68 MEMOIR OF RAY. 



only take into account the vast increment of know- 

 ledge which resulted to natural history from his la- 

 bours, but also the discredit from which he rescued 

 the study. Even the history of the higher animals, 

 though bearing so directly on the interests of life, 

 was held in little repute, while the lower tribes 

 were regarded as too insignificant to merit or justify 

 attention. This was particularly the case in rela- 

 tion to insects and other " creeping things," the 

 examination of which was considered as egregious 

 trifling, and deserving of nothing but ridicule and 

 contempt. To such an extent did this prejudice 

 prevail, that on one occasion an attempt was made 

 to set aside the will of a Lady Glanville, on the 

 ground of lunacy, because she had shown a strong 

 partiality for insects, and Ray had to appear on the 

 day of trial to bear testimony to her sanity ! By 

 his means, however, even the most disreputable of 

 these studies was placed in a proper light, and in- 

 vested with the dignity of a philosophical pursuit ; 

 and although it was not till a remotely subsequent 

 period that many of them were cultivated with that 

 zeal which their intrinsic interest is fitted to inspire, 

 yet a feeling was produced in favour of all, when 

 they were seen to form the favourite occupation of 

 a mind which had asserted its superiority in the 

 most approved walks of learning, and which did not 

 disdain to exercise its matured faculties in contem- 

 plating the lowest and most despised of nature's 

 productions, even at a time when all earthly inte- 



