| 
Notice of British Naturalists. 227 
greater. 'These errors he by degrees corrected, and laid the foun- 
dation of that natural system which was so long afterwards 
adopted. In 1667, at the age of thirty-nine, he was admitted a 
member of the Royal Society of London, at that time no small 
honor, and no little profit to the mind, as the greatest philosophers 
of the day were its active members; in 1670, he published the 
first edition of his History of British Plants. 
From this period his life passed quietly away. The man of 
science lives much by himself. He converses with nature: free 
ftom the turmoil and anxieties of the world, his days are rather 
marked by the progress of his discoveries in knowledge, than by 
any thing which can interest the general reader. He gradually 
ame more celebrated asa naturalist; and being still a person 
of most industrious habits, his writings accumulated. Among 
other subjects which engaged his attention at this time, we find 
that he was actively employed in investigating the phenomenon 
of the circulation of the sap in trees, the discovery of which was 
teserved for later times, and a deeper knowledge of the princi- 
ples of mechanical science. His writings are contained in about 
twenty volumes, They have never been collected, and many of 
them are now very scarce and difficult of attainment. Besides 
his volumes on botany, which form nine independent works, he 
edited the writings of his friend, Mr. Willoughby ; published his 
wn travels both in England and on the continent,—the most 
femarkable topic in the latter of which is his description of lock- 
&ates for canals, which appear to have been then quite novel,— 
* collection of unusual or local English words ; the same of prov- 
8; a dictionary of three languages ; a persuasion to a holy life 5 
the wisdom of God manifested in the works of creation; Physico 
* heological discourses, with practical inferences; two volumes 
® insects, and some minor volumes and papers. 
With a glance at his private life we shall conclude this sketch. 
After his return to England he appears never to have officiated 
aS a clergyman ; but to have resided where his fancy led him, or 
the Society of his friends induced him. In 1672, he met with a 
heavy affliction in the death of his old and constant friend, Mr. 
Willoughby. This gentleman left him by his will, property to 
: ~ “Mount of £60 per year, and bequeathed to his care the edu- 
“ation of his two sons. The younger one afterwards became the 
Lord Middleton, ‘Thus occupied he removed to Middleton 
