In a letter to Dr Derham, written in May 1702, he thus describes his condition:—"It is not many years since I applied myself to the observation and search of insects, in order to compose an history of them; but now I am wholly taken off from that study, by the afflictive pains I almost constantly labour under, by reason of ulcers upon my legs, I having not been half a mile out of my house these four years; and though I have made use of many means, and have had the advice of some of the most skilful surgeons and physicians, yet without success, growing yearly worse and worse. Besides, I have been very much haunted with a troublesome diarrhœa, frequently recurring; so that you may well think I can have but little heart to mind natural history: But I am yet so far engaged, that I cannot shake it off. I have now just ready to go under the press a third volume of the History of Plants, being a supplement to the two former volumes, which hath engrossed almost my whole time for two whole years. Besides, I have a little book now printing at Leyden, in Holland, entitled Methodus Plantarum emendata et aucta."
We now approach the termination of the career of this truly great man, who was distinguished not less for his fervent piety than for his extensive knowledge and unwearied application. The last letter which he wrote was to Sir Hans Sloane, and is as follows:—
"Dear Sir,—The best of friends. These are to take a final leave of you as to this world. I look upon myself as a dying man. God requite your kindness expressed any ways towards me an hundred-fold,—bless you with a confluence of all good things in this world, and eternal life and happiness hereafter,—grant us an happy meeting in heaven. I am, Sir, eternally yours,
John Ray.
"Black Notley, Jan. 7, 1704."
There is a passage in The Wisdom of God manifested in the Works of Creation, which exhibits his ideas of a future state, and which it would be instructive to compare with the maniacal effusions of infidela and scoffers: "It is not likely that eternal life shall be a torpid and inactive state, or that it shall consist only in an uninterrupted and endless act of love; the other faculties shall be employed, as well as the will, in actions suitable to, and perfective of, their natures,—especially the understanding, the supreme faculty of the soul, which chiefly differenceth from brute beasts, and makes us capable of virtue and vice, of rewards and punishments, shall be busied and employed in contemplating the works of God, and observing the divine art and wisdom manifested in the structure and composition of them; and reflecting upon their great Architect the praise and glory due to him. Then shall we clearly see, to our great satisfaction and admiration, the ends and uses of these things which here were either too subtle for us to penetrate and discover, or too remote and unaccessible for us to come to any distinct view of, viz. the planets and fixed stars, those illustrious bodies, whose contents and inhabitants, whose stores and furniture, we have here so longing a desire to know, as also their mutual subserviency to each other. Now the mind of man being not capable at once to advert to more than one thing, a particular view and examination of such an innumerable number of vast bodies, and the great multitude of species, both of animate and inanimate beings, which each of them contains, will afford matter enough to exercise and employ our minds, I do not say to all eternity, but to many ages, should we do nothing else.
"Let us, then, consider the works of God, and observe the operations of his hands. Let us take notice of, and admire his infinite wisdom and goodness in the formation of them. No creature in this sublunary world is capable of so doing beside man, and yet we are deficient herein. We content ourselves with the knowledge of the tongues, or a little skill in philology, or history perhaps, and antiquity, and neglect that which to me seems more material, I mean natural history and the works of the creation. I do not discommend or derogate from those other studies; I should betray mine own ignorance and weakness should I do so; I only wish they might not altogether justle out and exclude this. I wish that this might be brought in fashion among us. I wish men would be so equal and civil, as not to disparage, deride, and vilifie those studies which themselves skill not of, or are not conversant in; no knowledge can be more pleasant than this,—none that doth so satisfie and feed the soul; in comparison whereto that of words and phrases seems to me insipid and jejune. That learning (saith a wise and observant prelate) which consists only in the form and pedagogy of arts, or the critical notions upon words and phrases, hath in it this intrinsical imperfection, that it is only so far to be esteemed as it conduceth to the knowledge of things, being in itself but a kind of pedantry, apt to infect a man with such odd humours of pride, and affectation, and curiosity, as will render him unfit for any great employment."
We do not find any particular account of his last years, nor of his family relations and circumstances, further than that he had three daughters, and lived contentedly on very humble means; being constantly occupied, when his health permitted, in studying the works of God, and communicating the results of his observations to the world. We are not aware of a single stain on his character, and are proud to point to him as a naturalist of undoubted and acknowledged powers, who "walked humbly with his God," and furnishes the best practical refutation of the lying assertion advanced by certain philosophers of the "grand nation," that men eminent for piety are either fools or knaves. As he had lived, so he desired to die "in the communion of the Catholick Church of Christ, and a true though unworthy son of the church by law established in this kingdom," of which he considered "the doctrine pure, and the worship decent, and agreeable to the Word of God." After making this declaration, he desired the Rev. Mr Pyke, rector of Black Notley, to read to him the prayers of the church appointed to be used in the visitation of the sick; and, in particular, the absolution. He then received the sacrament, "which, as it is men's duty often to receive in the time of health, so, at the hour of death," he said, "it was a necessary viaticum he thought for the great journey he was now a-going."
He died in his own house, at Black Notley, on the 17th January 1705, having reached the seventy-seventh year of his age, and was buried, according to his own desire, in the church of that parish. The authors of the Biographia Britannica, however, assert that he declined the offer made by the rector, of a place in the chancel, choosing rather to repose with his ancestors in the churchyard. A monument was erected to him at the expense of some of his friends, with an elegant Latin epitaph, descriptive of his character, composed by the Rev. William Coyte, M. A. In 1737, this monument, having fallen into decay, was restored at the charge of Dr Legge, and removed into the church. Forty-five years after, it was repaired by Sir Thomas Gery Cullum and others, who subjoined an additional inscription.
According to his biographer, Dr Derham, he "was a man of excellent natural parts, and had a singular vivacity in his style, whether he wrote in English or Latin. In a word, in his dealings, no man more strictly just; in his conversation, no man more humble, courteous, and affable. Towards God, no man more devout; and towards the poor and distressed, no man more compassionate and charitable, according to his abilities." His merits have been duly appreciated, both by foreigners and his own countrymen; and although, in the last century, they seemed in danger of falling into oblivion, amid the blaze of the numerous discoveries and improvements then made, they are, at the present day, brought more prominently into view, when men have begun to compare systems, and to shake off the influence of party-spirit. An interesting commemoration of him was made in London on the 29th November 1828. A genus of plants was dedicated to his memory by Plumier, under the name of Jan Raia, which Linnæus changed into Rajania, and Smith into Raiana. Raia would have been more appropriate; but unfortunately it was previously occupied by the skate, and therefore could not be allotted to him of whom Sir James Smith says, that he was "the most accurate in observation,—the most philosophical in contemplation,—and the most faithful in description, amongst all the botanists of his own, or perhaps any other time." Several species of fishes, however, are named after him, in consequence of his having been the first who made mention of them.
"Mr Ray," says Dr Pulteney, in his Sketches of the Progress of Botany, "had the singular happiness of devoting fifty years of his life to the cultivation of the sciences he loved. Incited by the most ardent genius, which overcame innumerable difficulties and discouragements, his labours were, in the end, crowned with a success before almost unequalled. He totally reformed the studies of botany and zoology; he raised them to the dignity of a science, and placed them in an advantageous point of view; and, by his own investigations, added more real improvement to them in England than any of his predecessors. The extent of his improvements in science procured him the admiration of his contemporaries, and have justly transmitted his name to posterity, among those who have done honour to their age and country."