140 MEMOIR OF 



are in almost the same words ascribed to him 

 by the pious and impartial Itay, and also in the 

 most solemn manner reiterated in the affecting 

 prayer which he composed on the subject of his 

 death, fully justify the belief that religion was 

 the great actuating principle of his pursuits, 

 transforming them into a course of devoted 

 services to the Creator. Nor need it be dis- 

 trusted that, upon these varied excellencies, was 

 ingrafted a belief in the genuine doctrines of 

 Christianity ; since dispositions of this kind 

 constitute " the honest and good heart," in which 

 Christianity produces its most fertile and valuable 

 results, agreeably to that ever memorable declara- 

 tion of its Founder, that " if any man will do the 

 will of God, he shall know of the doctrine whether 

 it be of God." The writer would express his 

 conviction, derived from the acquaintance with 

 Mr Willughby's character which has necessarily 

 arisen during the research required by this 

 memoir, that his religious principles did not rest 

 in a mere general and indefinite acquiescence in 

 the articles of the Christian faith, but in that clear 

 and heartfelt apprehension that predominant 

 influence of them which is supposed throughout 

 the formularies of the Church of England to be 

 possessed by its members, and which those formu- 

 laries are so admirably calculated to excite and 

 cherish. The concluding observation with regard 

 to Mr Willughby, is, that his eminence as a 

 naturalist may, no doubt, be greatly ascribed to 

 the basis which was laid for it in the sound edu- 



