MEMOIR OF RAY. 
43 
Freed from the interruptions to which he had 
been for some time exposed, first by his duties as 
a tutor and guardian, and more recently by his fre- 
quent removal from one place to another, he had 
now the happiness of being able to give that direc- 
tion to his studies which his inclination prompted, 
and in which he felt himself fitted to confer most 
benefit on science. It is observed by Haller, that 
few have enjoyed to the same extent as Ray, 
the rare felicity of devoting so many years uninter- 
ruptedly to the study of a favourite subject. It 
may be added, that still fewer have equally improved 
the opportunities that occurred to them. The works 
which he completed after his final settlement at Not- 
ley are so numerous, that he may be ranked among 
the most voluminous writers on botany ; and while 
these, together with his publications in various de- 
partments of zoology, have established his high re- 
putation as a philosophical naturalist, his admirable 
treatises on religious subjects, all tending to enforce 
the observance of practical piety, have gained him the 
incomparably more enviable distinction, of having 
benefited his fellow men in the most important in- 
terests that attach to their nature. Of the most re- 
markable of these productions we shall now proceed 
to give some account ; for their collective value is 
so considerable, that they mark an important epoch 
in the progressive history of natural knowledge. 
The Methodus Plantarum Nova issued from the 
press in 1682. It contains Ray’s first attempt to 
