RAY. 



evitable afpcrities were foreign to liis nnture. We mufl not 

 omit to notice tliat, in the preface to both editions of his 

 Synods, the learned author, venerable for his charafter, 

 his talents, and his profcffion, as well as by his noble ad- 

 herence to principle in the moll corrupt times, has taken 

 occafion to congratulate his country, and to pour out his 

 grateful effufions to Divine Providence, in a Ityle worthy 

 of Milton, for the cftablifhmcnt of religion, law, and li- 

 berty, by the revolution which placed king William on the 

 throne. An honell Englilhman, however retired in his 

 habits and his purfuits, could not have withheld this tribute 

 at fuch a time ; nor was any loyalty ever more pcrfonally 

 difmterelted than that of Ray. 



The year 1690 was the date of the iirft publication of 

 his noble work on " The Wildom of God in the Creation," 

 of wliich we have already fpoken, and whole fale, through 

 many editions, was very extenfive. In 1700 he printed a 

 book, more exclufively within the fjjhere of his facred pro- 

 feffion, called " A Perfuaiive to an Holy Life;" a rare 

 performance of the kind, at that day, as it would be at the 

 prefent ; being devoid of enthufiafm, myflicifni, or cant, as 

 well as of religious bigotry or party fpirit, " and employ- 

 ing the plain and fohd arguments of reafon, for the bell of 

 purpofes." His three " Phyfico-Theological Difcourfes, 

 concerning the Chaos, Deluge, and Diifolution of the 

 World," of which the original materials had been colledled 

 and prepared formerly at Cambridge, came out in 1692, 

 and were reprinted the following yeai\ A third edition, 

 fuperintended by Derham, was publiflicd in 17 13. This 

 able editor took up the fame fubjcft himfelf in a fimilar per- 

 formance, the materials of which, like Ray's, were firft 

 delivered in fermons, at Bow church, he having been ap- 

 pointed reader of Mr. Boyle's leftures. 



While Ray was from time to time intent on thefe moral and 

 religious performances, in which he laboured equally to im- 

 prefc and elucidate the truths of natural and revealed religion, 

 as well as to enforce its precepts and duties, he was no lels at- 

 tentive than formerly to his fyltematical lludies. Dr. Tancred 

 Robinfon is recorded by Derham, as having firft pi-ompted 

 our great naturalift, to undertake a Synopfis Methodica, or 

 claffic.Hl arrangement, of the whole animal, as he had done 

 of the vegetable, kingdom. He even wilhed him to extend 

 his attention to foffils, anticipating, in fhort, what Linnaeus 

 afterwards performed. Nor did he lliriuk from the talk. 

 Though now for fome time oppreffed with bodily infirmity, 

 and particularly with very troublefome ulcers in his legs, 

 his mind was tranquil and unimpaired. He foon finilhed 

 his Synopfis Methodica An'tmal'ntm Qiiadrupedum et Serpentini 

 Generis, which came out in 1693, making a thin, but clofely 

 printed, oftavo volume. We have already fpoken of the 

 originality of his method. The volume in qaeilion, how- 

 ever, is not confined to dry fyltematical arrangement. It 

 enters deeply into the general and particular hillory of ani- 

 mals, their external forms, and internal Itrufture, with 

 abundance of entertaining and curious fads and obferva- 

 tions. Linnxus was polTeffed of this book from the year 

 1734, and appears to have ftudied it well. A fimilar 

 volume on birds, and another on filhes, were prepared by 

 the author ; but the maiuifcripts of thefe lay negleCted in 

 the hands of fome carelefs or ignorant bookieller, till 

 they were difcovered by Dr. Derham, and publilhed in 

 1713. They contain more of particular defcriptions and 

 hiftories, than of general remarks ; but otherwile accord 

 with the plan of the Synopfis of Quadrupeds. Many 

 things are fupplied from materials obtamed fince the publi- 

 cation of Willughby's Ornithology and Ichthyology, and 

 ffvcral figures of fifhes wrre added by Derham, at the 



perfuafion of Petiver, whofe works they fomc-what re. 

 fcmble. 



