Lachesis Lapponica Or, A Tour in Lapland, Volume 1

Lachesis Lapponica; Or, A Tour in Lapland, Volume 1

The biographers of Linnus have often mentioned the Journal of his Lapland Tour, to which he himself has frequently adverted, in various parts of his voluminous works, under the title of Lachesis Lapponica. The publication of this Journal has been anxiously desired; and so valuable was the manuscript considered, that on his whole collection and library being sold, after the death of his son, it was remarked that these papers at least ought to have been retained in Sweden, as a national pro[Pg viii]perty; the journey which they record having been undertaken at the public expense, and the objects illustrated thereby being, necessarily, more important to the author's countrymen than to any other people. This remark, however, was not made till long after the manuscript, with all the treasures which accompanied it, had escaped, by land and by sea, the pursuit instituted by the Swedish monarch to recover them, and had reached England in safety. It became a duty for their fortunate possessor to render them useful. To place the authority of this collection, as far as possible, out of the reach of accident, he has made it his chief object to extend any information to be derived from it, not only to his own countrymen, but to his fellow-labourers in[Pg ix] every quarter of the globe. The Banksian herbarium was, in the course of seven months, compared with that of Linnus throughout, to their mutual advantage, by a copious interchange, not only of information, but of specimens. Plants or insects were for many years continually sent from France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Germany, and even Sweden, as well as from America, for comparison with the authentic originals named by the hand of Linnus. The time and labour devoted to this task have been richly compensated, by the acquisition of various novelties, and of much instruction, as well as by the pleasure of so extensive an intercourse with persons occupied in the same favourite and delightful pursuit, and by[Pg x] the acknowledgements with which most of them have overpaid the trouble. The manuscripts of Linnus were no less freely consulted; but great was our disappointment to find the Lachesis Lapponica written in Swedish. For a long time therefore it remained unexplored. At length Mr. Charles Troilius, a young gentleman in the mercantile line, resident in London, undertook the task of translating it. The manuscript proved to be the identical journal written on the spot during the tour, which certainly rendered it the more interesting; but the difficulty of decyphering it proved from that very circumstance unexpectedly great. The bulk of the composition is Swedish, but so inter[Pg xi]mixed with Latin, even in half sentences, that the translator, not being much acquainted with this language, found it necessary to leave frequent blanks, giving a literal version only of what he was able to read. The whole abounds also with frequent cyphers and abbreviations, sometimes referring to the publications or opinions of the day, and intended as memorandums for subsequent consideration. It is, in short, such a journal as a man would write for his own use, without the slightest thought of its ever being seen by any other person. The composition is entirely artless and unaffected, giving a most amiable idea of the writer's mind and temper; and it cannot but be considered as highly curious, to contemplate in these pages the development of such a mind as that of[Pg xii] Linnus. 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 any thing like a professed description of Lapland, or even a regular detail of the route of the traveller. What was familiar to Linnus, either in books or in his own mind, is omitted. By the brilliant sketches he has left us in his Flora Lapponica, published a few years after his return, we see what he might have written had he here undertaken to communicate his own knowledge or remarks to others; and the same may be said of such of his dissertations, in the Amnitates Academic, as professedly treat of subjects belonging to Lapland. The curious and learned reader will, however, here and[Pg xiii] there, meet with the first traces of ideas, opinions or discoveries, which scarcely acquired a shape, even in the mind of the writer, till some time afterwards. If on the one hand the Journal may seem defective in communicating information, the occasional quotations, references and allusions, the familiar and sufficiently correct use of the Latin language, and the general accuracy of the whole, give a very high idea of the author's accomplishments. The extemporaneous journals of the most illustrious travellers, made without a single book to refer to, or a companion to consult, would few of them perhaps stand the test of criticism so well. To render the translation fit for the public view, the editor found himself[Pg xiv] under the necessity of writing the whole over; but in doing this, though often obliged to supply the forms of whole sentences, of which only hints or cyphers exist in the manuscript, he has been careful to give as literal a translation of the rest as the materials would allow. This principle ever kept in view, and the difficulty of the undertaking, which, small as the book is, has taken up much of his time for seven years past, must apologize for any inelegancies of composition. Yet in many parts the original displays a natural and striking eloquence, of which the translation may possibly fall short. Such passages, when they occurred, repaid the labour and perplexity of studying for hours to decypher some obscure mark, or some ill-written Swedish or[Pg xv] Latin word, which the original translator had given up in despair. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 34779
Author: Linné, Carl von
Release Date: Dec 29, 2010
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Smith, James Edward, 1759-1828

Translator: Troilius, Charles