RAY AND WILLUGHBY. 



THE seventeenth century has been characterised of 

 course from the point of view of a naturalist as 

 ' the dawn of the Golden Age.' The torch of zoo- 

 logical discovery lighted by Aristotle, after flickering 

 fitfully in the hands of his successors for a space, had 

 become extinguished, and the entire domain of natural 

 history had for centuries lain shrouded under the thick 

 darkness of the middle ages. With the commencement 

 of the sixteenth century, the natural sciences participated 

 in the general revival of learning which signalised this 

 period in the history of Europe. Even at the present 

 day, Belon, Rondeletius, and Gesner are something more 

 than merely the shadows of names. In Britain the first 

 pioneers in the renewed exploration of the world of life 

 were little more than mere compilers. The seventeenth 

 century, however, gave origin in Britain to a cluster of emi- 

 nent men who devoted themselves to the study of zoology 

 and botany, and who for the time being placed England 

 in the first rank as regards the advancement of natural 

 science. The two names which stand out foremost in this 



