CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 11 



need not provoke your diligence and industry in this 

 matter to make all inquiries where you come after any- 

 thing that may do her good. The compassion of your 

 natiu-e will prompt you to so charitable a work ; she is a 

 person of some quality, and I am sure will have a due 

 sense of her obligations to you. The sickness last week 

 at London was but 28, God be praised. 



March 13tli, 1661. 



Mr. LiSTEB* to Mr. Weat. 

 M. Lister D. Wray suo, S. D. 



De Historia naturali Aristotehs ita censeo, eum homi- 

 nem Philosophum prseclare agere ; sed egregius vir 

 minime satisfacit tantis facidtatibus atque adjumentis, 

 quorum meminit Plinius ei prsestita fuisse ab Alexandre. 

 Certe in his praecipue rebus, quibus me quotidie exerceo, 

 turpissime ilium errare deprehendo, neque sane id mirum 

 cum prseclarissimus author summum suum ingenium con- 

 sulere maluit, quam res ipsas. Illud manifestum, eum 

 paucissimis experimentis fuisse contentum ut immensam 

 structuram exsedificaret. De Plinio tu mihi abunde satis- 

 fecisti superioribus tuis literis ; adeoque tuum judicium a 

 diligentissima lectione vehementer complector approbo- 

 que. Ad nostros homines venio, quorum, in primis inge- 

 niosissimus juxta ac diligentissimus scriptor Aldrovandus 

 (nam Albertum, Cardanum cseterosque id genus homines 

 stomachor valde, quod me plane operam perdidisse sentio, 

 quam iis evolvendis dederim; nisi quod id profecerim, 

 quam licere homines doctissimos ineptire, qui ultra appa- 

 ratum velint Philosophari). Sed ad Aldrovandum redeo, 

 virum sane mirificum, cui tamen segre fero istos locos 

 suos communes; mallem equidem substituisset corollas 

 de suo seque dignas, sed id moris est hominum, im- 

 mensam lectionem et industriam ostentare malumus, quam 



* Memorials, p. 17. 



