74 Translation of Ray' a Essiij/x 



regret, that he never did that extraordinary man the justice of mention- 

 ing his name, either in his papers read before the Academy of Sciences, 

 or in his Elements of Chemistry, published in 1789. This, probably, pro- 

 ceeded from his considering Rey's opinions as mere speculations (see the 

 preceding note) ; the reader will judge, whether they deserved no higher 

 praise. How ready Lavoisier was to do justice to his cotemporarjes, may 

 be o-athered from his conduct towards Doctor Priestley, respecting the dis- 

 covery of oxygen gas ; and it will hardly be considered an uncharitable 

 inference, if we suspect something of the same spirit to have influenced 

 him with regard to Jean Rey. 



The following translation is from the copy of 1630. I have endeavoured 

 to keep as close to the style of the original as I could, and perhaps the 

 reader may sometimes think I had better have been less curious in my 

 attempts to imitate its quaintness. He will too, occasionally, find the 

 matter redundant, and the argument tedious. I once proposed to abridge 

 it, but better judgments preferred giving it in its entire form, as a work, 

 when divested of the rude philosophy of the day, of unquestionable genius 

 and singular penetration, and one which, if not itself the real basis of 

 modern chemistry, contains at least, such principles, that, had they 

 been duly appreciated and followed up from the instant of their promul- 

 gation, could hardly have failed, long since, to have raised the science 

 to an equal, or, perhaps, even a greater, height than that which it at pre- 

 sent holds. 



The re-print contains an Avertissem£nt, parts of which I have thought 

 worth inserting, as well as a letter of M, Bayen to the Abbd Rozier. — 

 The first gives a short account of Rey, and mentions some facts which 

 shew his work to have been well known and highly esteemed by Professor 

 Spielman of Strasbourg, as late as the year 1766, and to have been ho- 

 nourably spoken of by M. de Bordeu, circumstances which make Lavoi- 

 sier's ignorance of its existence still more extraordinary. , 



J. G. Children. 



ADVEKTISEMENT. 



" John Rey, M.D., was a native of Bugue, on the Dordogne, 

 in the dependencies of the Barony of Lymeil, a city of the 

 province of Perigord, situated above the confluence of the 

 Dordogne with the Viz6re, and belonging to the Duke de 

 Bouillon, to whom his Essays are dedicated. It is not 

 known in what university John Rey look his Doctor's degree, 

 but he tells us he had a brother of the same name, the proprie- 



