My petition to God (if petitions to God are not prefumptuous) is, that he would remove from me all defire of purfuing Natural History, or any other study; and infpire me with as much knowledge of his Divine Nature as my imperfect ftate is capable of; that I may conduct myself, for the remainder of my days, in a manner most agreeable to his will, which must confequently be most happy to myfelf. What my condition may be in futurity is known only to the wife Difpofer of all things; yet my prefent defires are (perhaps vain and inconfiftent with the nature of things!) that I may become an intelligent fpirit, void of grofs matter, gravity and levity, endowed with a voluntary motive power either to pierce infinitely into boundlefs ethereal fpace, or into folid bodies; to fee and know how the parts of the great univerfe are connected with each other, and by what amazing mechanifm they are put and kept in regular and perpetual motion. But, oh vain and daring prefumption of thought. I moft humbly fubmit my future exiftence to the fupreme will of the one Omnipotent!"

Some time after Mr. Edwards had been appointed library keeper to the Royal College of Phyficians, he was, on St. Andrew's day, in the year 1750, prefented with an honorary compliment by the Prefident and Council of the Royal Society, with the gold medal, the donation of Sir Godfrey Copley, Bart. annually given on that day to the author of any new difcovery in art or nature, in confideration of his Natural Hiftory juft then completed. A copy of this medal he had afterwards engraved and

placed under the general title in the first volume of his Hiftory. He was a few years afterwards elected Fellow of the Royal Society, and of the Society of Antiquaries, London, and alfo a' member of many of the Academies of fciences and learning in different parts of Europe. In compliment to thefe honorary diftinctions from fuch learned bodies, he prefented elegant coloured copies of all his works to the Royal College of Phyficians, the Royal Society, the Society of Antiquarians, and to the British Museum; alfo to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, from whom he received the most polite and obliging letter of thanks by their then Secretary Monfieur Defouchy.

The nobility and gentry frequently honoured him with their friendship and generous fupport; and he mentions with peculiar pleasure being patronised by four great men, who were perhaps the greatest promoters of learning, fcience, and arts, of any in the prefent age. These were the late Duke of Richmond, Sir Hans Sloane, Dr. Mead, and Martin Folkes, Efq.

His collection of drawings, which amounted to upwards of nine hundred, were purchafed by the Earl of Bute, who would confer a favour on pofterity by publishing engravings from them, as they contain a great number of Englishas well as foreign birds and other animals hitherto not accurately delineated or defcribed.

After the publication of the laft work, being arrived at his 70th year, he found his fight begin to fail, and his hand loft its wonted fleadiness. He retired from public employment to a little houfe which

he

he purchased at Plaistow; previous to which he difpo:ed of all the copies, as well as plates, of his works. The conversation of a few select friends, and the perufa! of a few select books, were the amufement of the evening of his life; and now and then he made an excurfion to fome of the principal cities in England, particularly to Bristol, Bath, Exeter, and Norwich.

Mr. Edwards was of a middle ftature, rather inclined to corpulence of a liberal difpofition, and a cheerful converfation. All his acquaintance experienced his benevolent temper, and his poor neighbours frequently partook of his bounty.

His diffidence and humility were always apparent, and to perfons who had a tafte for ftudies congenial to his own he was a most entertaining as well as communicative companion.

Some years before his death the alarming depredations of a cancer,

which baffled all the efforts of phyfical fkill, deprived him of the fight of one of his eyes: he also fuffered much from the flone, a complaint to which at different periods of life he had been fubject. Yet it had been remarked, that in the fevereft paroxyfms of mifery he was fcarcely known to utter a fingle complaint.

Having completed his 86th year, emaciated with age and ficknefs, he died on the 23d of July 1773, defervedly lamented by a numerous acquaintance. He left two filters, to whom he bequeath ed the fortune acquired by affiduous application to his favourite purfuits; they died lately, within a few hours of each other, and were buried together.

His remains were interred in the church-yard of Weftham, his native parish, where his executors have erected a ftone, with the following infcription, to perpetuate to pofterity his skill as an artist.

Some Account of the Death, &c. of the Abbé Laurence Ricci, General of the Jefuits, at the time of their Diffolution; with an authentic Copy of a Declaration, left by him in writing, concerning the Crimes imputed to bimself and his Order; collected from Letters written from Rome upon that Occafion.

L

AWRENCE Ricci was born at Florence, the 2d of Auguft, 1703, of an illuftrious family; he entered into the Society of Jefus in the year 1720, and was made General of it on the 21st of May 1758. After the deftruction of the fociety, he was fent prifener to the Caftle of St. Angelo, on the 22d of September 1773, where death put an end to his fuffering life.

