RAY. 165 



by the numerous and extensive additions made to 

 it, has become worthy of the greatest empire of mo- 

 dern times ; although, in the department of natu- 

 ral history, it is admitted to be still much inferior 

 to the National Museum of France, and, in seve- 

 ral branches of zoology, to be surpassed by many 

 collections in Britain. 



Mr Ray, who had now betaken himself to a more 

 sedentary and studious mode of life, began to suffer 

 severely in his health. His Catalogue of English 

 Plants having become scarce, he was solicited by 

 some friends to improve it for a third edition, which 

 he accordingly did; but a difference arising be- 

 tween him and the booksellers, to whom the copy- 

 right belonged, he forthwith resolved to publish it in 

 another form. In the mean time, however, to sa- 

 tisfy his friends, he printed his Fasciculus Stir- 

 pium Britannicarum, as a substitute for the Cata- 

 logue. In 1690, appeared the Synopsis Methodica 

 Stirpium Britannicarum, which may be considered 

 as the most important work on British plants that 

 has been hitherto written, with the exception of Sir 

 James Smith's English Botany, and its continuation 

 by Dr Hooker. It was farther augmented by him, 

 and reprinted in 1696, together with a description of 

 the Cryptogamic plants, which had hitherto receiv- 

 ed little attention. 



Having thus published many important works 

 on natural history, he resolved to compose another 

 in which he should unite that science with his pro- 

 per profession of divinity, and accordingly commen- 

 ced his Demonstration of the Being and Attributes 

 of the Deity, — a performance on which his popular 

 fame now principally rests. When finished he trans- 



