Eighteen years before, he had been welcomed into the illustrious Academy of Sciences, the establishment of which at Paris had followed so quickly upon the foundation of the Royal Society. Both academies had worked with conspicuous success. Both had been adorned by a long line of eminent members. They had frequently, and in many ways, interchanged friendly communion. To SLOANE himself, the reception at Paris had been the prelude of many like invitations from other learned societies in various parts of Europe. No man of his time had a worthier estimate of the dignity involved in the freemasonry of science, nor had any a more conscientious sense of the duties and responsibilities which it entails. As President of the Royal Society, one of his earliest proposals to the Council was that, for the future, no pecuniary contribution should be received from foreign members whose fellowship it invited as an honour. He urged this step, notwithstanding that the Society was at the time in debt from an unusual arrear of subscriptions,—an arrear so great that he felt it to be right that the Council should be recommended to sue their offending brethren in the law courts. His third proposal, like both the others, had for its object the incontestible advantage and honour of the Society. He checked some nascent abuses in elections by making it necessary that there should be an express approval of every new candidate by the Council, on the recommendation of not less than three fellows, before proceeding to a ballot in the Society at large. [Sidenote: THE NATURAL HISTORY OF JAMAICA.] The work by which SLOANE holds his chief place in the literature of science, the _Natural History of Jamaica_, was the work of no less than thirty-eight years. Its materials, as we have seen, were collected in the years 1687 and 1688. The first volume was not published until 1708. Seventeen additional years elapsed before the completion of the second. The fact indicates how crowded with avocations its author’s life was, as well as the marked conscientiousness and thoroughness which from youth to age characterized his doings. The Jamaica book cannot be opened without some appreciation, even at first sight, of this faculty of thoroughness. For it is shown not more by the elaboration and beauty of the illustrations, than by the copious citation of authorities, on all points in relation to which authority is valuable. That all previous labourers in his field should have their full meed of acknowledgment is with SLOANE a prime anxiety. [Sidenote: SLOANE’S SERVICES TO ARBORICULTURE.]