492 APPENDIX. 



to belong. The labours of Lister, Plot, and Ashmole, of Lloyd, and of 

 Robert Boyle, and the establishment of the Botanic Garden and of the Ash- 

 molean Museum, mark in our University the burst of a kindred flame to that 

 which Ray had excited in the sister University, and laid in Oxford the 

 foundation of that right method of investigation, and of making collections 

 in natural history, which have been transmitted to our own time. In the 

 department of science to which my own attention is peculiarly directed, the 

 genius of Ray had made advances that would do honour to the present day. 

 In his 'Treatise on the Wisdom of God in the Creation,' he points out 

 examples of design and utility in the form and structure and composition of 

 our planet, founded on extensive and accurate observation of facts, and illus- 

 trated with sound argument, mixed with much good feeling and good sense. 

 And in his ' Discourses on Chaos, Creation, and Deluge,' there is a know- 

 ledge of many phenomena of the earth's surface, the discovery of which the 

 present generation are too apt to consider as exclusively their own : that 

 important and leading doctrine of the Huttonian theorv, which attributes 

 the elevation of islands, mountains, and continents to the force of vapour 

 acting from below, is set forth in words that form almost an exact parallel 

 to the statements of the same theory in Playfair's ' Illustrations ;' the theory 

 in neither case was new ; it was, indeed, handed down from high antiquity, 

 but it is illustrated by Ray with such abundant arguments and examples, 

 derived from the effects of earthquakes and volcanoes which in his time 

 raged so terribly in Jamaica, and with such copious and judicious references 

 to the authentic records of the elevation of Thera, Therasia, and other vol- 

 canic islands, that the essence and leading features of much that has been 

 written since, on the theory of elevation and disturbance by subterranean 

 vapours, have been anticipated by Ray. His remarks on the ' Structure of 

 Mountains,' as containing and affording access to metallic veins, their influence 

 on climate, and use in collecting clouds for the formation of rain and production 

 of rivers ; his observations also on the general diffusion of springs, and their 

 never-failing supply of water, as derived from rains and dews, show much 

 accurate observation, and point out correct conclusions which have been 

 often repeated, but rarely surpassed, by his followers on these subjects. 



"In another curious and extensive branch of geological inquiry which 

 relates to the history of fossil shells, he contended (in opposition to the pre- 

 vailing theories of his predecessors and of many of his contemporaries) that 

 they were not accidental results of the plastic power and the sport of nature, 

 but the real and true exuviae of animals that formerly inhabited them. He 

 contended further, that these shells for the most part belong to species un- 

 known in our existing waters, but recommends caution iu pronouncing them 

 to be absolutely extinct until we know the contents of the bottoms of all our 

 deepest seas. Can it be said that modern geology has advanced on this point 

 much further than Ray? 



" Again, with respect to the prevailing taste and studies of his time, he 

 complains that men are too much occupied in the study of words, and too 

 regardless of the study of things ; exclusively absorbed, in attending to the 

 works of the creature, and regardless of the woi-ks of the Creator ; admiring 

 and collecting carved ivory and curious instruments of human invention, but 

 insensible of the exquisite and ten thousand times more admirable mechanism 



" He complains further, that men are too much disposed to rely on the 

 authority of others, and too little willing to undertake the labour of investi- 

 gating nature for themselves ; he stimulates them to exertion by the hope of 

 useful discoveries, any one of which may amply reward the labours of a life. 



