36 MEMOIR OF RAY. 



licate state of his health. The conditions he con- 

 sidered liberal, and the manner in which he expresses 

 himself regarding them, affords an example of that dif- 

 fidence and humility which were conspicuous in his 

 character. " Ego certe meipsum tali negotio imparem 

 et minus idoneum judico; nee si idoneus essem, puto 

 me tantam mercedem aut stipendium mereri posse. 

 Centum librae annuatim offeruntur, necessariis om- 

 nibus expensis etiam persolutis."* 



In the year 1672, Ray sustained an irreparable 

 loss by the premature death of Mr Willughby. 

 They had been fellow-collegians at Trinity College, 

 and the acquaintanceship there formed, was speedily 

 matured by community of tastes and pursuits into the 

 most intimate and endearing friendship. Possessed 

 of ample fortune, family influence, and high mental 

 endowments, Mr Willughby might have attained to 

 some of the most envied objects to which ambition 

 aspires ; but his disposition led him to prefer the 

 tranquil enjoyments that flow from the investigation 

 of nature, and the cultivation of the generous affec- 

 tions and contemplative habits which that study is 

 calculated to promote. The zeal with which he 

 laboured, is sufficiently evinced by what he accom- 

 plished during his short life ; and had Providence 

 spared him to complete the extensive designs he 

 had formed, his name would have occupied a most 

 conspicuous place in the annals of science. The 



* Philosophical Letters, p. 72. 



