32 
MEMOIR OF RAY. 
for my own use, possibly one' day that they may 
see die light ; at present the world is glutted with 
Dr Merret’s bungling Pinax. I resolve never to 
put out any thing which is not as perfect as it is 
possible for me to make it. I wish you would take 
a little pains this summer about grasses, that so we 
might compare notes ; for I would fain clear and 
complete their history.” 
The famous work of Dr Wilkins on a universal 
character, alluded to in the above letter, subse- 
quently entailed on Mr Ray a great degree of labour ; 
for he undertook, at the earnest solicitation of its 
author, to translate it into Latin. When this labo- 
rious task was accomplished, the manuscript was de- 
posited in the library of the Royal Society, where it 
has continued ever since, no one having undertaken 
its publication. 
By this time Ray’s reputation as an accomplished 
naturalist and philosopher was fully established, and 
he had become either the personal friend or cor- 
respondent of all the individuals of any eminence 
who then directed their attention to the study of 
nature. Of these the best known to modern na- 
turalists are Dr Martin Lister, whose works on tes- 
taceous animals, and treatise De Araneis , are scarce- 
ly yet surpassed for precise description and lumi- 
nous arrangement; Sir Hans Sloane — the Sir Joseph 
Banks of his day — whose extensive collections and 
valuable library (which formed, as is well known, 
the original nucleus of the present vast assemblage 
