MEMOIR OF RAY. 43 



Freed from the interruptions to which he had 

 been for some time exposed, first by his duties as 

 a tutor and guardian, and more recently by his fre- 

 quent removal from one place to another, he had 

 now the happiness of being able to give that direc- 

 tion to his studies which his inclination prompted, 

 and in which he felt himself fitted to confer most 

 benefit on science. It is observed by Halle r, that 

 few have enjoyed to the same extent as Ray, 

 the rare felicity of devoting so many years uninter- 

 ruptedly to the study of a favourite subject. It 

 may be added, that still fewer have equally improved 

 the opportunities that occurred to them. The works 

 which he completed after his final settlement at Not- 

 ley are so numerous, that he may be ranked among 

 the most voluminous writers on botany ; and while 

 these, together with his publications in various de- 

 partments of zoology, have established his high re- 

 putation as a philosophical naturalist, his admirable 

 treatises on religious subjects, all tending to enforce 

 the observance of practical piety, have gained him the 

 incomparably more enviable distinction, of having 

 benefited his fellow men in the most important in- 

 terests that attach to their nature. Of the most re- 

 markable of these productions we shall now proceed 

 to give some account ; for their collective value is 

 so considerable, that they mark an important epoch 

 in the progressive history of natural knowledge. ■ 

 The Methodus Plantarum Nova issued from the 

 press in 1682. It contains Ray's first attempt to 



