RAY. 169 



one skill or perfection with much ignorance and in- 

 firmity." 



This book obtaining general approbation, the im- 

 pression, which consisted of 500 copies, was quickly 

 sold off. A new edition was therefore published, 

 and several others succeeded. Encouraged by this 

 success, he prepared for the press his Three Physi- 

 co-theological Discourses, concerning the Chaos, De- 

 luge, and Dissolution of the World, the substance 

 of which had been embodied in some sermons 

 which he preached before the university. This 

 work has also gone through several editions. In 

 the opinion of the illustrious Cuvier, it affords ^' a 

 system of geology as plausible as any of those which 

 had appeared at this period, or for a long time after- 

 wards;" and if it contain facts and arguments 

 which are not now admitted as accurate or conclu- 

 sive, this, with our experience of like defects in other 

 theories, should teach us to moderate our zeal in 

 defending any hypothesis elicited from the partial 

 examination of that complex system, which, being 

 the work of infinite power and wisdom, cannot be 

 thoroughly understood by minds constituted like 

 ours. 



In one of these works is an estimate of the num- 

 ber of animals and plants known in Ray's time, to 

 which it is of importance that we should advert, as 

 it furnishes an interesting fact in the history of 

 science. According to the author's classification, 

 animate bodies are divided into four orders, " beasts, 

 birds, fishes, and insects." The number of beasts ^ 

 including also serpents, that had been accurately de- 

 scribed, he estimates at not above 150, adding that, 

 according to his belief, " not many, that are of 



