52 
MEMOIR OF 
doctrine, the prey of the artful and designing, 
till they ultimately become a mark for the finger 
of scorn, or an object for the tear of pity, 
To point a moral or adorn a tale. 
But it is time to quit this unfortunate period of 
a life otherwise devoted to the benefit of his fellow- 
beings. While he was in London, Sir Robert 
Sibbald was created a fellow of the College of Phy- 
sicians there, and he at the same time formed an 
acquaintance with the Honourable Robert Boyle, 
who ever after forwarded to him copies of his 
different publications. 
Nothing more can be traced of Sibbald’s per- 
sonal history. What has baffled the inquiries of 
Mr Maidment and Mr Laing,* — two of the most 
indefatigable and intelligent literary antiquaries of 
Scotland, — it would be vain for us to attempt to 
supply : we can only, therefore, add a few letters 
to Wodrow, the Church historian, on subjects con- 
nected with Natural History, written about the 
period of his life to which we have now arrived. 
Edin. 13 th May, 1691. 
Reverend Sir, — I ame glad to hear from 
Doctor Izet that you are in good health, he told 
* To Mr Laing we beg to return our best thanks for 
kindly placing at our disposal his curious collections relative 
to Sibbald, which, to anyone investigating the literary and 
antiquarian history of that time, are invaluable, but which we 
were prevented from making much use of from the limits 
to which it is necessary to reduce the present Memoir. 
