FRANCIS WILLUGHBY. 135 



to assist others to climb the steepy ascent to use- 

 fulness, unencumbered, who otherwise might have 

 " waged with fortune an eternal war."* 



The annals of science are indeed replenished 

 with the names of many persons of this class in 

 society, who have acknowledged and acted on 

 the duty arising from the possession of wealth, 

 in one at feast, and often, like Mr Willughby, in. 

 both of the modes now adverted to. It were to 

 be wished that Mr Ray's intention, partly, at 

 least, in eating the works of Mr Willughby, and 

 writing his life, may be more extensively accom- 

 plished ; which, next to doing him right, by pro- 

 curing him the honour due to his memory, was 

 " to provoke young gentlemen of this nation, by 

 the proposal of so illustrious an example of their 

 own rank, to prosecute the study of ingenious 

 literature, and to aspire to true honour by the 

 constant exercise of virtue."f It is also equally 



* Beattie's Minstrel. 



t It may be allowed to record an instance in which such 

 an effect was produced. It is that of the naturalist Pen- 

 nant, born 1726, who, like Mr Willughby, was of illus- 

 trious descent, and whose father was a wealthy old 

 English gentleman. He tells us that " a present of the 

 Ornithology of Francis Willughby, made to me when 

 I was about twelve years of age, by my kinsman, the lata 

 John Salisbury, Esq. first gave me a taste for that study, 

 and incidentally a love for that of Natural History in 

 general, which I have since pursued with my constitu- 

 tional ardour." Speaking of his Arctic Zoology, he says, 

 "This work was begun a great many years past, when 

 the empire of Great Britain was entire, and possessed tha 



