The Natural History of Wiltshire | Page 9

original of the following LETTER from JOHN RAY to AUBREY
is inserted immediately after the Preface, in the MS. at Oxford. It is not
transcribed into the Royal Society's copy of the work. -J. B.]
FOR MR. JOHN AUBREY.
Sr,
Black Notley, 8br 27, -91.
Your letter of Octob. 22d giving advice of your safe return to London
came to hand, wch as I congratulate with you, so have I observed your
order in remitting your Wiltshire History, wch with this enclosed I hope
you will receive this week. I gave you my opinion concerning this work
in my last, wch I am more confirmed in by a second perusal, and doe
wish that you would speed it to ye presse. It would be convenient to fill
up ye blanks so far as you can; but I am afraid that will be a work of
time, and retard the edition. Whatever you conceive may give offence
may by ye wording of it be so softned and sweetned as to take off ye
edge of it, as pills are gilded to make them lesse ungratefull. As for the
soil or air altering the nature, and influencing the wits of men, if it be
modestly delivered, no man will be offended at it, because it accrues
not to them by their own fault: and yet in such places as dull men's wits
there are some exceptions to be made. You know the poet observes that
Democritus was an example -
Summos posse viros, et magna exempla daturos Vervecû in patria,
crassoque sub aere nasci.
Neither is yr observation universally true that the sons of labourers and
rusticks are more dull and indocile than those of gentlemen and
tradesmen; for though I doe not pretend to have become of the first
magnitude for wit or docility, yet I think I may without arrogance say
that in our paltry country school here at Braintry - "Ego meis me

minoribus condiscipulis ingenio prælu[si]": but perchance the
advantage I had of my contemporaries may rather be owing to my
industry than natural parts; so that I should rather say "studio" or
"industria excellui".
I think (if you can give me leave to be free with you) that you are a
little too inclinable to credit strange relations. I have found men that are
not skilfull in ye history of nature, very credulous, and apt to impose
upon themselves and others, and therefore dare not give a firm assent to
anything they report upon their own autority; but are ever suspicious
that they may either be deceived themselves, or delight to teratologize
(pardon ye word) and to make a shew of knowing strange things.
You write that the Museum at Oxford was rob'd, but doe not say
whether your noble present was any part of the losse. Your picture done
in miniature by Mr. Cowper is a thing of great value, I remember so
long agoe as I was in Italy, and while he was yet living, any piece of his
was highly esteemed there; and for that kind of painting he was
esteemed the best artist in Europe.
What my present opinion is concerning formed stones, and concerning
the formation of the world, you will see in a discourse that is now gone
to the presse concerning the Dissolution of the World: my present
opinion, I say, for in such things I am not fix't, but ready to alter upon
better information, saving always ye truth of ye letter of ye scripture. I
thank you for your prayers and good wishes, and rest,
Sr, your very humble servant,
JOHN RAY.
I have seen many pheasants in a little grove by the city of Florence, but
I suppose they might have been brought in thither from some foreign
country by the Great Duke.
Surely you mistook what I wrote about elms. I never to my knowledge
affirmed that the most common elm grows naturally in the north: but
only thought that though it did not grow there, yet it might be native of
England: for that all trees doe not grow in all countreys or parts of
England. The wych-hazel, notwithstanding its name, is nothing akin to
the "corylus" but a true elm.
The story concerning the drawing out the nail driven crosse the wood-
pecker's hole is without doubt a fable.
Asseveres and vesicates are unusuall words, and I know not whether

the wits will allow them. ___________________________________
[The name of John Ray holds a pre-eminent place amongst the
naturalists of Great Britain. He was the first in this country who
attempted a classification of the vegetable kingdom, and his system
possessed many important and valuable characteristics. Ray was the
son of a blacksmith at Black Notley, near Braintree, in Essex, where he
was born, in 1627. The