THE STRATFORD NATURALIST. 347 



myself. What my condition may be in futurity is known only to the Disposer of 

 all things ; yet my present desires are (perhaps vain and inconsistent with the 

 nature of things ?) that I may become an intelligent spirit, void of gross matter, 

 bravity and levity, endowed with a voluntary motive power either to pierce 

 infinitely into boundless ethereal space, or into solid bodies ; to see and know, 

 how the parts of the great Universe are connected with each other, and by what 

 amazing mechanism they are put and kept in regular and perpetual motion. But 

 oh^n vain and daring presumption of thought, I most humbly submit my future 

 existence to the supreme will of the one Omnipotent ? " 



Sometime after Mr. Edwards had been appointed Librarian 

 to the Royal College of Physicians, he was, on St. Andrew's Day, 

 in the year 1750, presented by the President and Council of the 

 Royal Society with the Gold Medal, the decoration of Sir 

 Godfrey Copley, Bart., annually given on that day to the Author 

 of any new discovery in Art or Nature, in consideration of his 

 Natural History just then completed. A copy of this medal he 

 afterwards caused to he engraved and placed under the general 

 title in the first volume of his history. He was subsequently 

 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and on the 13th February, 

 1773, he became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and 

 also a member of iiiany of the learned Societies in different parts 

 of Europe. In acknowledgment of these honorary distinctions 

 from such learned bodies, he presented elegant coloured copies of 

 all his works, to the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal 

 Society, the Society of Antiquaries, the British Museum ; 

 and to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, from which he 

 received the most cordial and complimentary letter of thanks by 

 their then Secretary, Monsieur Defouchy. 



Several occasional papers upon natural history were com- 

 municated by Mr. Edwards to the Royal Society and inserted in 

 the Philosophical Transactions. They will be found in the 48th, 

 49th, 50th, 51st, 53rd, 55th, and 56th volumes of that valuable 

 collection, and most of them have since been added with new 

 engravings to the memoirs of his life, and to his writings. In a 

 few instances he contributed to other periodical publications. 

 The prefaces and introductions to many of his volumes contained 

 some interesting and ingenious essays relative to the object of his 

 principal pursuit. He also gave a brief and general idea of 

 drawing and painting in water colour, with instructions for 

 etching on copper plates. In 1770 these miscellaneous papers 

 were collected and published in one octavo volume, the object 



