FRANCIS WILLUGHBY. 
57 
other attainments by his knowledge in Natural 
Philosophy ; and that his motive in “ migrating” 
from that College to Trinity, after a residence of 
about a year and three quarters, was, that at the 
latter College, “ the politer arts and sciences” 
were much more cultivated than at the former, 
where they chiefly addicted themselves to dis- 
putations. 
It may, therefore, be probable that Mr Ray’s 
early acquired and deeply cherished taste for the 
pursuits of science might have served to awaken 
similar inclinations in the mind of his friend Mr 
Willughby. There is also positive proof, that 
while at Cambridge, as well as in after life, they 
often examined, and searched, and explored 
together, and as will shortly be seen, that Mr 
Willughby, with others, assisted Mr Ray in his 
botanical investigations. It may also be inferred, 
from Mr Ray’s superiority in years and know*- 
ledge, that Mr Willughby might have, on their 
first acquaintance, derived from him much skill 
and information ; yet all this is not sufficient to 
justify the assertion, that Mr Willughby was Mr 
Ray’s pupil, — an assertion made inadvertently in 
the first instance, and no doubt, afterwards, inad- 
vertently copied.* 
It may now be permitted to state the only 
evidence on this question which has presented 
itself to the writer of this memoir. In Cole’s MS. 
* Dr Smith’s Life of Ray, in Rees’s Cyclopaedia, is an 
instance, perhaps, of the latter description. 
