Notice of British Naturalists. 227 



greater. These errors he by degrees corrected, and laid the foun- 

 dation of that natural system which was so long afterwards 

 adopted. In 1667, at the age of thirty-nine, he was admitted a 

 member of the Royal Society of London, at that time no small 

 honor, and no httle profit to the mind, as the greatest philosophers 

 of the day were its active members ; in 1670, he published the 

 first edition of his History of British Plants. 



From this period his life passed quietly away. The man of 

 science lives much by himself. He converses with nature : free 

 from the turmoil and anxieties of the world, his days are rather 

 marked by the progress of his discoveries in knowledge, than by 

 any thing which can interest the general reader. He gradually 

 became more celebrated as a naturalist ; and being still a person 

 of most industrious habits, his writings accumulated. Among 

 other subjects which engaged his attention at this time, we find 

 that he was actively employed in investigating the phenomenon 

 of the circulation of the sap in trees, the discovery of which was 

 reserved for later times, and a deeper knowledge of the princi- 

 ples of mechanical science. His writings are contained in about 

 twenty volumes. They have never been collected, and many of 

 them are now very scarce and difficult of attainment. Besides 

 his volumes on botan^r, which form nine independent works, he 

 edited the writings of his friend, Mr. Willoughby ; published his 

 own travels both in England and on the continent, — the most 

 remarkable topic in the latter of which is his description of lock- 

 gates for canals, which appear to have been then quite novel, — 

 a collection of unusual or local English words ; the same of prov- 

 erbs ; a dictionary of three languages ; a persuasion to a holy life ; 

 the wisdorn of God manifested in the works of creation ; Physico 

 Theological discourses, with practical inferences ; two volumes 

 on insects, and some minor volumes and papers. 



With a glance at his private life we shall conclude this sketch. 



After his return to England he appears never to have officiated 

 as a clergyman ; but to have resided where his fancy led him, or 

 the society of his friends induced him. In 1672, he met with a 

 heavy affliction in the death of his old and constant friend, Mr. 

 Willoughby. This gentleman left him by his will, property to 

 the amount of £60 per year, and bequeathed to his care the edu- 

 cation of his two sons. The younger one afterwards became the 

 first Lord Middleton. Thus occupied he removed to Middleton 



