62 MEMOIR OF EAT. 



This classification possesses considerable merit 

 The praise, it is true, of assuming the metamor- 

 phoses of these animals as the basis of a natural 

 arrangement, is due to Swammerdam, but in many 

 other respects Ray has improved on the method of 

 his illustrious cotemporary. He has indicated and 

 characterized several natural groups with great accu- 

 racy ; and many of his suggestions have not been 

 without influence in leading to the present improved 

 state of entomological science. Of the imperfec- 

 tions of his arrangement no one was more fully 

 aware than himself. He laments especially the in- 

 accuracy of that part of it relating to flies, and ex- 

 presses a hope that he should soon be able to fur- 

 nish another more complete.* This expectation, 

 however, was destined never to be realized. 



His vital powers were gradually exhausted by 

 repeated attacks of disease, and he breathed his 

 last at his residence in Black Notley, on the 17th 

 January 1705. He was buried in the church-yard 

 of his native parish, where a monument was some 

 time afterwards erected to his memory, by the care 

 of Bishop Compton, and others of his friends. It 

 was inscribed with the following elegant Latin epi- 

 taph from the pen of the Rev. William Coy te, M. A* 



* Hist. Insectorum, p. 109. 



