APPENDIX. . 489 



with gratitude and veneration to the memory of the disciple of Bacon and 

 friend of Locke, the intimate friend and contemporary of Willughby, and the 

 precursor of Haller and Linnseus. 



After toasts to " The Memory of Linnseus," and " The Improvement of 

 Natural History," 



Mr. Bicheno (Secretary to the Linnaean Society) proposed, " Prosperity 

 to the Royal Society." In giving such a toast, and in such a company, all 

 remark must be unnecessary ; still he might be allowed to say, that he pro- 

 posed it from his heart, and that he did so principally from having, in an 

 official situation in another society, experienced the good effects which 

 proceeded from its fostering care, its kindly protection, and the powerful 

 assistance it extended to other societies, especially to that to which he 

 belonged, when they had arrived at maturity. He then pronounced a warm 

 eulogy on Ray, whom Cuvier had justly called un Methodiste, and whose 

 works he had studied, still with fresh advantage, for the last twenty years. 

 Ray was indeed a methodist : he was the first who arranged the grand out- 

 lines' ^t natural history, and enabled every one to become acquainted with 

 the groups, the grand formations of nature. With the minute particulars 

 of his subject, Ray had not much interfered; but he had originated that 

 system of arrangement which gave perspicuity to the labours of others, and 

 had accurately described the character of nature's grand operations. No 

 doubt he had gathered much from Grynseus ; but still, even in the application 

 of what he had gathered, he had done a vast deal. Most ages were proud of 

 the advances they had made in science. While, however, we boasted o, 

 systematic arrangement, it should be remembered that, although the natural 

 method was too much overlooked during the latter part of the last century, 

 Ray first discovered its value. As a zoologist, he was not prepared to speak 

 of that great man; but in that branch of natural history with which he 

 might pretend to some acquaintance, he felt an admiration for his genius 

 beyond the power of language to express. 



The Chairman, on proposing " Prosperity to the Linnsean Society," gave 

 a sketch of its origin. It was, in truth, a branch of the Royal Society. It 

 had been formed on the suggestion of the late Sir Joseph Banks, in conse- 

 quence of the multiplicity of business the Royal Society had been called upon 

 to attend to. How well it had discharged its duties the scientific world well 

 knew. 



Mr. Lambert, Vice-President of the Linnsean Society, returned thanks; and 



Mr. E. Forster, Vice-President and Treasurer, said, that born and educated 

 in the same county with Ray, he had been taught from his infancy to admire 

 that great man ; and his admiration soon became veneration, from a study 

 of his writings. Nearly forty years ago he had first visited his tomb, before 

 it had long since undergone a repair at the expense of a gentleman present 

 (Sir Thomas Gery Cullum). In his pilgrimages to Ray's tomb,* he had felt 



* It has lately been repaired again by Mr. Walker, the rector of Black 

 Notley. Mr. Tyson, in a letter to Mr. Cole, 1779, says, "One part of my 

 ramble was to visit the last residence of that pious philosopher, Mr. Ray, 

 Black Notley, con amore. I made a drawing of the church, and of his monu- 

 ment in the churchyard. The parish clerk had such remembrance of him 

 from others, that he related various incidents. The clerk pointed out to me 

 the farm-house which was once his dwelling. I there saw his library (that 

 is, the room which once contained his books), and bis garden below it, 

 about an acre of ground. Here the father of English naturalists lived em- 

 ployed and happy." 



