140 
MEMOIR OF 
are in almost the same words ascribed to him 
by the pious and impartial Hay, and also in the 
most solemn manner reiterated in the affecting 
sprayer which he composed on the subject of his 
death, fully justify the belief that religion was 
the great actuating principle of his pursuits, 
transforming them into a course of devoted 
services to the Creator. Nor need it be dis- 
trusted that, upon these varied excellencies, was 
ingrafted a belief in the genuine doctrines of 
Christianity ; since dispositions of this kind 
constitute “ the honest and good heart,” in which 
Christianity produces its most fertile and valuable 
results, agreeably to that ever memorable declara- 
tion of its Founder, that “ if any man will do the 
will of God, he shall know of the doctrine whether 
it be of God.” The writer would express his 
conviction, derived from the acquaintance with 
Mr Willugliby’s character which has necessarily 
arisen during the research required by this 
memoir, that his religious principles did not rest 
in a mere general and indefinite acquiescence in 
the articles of the Christian faith, but in that clear 
and heartfelt apprehension — that predominant 
influence of them — which is supposed throughout 
the formularies of the Church of England to be 
possessed by its members, and which those formu- 
laries are so admirably calculated to excite and 
cherish. The concluding observation with regard 
to Mr Willughby, is, that his eminence as a 
naturalist may, no doubt, be greatly ascribed to 
the basis which was laid for it in the sound edu- 
