RAY AND WILLUGHBY.

With the commencement

THE seventeenth century has been characterised—of course from the point of view of a naturalist—as 'the dawn of the Golden Age.' The torch of zoological discovery lighted by Aristotle, after flickering fitfully in the hands of his successors for a space, had become extinguished, and the entire domain of natural history had for centuries lain shrouded under the thick darkness of the middle ages. of the sixteenth century, the natural sciences participated in the general revival of learning which signalised this period in the history of Europe. Even at the present day, Belon, Rondeletius, and Gesner are something more than merely the shadows of names. In Britain the first pioneers in the renewed exploration of the world of life were little more than mere compilers. The seventeenth century, however, gave origin in Britain to a cluster of eminent men who devoted themselves to the study of zoology and botany, and who for the time being placed England in the first rank as regards the advancement of natural science. The two names which stand out foremost in this

cluster are those of the friends and fellow-workers, John Ray and Francis Willughby.

John Ray has been called the 'Aristotle of England,' but he was in reality rather the English Linnæus, his merits as an observer and systematiser being greater than his abilities as a philosopher. Moreover, he was more of a botanist than a zoologist; his purely zoological work being so far blended with that of Willughby, that it is a thankless task to attempt to indicate precisely the share of merit which posterity ought to allot to each of these great men.

John Ray was born on the 29th of November 1628, at the little village of Black Notley, near Braintree, in Essex. He was of humble birth, his father, Roger Ray, being a blacksmith; and he certainly owed comparatively little to his early education, as he was bred a scholar at Braintree School, and has left it on record that he regarded this as a great misfortune. Little is known of his boyish years; but it may be gathered that he was deeply attached to his parents, and especially to his 'most dear and honoured mother.' When he was sixteen years of age he was sent to Cambridge, where he entered at St Catharine's Hall.* In about a year and three-quarters, however, he removed to Trinity College, where he had the advantage of being taught by the well-known Dr Duport, a celebrated scholar of his day.t 'Under this learned tutor,' to use Dr

* Ray's name appears in the college books as 'Wray,' he having for a time chosen to write himself in this fashion.

† James Duport was Master of Magdalene College, Dean of Peterborough, and Professor of Greek at Cambridge. He died in 1679. The present writer possesses one of his works entitled 'Threnothriambos,' consisting of the book of Job translated into Greek verse, with a Latin version; together with Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Solomon's Song in Greek hexameters. This copy is interesting as bearing upon its

Derham's words, 'Mr Ray so closely applied himself to his studies, that what he missed of at Braintree School, he sufficiently attained to at Trinity College; having acquired great skill in Greek and Latin, and, I have good reason to think, in Hebrew also. Beside which, I find by some of his papers written about that time, that he was very early an excellent orator and naturalist; and upon the account of his great diligence, learning, and virtue, he was soon taken notice of by the College, and at about three years' standing was chosen Minor Fellow of Trinity, on September 8th, 1649, together with his ingenious friend Isaac Barrow; and as Dr Duport had been tutor to both of them, so he used to boast of them, as Mr Ray's fellow-collegian, the late pious and learned Mr Brokesby, informed me, who saith that he, in discourse with Dr Duport, reckoning up several gentlemen of worth that the doctor had been tutor to, the doctor said the chief of all his pupils were Mr Ray and Dr Barrow, to whom he esteemed none of the rest comparable.'*

On taking his degree as Master of Arts, Ray was elected Major Fellow of Trinity, and subsequently filled several highly honourable posts in his college, being successively Greek lecturer, mathematical lecturer, and humanity reader. At this period of his life Ray was not in holy orders; but as the custom of the time was, he nevertheless was in the habit of delivering sermons both in his college and before the university. Such college sermons were usually termed 'commonplaces,' title-page the signature, 'Tho. Baker, Coll: Jo: Socius ejectus.' It belonged to Thomas Baker, a well-known antiquary of his day, who was one of the 'non-juring ' clergy of 1690, and was ejected from his Fellowship in 1716.

* Select Remains and Life of Ray, by William Derham, D.D.

a name which doubtless was often fully deserved. In this particular instance, however, we have sufficient evidence that Ray's collegiate 'exercises' were something more than formal platitudes; for some of them (as, for example, his 'Wisdom of God in the Creation') were subsequently published in an enlarged form, and met with the greatest acceptance.

Ray's taste for science seems to have been of early growth; but his first published work was a 'Catalogue of Cambridge Plants,' which was given to the world in 1660. It was merely an alphabetical list of all the plants with which he was acquainted as growing round Cambridge, the localities for each being appended. It was nevertheless much more genuinely scientific than the 'Herbals,' which constituted the chief botanical literature of the day; and it was so far successful, that Ray conceived the idea of preparing a similar catalogue for the whole of England. With this object, he took two journeys (in 1661 and 1662) with his bosom-friend Willughby and some others of his intimates, through portions of England and Scotland, in which he investigated all the objects of scientific or antiquarian interest which came in his way, but more especially the plants and animals. He had previously (in 1658) undertaken by himself a similar journey through parts of England and Wales, and having kept a daily journal, the record of these three journeys was published after his death by Dr Derham. These 'Itineraries,' though not intended by their writer for publication, are highly interesting as giving us a glimpse of the aspect of many well-known places about the middle of the seventeenth century; such observations being