Authority Cited: Ray
Author name and dates: John Ray (1627-1705)
BKG Bio-tweet: Cleric; naturalist; proto-scientist; first biological def. of species; scientific works in Latin; SJ quotes religious works
Categories (list of works cited – preliminary) [BKG Note; about 328 Ray cites in 1755 Dict. vol. 1, about 311 Ray cites in 1755 Dict. vol. 2. Nine Ray cites were identified as added in the 1773 Dict., all in Dict. vol.1, indicated in bold italic below. The Sale Catalogue of Samuel Johnson's Library, A Facsimile Edition, Fleeman, ed. lists item 27 5 Ray's Proverbs . . . . See also A Proverb]
Professor Beth Rapp Young has now (2025) noticed that the Johnson headword indesinently is illustrated by a John Ray quotation, "They [frogs] continue a month indesinently," but is is typeset incorrectly as indefinently (misreading of the long "s") in the 1709 and later editions of the text title above. It is therefore likely that Johnson used either the Third Edition of 1701 or the Fourth Edition of 1704. I am inclined to the 1704 4th edition as it was the last published in Ray's lifetime and is advertised on the title page as "Corrected and very much enlarged." The citation for the 4th edition is as above for the 5th, except it is "Printed by J.B. for Sam. Smith, and sold by Jeffrey Wale at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-yard."
Wimsatt also notes: "The short biography of Ray in Dr. James's Medicinal Dictionary, s.v. botany, Vol. i, p. 10Dv is presumably the work of Johnson (ante p. 35, n. 21). Cf. his allusion to Ray on British insects (Life ii, 248)."
Author name and dates: John Ray (1627-1705)
BKG Bio-tweet: Cleric; naturalist; proto-scientist; first biological def. of species; scientific works in Latin; SJ quotes religious works
Categories (list of works cited – preliminary) [BKG Note; about 328 Ray cites in 1755 Dict. vol. 1, about 311 Ray cites in 1755 Dict. vol. 2. Nine Ray cites were identified as added in the 1773 Dict., all in Dict. vol.1, indicated in bold italic below. The Sale Catalogue of Samuel Johnson's Library, A Facsimile Edition, Fleeman, ed. lists item 27 5 Ray's Proverbs . . . . See also A Proverb]
- The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation in two parts, Viz. The Heavenly Bodies, Elements, Meteors, Fossils, Vegetables, Animals, (beasts, Birds, Fishes, and Insects) more particularly in the Body of the Earth, its Figure, Motion, and Consistency, and in the admirable Structure of the Bodies of Man, and other Animals, as also in their Generation, &c. With answers to some objections. By John Ray, Late Fellow of the Royal Society, London : printed by J.B. for Benj. Walford, at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 5th ed. London, 1709. 1st ed. 1691. Successively enlarged in editions of 1692, 1701, and 1704. (per Wimsatt, Philosophic Words, p. 157); decorous, knob; lapidist, p. 92 (1743 ed.). 1773 Dict. edition additions (page numbers are referenced to the 1704 and 1709 editions of this work - the edition used by SJ was after 1696, because Ray quotes Cockburn Essays &c., which was first issued in 1696): abscond, p. 337; argumentative, p. 126; compose; curb, p. 231; dab-chick; detect; dissipate; escalop, p. 118; gin; .
Professor Beth Rapp Young has now (2025) noticed that the Johnson headword indesinently is illustrated by a John Ray quotation, "They [frogs] continue a month indesinently," but is is typeset incorrectly as indefinently (misreading of the long "s") in the 1709 and later editions of the text title above. It is therefore likely that Johnson used either the Third Edition of 1701 or the Fourth Edition of 1704. I am inclined to the 1704 4th edition as it was the last published in Ray's lifetime and is advertised on the title page as "Corrected and very much enlarged." The citation for the 4th edition is as above for the 5th, except it is "Printed by J.B. for Sam. Smith, and sold by Jeffrey Wale at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-yard."
Wimsatt also notes: "The short biography of Ray in Dr. James's Medicinal Dictionary, s.v. botany, Vol. i, p. 10Dv is presumably the work of Johnson (ante p. 35, n. 21). Cf. his allusion to Ray on British insects (Life ii, 248)."