JOHN, a celebrated naturalist, and the son of Mr Roger Ray, a blacksmith, was born at Black Notly, in Essex, in 1628. He received the rudiments of learning at the grammar-school of Braintree; and in 1644 was admitted into Catharine Hall, Cambridge, whence he afterwards removed to Trinity College in that university. He took the degree of master of arts, and became at length a senior fellow of the college; but his intense application to his studies having injured his health, he was obliged at his leisure hours to exercise himself by riding or walking in the fields, which led him to the study of plants. He noted from Johnson, Parkinson, and the *Phytologia Britannica*, the places where curious plants grew; and in 1658 he rode from Cambridge to the city of Chester, whence he proceeded to North Wales, visiting many places, and amongst others the famous hill of Snowdon, and returning by Shrewsbury and Gloucester. In 1660 he published his *Catalogus Plantarum circa Cantabrigiam nascentium*, and the same year he was ordained deacon and priest. In 1661 he accompanied Mr Francis Willoughby and others, in search of plants and other natural curiosities, to the north of England and Scotland; and the next year he made a western tour from Chester, and through Wales, to Cornwall, Devonshire, Dorsetshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, and other counties. He afterwards travelled with Mr Willoughby and other gentlemen through Holland, Germany, Italy, France, and other foreign parts, made several tours in England, and was admitted fellow of the Royal Society. In 1672 his friend Mr Willoughby died, in the thirty-seventh year of his age, at Middleton Hall, his seat at Yorkshire, to the infinite and unspeakable loss and grief of Mr Ray himself, his friends, and all good men. As there existed the closest and most sincere friendship between Mr Willoughby and Mr Ray from the time of their being fellow-students, Mr Willoughby not only confided in Mr Ray in his lifetime, but also at his death; for he made him one of the executors of his will, and charged him with the education of his sons, Francis and Thomas, leaving him at the same time an annuity of £60 per annum. The eldest of these young gentlemen not being four years of age, Mr Ray, as a faithful trustee, undertook their instruction, and for their use compiled his *Nomenclator Classicus*, which was published the same year. Francis, the eldest, dying before he became of age, the younger became Lord Middleton. Not many months after the death of Mr Willoughby, Mr Ray lost another of his best friends, Bishop Wilkins, whom he visited in London on the 18th of November 1672, and found almost expiring from a total suppression of urine. As it is natural for the mind, when hurt in one part, to seek relief in another, so Mr Ray, having lost some of his best friends, and being in a manner left destitute, conceived thoughts of marriage; and, accordingly, in June 1673, he espoused a gentlewoman of about twenty years of age, the daughter of Mr Oakley of Launton, in Oxfordshire. Towards the end of this year came forth his Observations made in foreign countries, to which was added, his *Catalogus Stirpium in exterris Regionibus observatarum*; and about the same time appeared his Collection of unusual or local English words, which he had made in his travels through the counties of England. After having published many books upon subjects foreign to his profession, he at length resolved to appear in the character of divine, as well as in that of natural philosopher; and with this view he published his excellent demonstration of the being and attributes of God, entitled *The Wisdom of God manifested in the Works of the Creation*, 1697, 8vo. The rudiments of this work were read in some college lectures; and another collection of the same kind he enlarged and published under the title of *Three Physico-theological Discourses concerning the Chaos, Deluge, and Dissolution of the World*, 1692, in 8vo.

Ray died in 1705. He was modest, affable, and communicative, and distinguished by his probity, charity, sobriety, and piety. He wrote a great number of works, the principal of which, besides those already mentioned, are, 1. *Catalogus Plantarum Anglicae*; 2. *Dictionaryrium Trilingue secundum locos communes*; 3. *Historia Plantarum, Species haecutem editas, aliasque insuper multas noviter inventas et descriptas complectens*, three vols.; 4. *Methodus Plantarum nova, cum Tabulis*, 8vo, and several other works on plants; 5. *Synopsis Methodica Animalium Quadrupedum et Serpentini generis*, 8vo; 6. *Synopsis Methodica Avium et Piscium*; 7. *Historia Insectorum, opus posthumum*; 8. *Methodus Insectarum*; 9. Philosophical Letters.

**RAYNAL**, William Thomas, better known as the Abbé Raynal, was born about the year 1712, and having received his education amongst the celebrated order of the Jesuits, became one of their number. Their value and excellence chiefly consisted in assigning to each member his proper employment. Amongst them Raynal acquired a taste for literature and science; and by them he was afterwards expelled, no doubt on account of his impiety. Soon after this event he justified his expulsion by associating with Voltaire, D'Alembert, and Diderot, who employed him to furnish the articles on theology for the *Encyclopédie*; but having no relish, and probably as little qualification, for such work, he devoted it on the Abbé Yvon, whom Barruel allows to have been an inoffensive and upright man.

The first work of Raynal, which is justly regarded as an eminent performance, is his *Political and Philosophical History of the European Settlements in the East and West Indies*. The style of this work is rambling but animated; it contains many just reflections both of a political and philosophical nature, intermixed, however, with much vague and declamatory speculation. It has been translated into every European language. This performance, we believe, was followed by a small tract in the year 1780, entitled the Revolution of America, in which he pleaded the cause of the colonists with much zeal, censured the conduct of the British government, and discovered some acquaintance with the principles of the different factions; circumstances which induced a belief that he had been furnished with materials by those who knew the merits of the dispute much better than any foreigner could reasonably be supposed to do.

The French government instituted a prosecution against him on account of his history of the East and West Indies; but with so little severity was it conducted, that sufficient time was allowed him to retire to the dominions of his Prussian majesty, by whom he was protected, notwithstanding he had treated the character of that sovereign with very little ceremony. Even the most despotic princes showed him much kindness, although he always animadverted without reserve on their conduct; and he even lived in the good graces of the Empress of Russia. At one period the British House of Commons showed him a very singular mark of respect. The speaker having been informed that Raynal was a spectator in the gallery, public business was instantly suspended, and the stranger was conducted to a more honourable situation. But when a friend of Dr Johnson's asked him respecting the same personage, "Will you give me leave, doctor, to introduce to you the Abbé Raynal?" he turned on his heel, and said, "No, sir."

A love of liberty was the principal trait in Raynal's character, of which he gave no proper or accurate definition in his earlier writings; but when he beheld the abuse of liberty in the progress of the French Revolution, he nobly attempted to retrieve his errors. In the month of May 1791, he addressed to the Constituent Assembly an eloquent, argumentative, and impressive letter, in which he proved that it was not the business of the assembly to abolish every ancient institution; that the genius of the French people is such, that they never can be happy or prosperous except under a well-regulated monarchical government; and that, if they wished not the nation to fall under the worst kind of despotism, they would increase the power of the king.

Besides the works already mentioned, he was the author of a History of the Parliament of England; a History of the Stadtholderate; the History of the Divorce of Catherine of Aragon by Henry VIII.; and a History of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in four volumes. He was deprived of all his property during the Revolution, and died in poverty in the month of March 1796, in the eighty-fourth year of his age.

in Optics, a beam of light emitted from a radiant or luminous body. See Optics.