144) Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



also the place of his birtli, the church in which he had been baptized ; 

 and in entering the house in which this good man had lived and died, 

 it was pleasing to reflect that he was treading the very boards which 

 Ray had trodden, and that he was looking perhaps on trees and 

 plants which Ray had admired. The Linnaean Society was proud of 

 being thought so nearly connected with the chief labours of Ray : but 

 that great philosopher ought not to be considered merely as a botanistj 

 we must look on his character as a man. " His religion was pure, 

 and free from cant ; his piety sincere, and without affectation ; his 

 morality consistent, and his manners gentle, affable and kind to those 

 around him." One proof only of his integrity need be mentioned, 

 his having resigned his fellowship ; and, though reduced to poverty, 

 refused all further preferment in the Church, because he would not de- 

 clare that those who had sworn the solemn league and covenant 

 might break their oaths ; not that he had himself signed it, for he 

 thought it an unlawful oath ; — yet he could not conscientiously make 

 the declaration required. 



" Prosperity to the Geological Society," having been given ; — the 

 President (Dr. Fitton) in returning thanks, stated his concurrence 

 in all that had been said respecting the great merit of Ray as a na- 

 turalist, and the excellence of his private character. Ray was in 

 fact, he said, an honest man ; — he gave up station and emolument 

 rather than swear to what he did not believe ; — and if such exam- 

 ples of integrity were not found amongst those who devote them- 

 selves to the pursuit of truth, where else, he would ask, should they 

 be looked for ? — In Geology, Ray made many sagacious observa- 

 tions, and entertained some opinions much beyond the state of the 

 subject in his own time. — But our chairman had justly stated, that 

 Geology, as a distinct branch of knowledge, had not then obtained 

 a name ; and in fact it supposes such an advanced state of scientific 

 inquiry, that it scarcely could have existed, till a much later pe- 

 riod. The geologist, it is true, is in a great measure nothing more 

 than a physical geographer, — and all that constitutes his exclusive 

 business lies within a very narrow compass; — but he requires a 

 high degree of cultivation in several other departments of inquiry 

 with which his own is allied, — especially in chemistry, zoology, and 

 botany ; — for what without these would be Geology at the present 

 day? — Instead of regretting this state of dependence, he was 

 rather disposed to rejoice at it, since it tended to produce more 

 frequent intercourse with those who are engaged in the pursuit of 

 other branches of natural science ; so that when he looked about 

 him in such an assembly as the present one, he felt that he was sur- 

 rounded with benefactors ; and great as the merit of Ray unques- 

 tionably was, as an original observer of the earth's structure, he 

 was disposed to rate still more highly the services he liad ren- 

 dered toGeology, by contributing to the perfection of those other de- 

 saw his library (that is, tlic room which once contained his books.), and his 

 garden below it, — about an acre of ground. Here the father of English 

 Naturalists Hved employed and happy.'' 



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