FRANCIS WILLUGHBY. 115 



In favour of the opinion that Mr Ray is the 

 author of the system, either wholly or partially, 

 we have Mr Ray's own most positive statement, 

 that when he came to look over Mr Willughby's 

 MSS. he " found the several animals in every 

 kind ; both birds, beasts, fishes, and insects, 

 digested into a method of his own contriving" 

 This statement is perfectly consistent with Dr 

 Derham's account of his interview with Mr Ray, 

 a few months only before his death ; and in 

 which Dr Derham, speaking " of the noble and 

 useful design which by agreement between Mr 

 WiJlughhy and Mr Ray, fell to Mr Willughby's 

 share, which was despatching the history of 

 animals ; of which design," he continues, " it 

 may not be improper here to give some account, 

 which I shall do, as I had it from Mr Ray him- 

 self.' 9 He then proceeds to say, that " these two 

 gentlemen, finding the history of nature very 

 imperfect, had agreed between themselves, before 

 their travels beyond seas, to reduce the several 

 tribes of things to a method, and to give accurate 

 descriptions of the several species from a strict 

 view of them. And forasmuch as Mr Willughby's 

 genius lay chiefly to animals, therefore he under- 

 took the birds, beasts, fakes, and insects, as Mr 

 Ray did the vegetables." It is also perfectly con- 

 sistent with Mr Ray's statement in the preface 

 to the Ornithology, (the reader's impartiality 

 will lead him to pardon the requotation of these 

 passages, which is in this instance for a different 

 purpose from the preceding,) that Mr Wil-- 



