adherence to principle in the most corrupt times, has taken occasion to congratulate his country, and to pour out his grateful effusions to Divine Providence in a style worthy of Milton for the establishment of religion, law, and liberty by the revolution which placed King William on the throne. An honest Englishman, however retired in his habits and pursuits, could not have withheld this tribute at such a time, nor was any loyalty ever more personally disinterested than that of Ray.” The year 1690 was the date of the first publication of his noble work on “The Wisdom of God in Creation,” of which we have already spoken, and whose sale through many editions was very extensive. In 1700 he printed a book more exclusively within the sphere of his sacred profession, called “A Persuasive to a Holy Life,” a rare performance of the kind at that day, being devoid of enthusiasm, mysticism, or cant, as well as of religious bigotry or party spirit, “and employing the plain and solid arguments of reason for the best of purposes.” His three “Physico-Theological Discourses concerning the Chaos, Deluge, and Dissolution of the World,” of which the original materials had been collected and prepared formerly at Cambridge, came out in 1692, and were reprinted the following year. A third edition, superintended by Derham, was published in 1713. This able editor took up the same subject himself, in a similar performance, the materials of which, like Ray’s, were first delivered in sermons at Bow church, he having been appointed reader of Mr. Boyle’s lectures. Ray studied animals as carefully as he did plants, and his influence on zoology will be noticed further on in this book, and he revised a translation of Rauwolff’s travels, and gave a catalogue of Grecian, Syrian, Egyptian, and Cretan plants. Ever wishing for the truth, he was led during a correspondence with Rivinus, a foreign botanist, to revise his system of the classification of plants, and to include that of his friend in it. Ray was impressed with the greater importance of the seeds and fruits of plants in classification than of the leaves and floral envelopes; Rivinus and others believed in the superior importance of the flower as a means of distinguishing and grouping plants. After due consideration, Ray included part of the plan of his friend, but it is certain that plants cannot be safely grouped, in every instance, by the similarity of their flowers. All this correspondence and alteration of systems was extremely useful, for it led to the foundation of what is called the natural system of classification, in opposition to the artificial style, which was founded by the great man whose life will be noticed in the next chapter.