36 
MEMOIR OF RAY. 
licate state of his health. The conditions he con- 
sidered liberal, and the manner in which he expresses 
himself regarding them, affords an example of that dif- 
fidence and humility which were conspicuous in his 
character. “ Ego certe meipsum tali negotio imparem 
et minus idoneum judico; nec si idoneus essem, puto 
me tantam mercedem aut stipendium mereri posse. 
Centum librae annuatim offeruntur, necessariis om- 
nibus expensis etiam persolutis.”* 
In the year 1672, Ray sustained an irreparable 
loss by the premature death of Mr Willughby. 
They had been fellow-collegians at Trinity College, 
and the acquaintanceship there formed, was speedily 
matured by community of tastes and pursuits into the 
most intimate and endearing friendship. Possessed 
of ample fortune, family influence, and high mental 
endowments, Mr Willughby might have attained to 
some of the most envied objects to which ambition 
aspires ; but his disposition led him to prefer the 
tranquil enjoyments that flow from the investigation 
of nature, and the cultivation of the generous affec- 
tions and contemplative habits which that study is 
calculated to promote. The zeal with which he 
laboured, is sufficiently evinced by what he accom- 
plished during his short life ; and had Providence 
spared him to complete the extensive designs he 
had formed, his name would have occupied a most 
conspicuous place in the annals of science. The 
* Philosophical Letters, p. 72. 
