62 
MEMOIR OF 
should be content to pass through the restof my life 
without aiming at any thing farther, beyond the oc- 
cupation of my spare time in promoting, as far as m\- 
humble means and talents admitted, the pursuits of 
knowledge and science, and the advancement of phi- 
lanthropic and religious principles.” Thus marking 
out for himself a course of active employment. 
The love of retirement and free intercourse with na- 
ture, wearied him of London, and soon after his arrival 
in England he purchased the estate of Highwood, not 
far from town, which he intended should be his head 
quarters. His time was in the mean time actively 
employed in arranging from recollection parts of his 
researches in the East, and in examining what ha had 
been enabled to collect during his short stay at Ben- 
coolen after the burning of the Fame. He now ex- 
pressed his opinion of the possibility of a Society 
somewhat upon the plan of the Garden of Plants, 
and enlisted in his cause the services of Sir Hum- 
phry Davy. To his cousin, in the full enthusiasm of 
success, he writes : “ I am much interested at pre- 
sent in establishing a grand Zoological Collection in 
the Metropolis, with a Society for the introduction 
of living animals, bearing the same relations to 
Zoology as a science, that the Horticultural does to 
Botany. We hope to have 2000 subscribers, at 
L. 2 each ; and, it is farther expected, we may go far 
beyond the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. Sir Hum- 
phrey Davy and myself are the projectors. And 
while he looks more to the practical and immediate 