Having accompliflicd fo many great and laborious publi- 

 cations, our venerable naturalill began, as Dr. Derham in- 

 forms us, to enjoy the thoughts of repofing from his 

 labours. He was neverthclefs ready, at the call of hii 

 friends, to revife a tranilation of Rauwolf's Travels, the 

 original having even then become very fcarce, befides be- 

 ing unintelligible to mere Englifii readers. This tranflation, 

 vvilli fome other rare trafts annexed, and a catalogue of 

 Grecian, Syrian, Egyjjtian, and Cretan plants, drawn up 

 by Mr. Ray, iffucd from the prefs in 1693. See Rau- 

 W01.11A. 



Poffibly the Slirpium Europaanim extra Brittwnias nafcen- 

 lium Sylloge, vvhicli appeared in 1694, originated in the 

 author's attention being recalled, by the laft-menlioned pub- 

 lication, to tlie contemplation of exotic plants. In this 

 volume he coUefts from Clufius, Bauhin, Columna, and 

 others, various additions to his own difcoveries, and the 

 whole are dilpoled in alphabetical order. A geographical 

 view of the plants, which he had himfelf gathered in his 

 foreign travels, is fubjoined ; and the volume concludes 

 with alphabetical catalogues, felefted from Boccone's Sici- 

 lian plants, and other recent authors. It is in the preface 

 to this book, that he firft adverts to the fyftem of Rivinus, 

 not without juft applaufe of that author's work, a copy of 

 wliich had been prefcntcd to Ray. He commends the apt 

 diihibution of the genera, the clearnefs and concifenefs of 

 the ftyle, the purity of the Latin, and the beauty as well 

 as exaftnefs of the plates. He, however, contends for 

 the ancient diftinftion of plants into trees and herbs, which, 

 as we have feen, he had himfelf mentioned as unphilofo- 

 phical. In the reft of his criticifms, though " much may 

 be faid on both fides," and though thefe controverfialilts, 

 hke others, profit of the intricacies and anomalies of Nature, 

 to make good their arguments, concealing themfelves, like 

 the cuttle-fifti, in their ink ; ilill we cannot but give our 

 tellimony to the greater folidity of Ray's principles, as de- 

 rived from the fruits and feeds of plants, than to the feem- 

 ingly more elegant ones of Rivinus, deduced from the 

 flower ; which lail undoubtedly lead, in their praftical ap- 

 plication, to fome paradoxical combinations. But on this 

 fubjeft we may fay more in its proper place. (See Rivi- 

 nus.) In this preface Ray points out the importance and 

 >ife of the ftamens and piilils, fuccinftly explaining the 

 fexual dodlrine, as now univerfally admitted. 



One advantage arofe from the epiftolary altercation of Ri- 

 vinus and Ray, that it led the latter to revife his own fyftem, 

 and to republifh it, in an improved Hate. Happy if fuch 

 were more generally the fruit of contention, that each party- 

 fliould correA himfelf, inftead of aggravating the defeils of 

 his adverfary. Some notice is taken, in the preface to this 

 edition, both of the fyftem of Tournefort and that of Her- 

 mann, which laft was moft congenial to the principles of 

 Ray. The work was finifticd m 1698, but not given to the 

 public till 1703, recourfe having been had to a Dutch book- 

 feller, who thought It for his intereft to place an Englifh 

 pubhfher's name in the title-page ; a proceeding which, 

 however harmlefs, (hocked the honeft feelings of the au- 

 thor ; and this perhaps excited the thrifty Hollander's fur- 

 prize. By his exertions, however, the book, and the fame 

 of its author, became more widely diffufed, and continental 

 botanifts were much further initiated into Ray's fyftem than 

 they had previoufly been. 



But now the mortal career of this eminent man was draw- 



ing towards a clofe. He complained in his letters, that, fo 



far from being able to vifit the London gardens, as he wilhed, 



3 P 2 in 



