32 MEMOIR OF RAY. 



for my own use, possibly one day that they may 

 see the light ; at present the world is glutted with 

 Dr Merret's bungling Pinax. I resolve never to 

 put out any thing which is not as perfect as it is 

 possible for me to make it. I wish you would take 

 a little pains this summer about grasses, that so we 

 might compare notes ; for I would fain clear and 

 complete their history." 



The famous work of Dr Wilkins on a universal 

 character, alluded to in the above letter, subse- 

 quently entailed on Mr Ray a great degree of labour ; 

 for he undertook, at the earnest solicitation of its 

 author, to translate it into Latin. When this labo- 

 rious task was accomplished, the manuscript was de- 

 posited in the library of the Royal Society, where it 

 has continued ever since, no one having undertaken 

 its publication. 



By this time Ray's reputation as an accomplished 

 naturalist and philosopher was fully established, and 

 he had become either the personal friend or cor- 

 respondent of all the individuals of any eminence 

 who then directed their attention to the study of 

 nature. Of these the best known to modern na- 

 turalists are Dr Martin Lister, whose works on tes- 

 taceous animals, and treatise De Araneis, are scarce- 

 ly yet surpassed for precise description and lumi- 

 nous arrangement ; Sir Hans Sloane — the Sir Joseph 

 Banks of his day — whose extensive collections and 

 valuable library (which formed, as is well known, 

 the original nucleus of the present vast assemblage 



