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MEMOllIALS or RAY : 



which he himself had gathered rather for his own use 

 than with any immediate view of pubhcation. "At pre- 

 sent," as he wrote to Dr. Lister, the world is glutted with 

 Dr. Merret's bungling ' Pinax/ I resolve never to put out 

 any thing which is not as perfect as is possible for me to 

 make it. T wish you would take a little pains this 

 summer about grasses, that so we might compare notes." 

 The above resolution of our author is no doubt highly 

 commendable, but the world has rather to lament that so 

 many able men have formed the same determination, at 

 least in natural science. If it were universally adhered 

 to scarcely any work would see the light ; for few can be 

 so sensible of the defects of any other person's attempt to 

 illustrate the works of nature as a man of tolerable judg- 

 ment must be of his own. This is especially the case 

 with those, who like Ray, direct their aspiring views to- 

 wards system and philosophical theory. Happily he did 

 not try this arduous path till he had trained himself by 

 wholesome practical discipline in observation and ex- 

 perience. His first botanical works assumed the humble 

 form of alphabetical catalogues. His and Mr. Willughby's 

 labours in the service of Bishop Wilkins were indeed of a 

 systematical description, and accordingly the authors 

 themselves were more than any other persons probably 

 dissatisfied with their performance. They relaxed from 

 these labours in a tour of practical observation through the 

 West of England, as far as the Land's End, in the summer 

 of 1667, and returning by London, Mr. Ray was solicited 

 to become a Eellow of the Royal Society, into which 

 learned body he was admitted November 7 th. Being 

 now requested by his friend Wilkins to translate the 

 ' Real Character' into Latin, he undertook, and by degrees 

 accomplished that arduous performance ; depositing his 

 manuscript in the library of the Royal Society, where it 

 has ever since reposed. The following summer was agree- 

 ably spent in visits to various literary friends, and in a 

 solitary journey to the north, for his former companion 

 Willughby, being just married, staid at home ; there 



