118 MLM01R OF 



Upon the due consideration of these several 

 circumstances, and upon consulting more exten- 

 sively the preface to the English edition to the 

 ornithology, the reader will be enabled to judge 

 of the correctness of Dr Smith's assertion, who, 

 in the same introductory discourse already 

 quoted, says, p. 18, " Indeed, Ray was so partial 

 to the fame of his departed friend, and has 

 cherished his memory with such affectionate care, 

 that we are in danger of attributing too much to 

 Mr Willughby, and too little to himself;" and 

 also of his still stronger statement in his life of 

 Hay, in llees's Cyclopedia, in which he 

 " Even to his own prejudice he fulfilled the 

 sacred duties of friendship, and delighted in 

 adorning the bust of his friend with wreaths 

 that he himself might justly have assumed." 



It seems obvious that these suppositions 

 involve for their truth a degree of weakness, both 

 of intellect and feeling, or of sycophancy also, 

 on the part of Hay, utterly inconsistent with his 

 well known character. The powers of his mind 

 were too great to admit of the conjecture that he 

 mistook the distinction between his own merits 

 and those of another ; and, though his heart was 

 eminently grateful, yet its emotions must ever 

 have been too far regulated by the convictions 

 of his understanding, to have betrayed him into 

 so egregious and fruitless an error, as to have 

 fallacious!}' transferred imaginary excellencies 

 even to his most esteemed friend ; while tho 

 suspicion of any interested motive cannot rest 



