52 MEMOIR OF 



doctrine, the prey of the artful and designing, 

 till they ultimately become a mark for the linger 

 of scorn, or an object for the tear of pity, 

 To point a moral or adorn a tale. 



But it is time to quit this unfortunate period of 

 a life otherwise devoted to the benefit of his fellow- 

 beings. While he was in London, Sir Robert 

 Sibbald was created a fellow of the College of Phy- 

 sicians there, and he at the same time formed an 

 acquaintance with the Honourable Robert Boyle, 

 who ever after forwarded to him copies of his 

 different publications. 



Nothing more can be traced of Sibbald's per- 

 sonal history. What has baffled the inquiries of 

 Mr Maidment and Mr Laing,* two of the most 

 indefatigable and intelligent literary antiquaries of 

 Scotland, it would be vain for us to attempt to 

 supply : we can only, therefore, add a few letters 

 to Wodrow, the Church historian, on subjects con- 

 nected with Natural History, written about the 

 period of his life to which we have now arrived. 



Edin. 13t/i May, 1691. 



REVKREND SIR, I ame glad to hear from 

 Doctor Izet that you are in good health, he told 



* To Mr Laing we beg to return our best thanks for 

 kindly placing at our disposal bis curious collections relative 

 to Sibbald, which, to anyone investigating the literary and 

 antiquarian history of that time, are invaluable, but which we 

 were prevented from making much use of from the limits 

 ^to which it is necessary to reduce the present Memoir. 



