateful to have made the acquaintance of a married pair who belong to the affectionate and happy of earth; as well as in M. Duepetiaux, a statesman deeply imbued with a grand human idea.

“Labor for the elevation of the poorer classes in every respect!” were his last words to me at the moment of parting. “Believe me, this is the most important of all our undertakings. I have thought much, I have experimented and attempted much, in questions for the well-being of society, but I have never found any thing more momentous than this. It is not alone the duty of the Christian, it is at the same time the highest state-wisdom!”

Words these, worthy of observation, as coming from