iS8 CHAPTER 14; 
his fubjeds, fubordinate to his method* 
quahties which, under the direftion of 
more Ikill in Botany, and a founder judge- 
ment in difcriminating the properties of 
fimples, might have enabled him to have 
executed more efFedtually v^hat feems to 
have been his purpofe, that of fuperfeding 
the Herbals of Gerard and Parkinson, 
in which he totally failed. His tables, 
I have noticed heretofore, in fpeaking on 
wooden cuts. But from thefe authors I 
return to writers of dignity and importance ^ 
and, with peculiar fatisfadtion, to the view, 
efpecially, of a character, from whofe pene- , 
trating genius, and perfevering induftry, not 
Botany alone, but Zoology, may date a new 
sra. On this occafion I Angularly lament, 
that I am not furnifhed with any new ma- 
terials to illuftrate the life of Ray ; of whom 
it may with truth be maintained, that in 
thefe branches of natural hiiftory, he became, 
without the patronage of an Alexander ^ the 
Arijlotk of Englaiidy and the Linn^us of the 
time. 
chap. 
