226 Notice of British Naturalists. 



nied by Willoiighby, whose various works on the subject are 

 well known, and whose fondness for nature was equal to his own. 



Of these short journies he kept journals, which were afterwards 

 published under the title of Itineraries. They contain little that 

 is of general interest ; and are curious chiefly from the account 

 which they give of the state of the roads and towns at that 

 period. 



The restoration of king Charles 11, bringing with it a return to 

 old manners and customs, and more peaceful times, Mr. Ray de- 

 termined to enter into holy orders. For this, as we have seen, 

 his previous education had been such as fully to prepare him ] 

 and in December, 1660, he was ordained both deacon and priest, 

 by Dr. Sanderson, bishop of Lincoln. He however still remained 

 at the university, engaged in his previous duties, without any 

 fixed cure of souls. In 1662, came the celebrated Bartholomew 

 act ; and as, from conscientious motives, he refused to sign the 

 declaration, he lost his fellowship and other offices. Prom what 

 sources he now derived his income does not appear. Whether 

 his father had been enabled to leave him any property, or whether 

 his previous college appointments had been so lucrative as to en- 

 rich him sufficiently, none of his biographers mention. He how- 

 ever immediately set off", with a party of three, for a scientific 

 tour upon the continent, whence he did not return till March, 

 1665 ; and till, in conjunction with Mr. Willoughby, he had col- 

 lected a large number of miscellaneous specimens of natural his- 

 tory. Then began his great labors ; and those in which the or- 

 der and strength of his mind are peculiarly perceptible. 



Bishop Wilkins had for some time previously occupied his 

 leisure in the study of botany ; and for the next two years, Ray 

 was engaged with him in classifying the plants of England ; and 

 in throwing them into a natural arrangement. With his first plan, 

 as he informs us in his preface to the Synopsis methodica Stir- 

 pium Britanfiicarum, he was not altogether satisfied ; and, as 

 was very natural on a subject so truly new, he perceived many 

 errors. In this trait, however, it is not difficult to trace the germ 

 of his future eminence. 



Far as he had proceeded beyond all previous writers, he could 

 not be contented till he had attained the utmost excellency which 

 his imagination held out before him ; and instead of sitting down 

 quietly to rest, one labor was but the precursor of another still 



