APPENDIX. 493 



" Such were the feelings and such the principles by which his energetic 

 soul was ever actuated; such the exertions to which he called on his con- 

 temporaries; constant and strenuous exertions to extend the sphere of 

 human knowledge and useful discovery, and thereby advance the welfare of 

 mankind. And surrounded as I now am by a host of individuals, the most 

 illustrious members of the numerous learned and philosophical societies 

 which in our day have arisen to adorn and benefit our country, I feel that 

 you all not only sympathise with me in admiration of the great example he 

 has set us, but yourselves rejoice to follow in those paths of useful labour 

 which Ray not only pointed out, but was himself indefatigable to pursue. 

 To do just honour to the memory of so great and good a man is the object 

 of this day : a man whom as an individual we must ever esteem, love, and 

 venerate, and whose name the annals of philosophy will never cease to record 

 among the first founders and benefactors of natural science." 



On giving " The University of Cambridge," the Chairman took notice of 

 the expulsion of Ray from that University, which harsh act he was disposed 

 to attnJuite to the persecuting spirit which raged without the walls of that 

 learned seminary. He could say of many of the present members of Trinity 

 College, that they regret that the violence of the times had compelled their 

 predecessors to acquiesce in the retirement of Mr. Ray from his fellowship, 

 for refusing to subscribe a declaration altogether unwarrantable. Oxford 

 had as much to answer for in regard to her treatment of Mr. Locke. 



The Rev. Professor Henslow returned thanks. He remarked that the 

 University of Cambridge had, so far as the marble or the canvas could make 

 amends, endeavoured to atone for the little, or, he should rather say, the 

 great, injustice which Mr. Ray had sustained. The bust of that great man 

 was ranged by the side of those of Newton, Boyle, Barrow, Dryden, and 

 Willughby ; and his portrait was considered to confer honour on the place 

 in which it was. But Cambridge might with justice boast of possessing a 

 far more powerful proof than those of the estimation in which it held the 

 genius and conduct of Ray. His spirit still lived there : and although the 

 study of natural history had not yet been brought to that degree of perfec- 

 tion there which it might be, he hoped the day was not far off when it would 

 command general attention : such pursuits he considered the best correctives 

 of fanaticism and bigotry. 



" The Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and London," and the healths 

 of Baron Humboldt and Dr. Wollaston having been severally drunk, the 

 Chairman retired, amidst the applauses of the company. 



The health of Mr. Children, who suggested the commemoration, was then 

 given with hearty approbation, and the company separated, after having 

 spent a day which they will long remember with delight. 