His laft illness was but of a few days: the eighth was the laft of pain and life, loaded with a weight of years, rendered more weighty by many heavy croffes, and by a variety and long feries of afflictions; with accumulated woe on the latter period of them, by the fuppreffion of his order; by the calumnies caft on it and himfelf; by the imprisonment of his own perfon, and a long, painful, and clofe confinement, efpecially for the first eighteen months of it; -under this complication of years and forrows, he was little able to fupport a violent attack of an inflammatory fever. The relief and fuccours which his Holinefs vouchfafed to afford him in his fick ftate, by giving in charge to his own phyfician, Doctor Sallicetti, to leave no endeavours untried for his recovery, were without effect.

Bleeding was repeated to the fourth time, and blifters were applied, but it foon appeared that all means to fave his life were unavailing.

The first fymptoms of his dif eafe difcovered themfelves on Thursday evening, November 16. After having taken his walk, according to his cuftom, on the terrace of the castle, on his return to his apartment he was feized with a chillness and a cold, which immediately became very violent. The fever foon increased upon him. On Saturday evening his life was judged to be in danger; and, on the Friday following, the 24th of November, a little after noon, at a time when all oppofition to his enlargement feemed to be removed, he fweetly gave up his foul to his Redeemer at the age of feventy-two years, three months, and twenty-two days, having lived fifty-five years, three months, and fix days, in religion. It had been his request, that the crucifix, which he always carried about him, fhould be delivered to his nephew; that his little wardrobe fhould be diftributed, by way of fome fmall recompence, to those who had ferved him; and that he fhould be buried at the late profefied houfe of the Jefuits.

He retained his fenfes to the laft; and bore the pains of his illnefs, as he had done all the afflic tions of body and mind, of which the many and great injuries and affronts offered to himself and his order, particularly by a long and close confinement, must have been productive, with the greateft patience and refignation. Before he took the facrament, which, as well as the extreme-unction, he called for with the greatest fervour, and re

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ceived with the greateft devotion; judging he ought not to be wanting to himself, by a folemn declaration of his own innocence, and that of his order, which he had governed for the space of 15 years, he began to fpeak, as follows, in the prefence of the Vicegovernor of the caftle of St. Angelo, his Secretary Don Giovanni, Abbé Orlando, a ferjeant, and a corporal, the apothecary, the domeftics of the Governor Camillo and Pietruccio, nine foldiers and galley-flaves (all whofe names we could mention) who had accompanied the facrament into his apartment: "That he fincerely pardoned all thole who had been inftrumental in the deftruction of the fociety-He did not omit to pray particularly for thofe who had reduced him to this ftate of inability and fufferings, and to implore the bleffing of heaven on them:" After which, raifing his voice, and with a remarkable firm tone, he faid, "that in the prefence of God, whom he adored in his auguft facrament, and by whom shortly he was going to be judged, he declared to the whole world, that he was entirely innocent of all that had been laid to his charge, and of whatever might have contributed to the deftruction of the Society intrufted to his care, or to his own perfonal imprisonment. He thanked God for withdrawing him from this world, and hoped that his death would procure fome alleviation to thofe who fuffered with him in the fame cause."

During his illness, feveral cardinals fent conftantly to enquire after his health; and the Pope, on fending him his apoftolical be

nediction, accompanied it with the most tender and paternal exprek fions.

All those who were prefent at the death of this late and laft General of the fociety of Jefus, (indeed, we may fay all Rome, as they were not ignorant of the circumftances) and even to the galley-flaves of the caftle, all conceived the greateft veneration for his memory, and all look on his death as precious in the fight of God. Dr Sallicetti declared openly, that he had been prefent at the deaths of many perfons in repute for piety and virtue, but that he had never been witness to fuch fentiments as thofe he had just been prefent at.

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The Pope gave orders to Cardinal Corfini for the funeral of Abbé Ricci; and the will of his Holiness was, that all fhould be done according to the quality of the fubject, and that his body fhould be depofited in the vault of the church of Jefus, near the other Generals of the Society his predeceffors.

Accordingly the national church of Florence was hung with black, and on Saturday, November the 25th, two hours after fun-fet, the corpfe was conveyed in a coach attended with four flambeaux, and followed by another coach, to the faid church, where, on the morning of the day following, vested in his facerdotal habits, he was expofed on a lofty bed of ftate, round which were burning thirty grand tapers.

During this whole morning. which was Sunday November 26th, there was an extraordinary concourfe of people to this church, of all forts and conditions, Mafs

was

was continued to be faid at all the altars till noon. The funeral fervice was celebrated with great decency and folemnity, by the clergy who ferve that parifh. The throng of people did not difcontinue, and many gave tokens of great veneration and tender affection, though curiofity perhaps was the chief motive that firft led them thither.

I must not pass over in filence one remarkable token of refpect given by the Bishop of Comma. chio. This worthy prelate, who is in equal repute for piety and learning, the fame who had lately entered Rome barefoot at the head of many of his clergy, came alfo to the Florentine church, and placing himself on his knees near the Catafalque, he faid, with a voice loud enough to be heard by many, that he did not come to pray for the foul of the deceafed, but to folicit the credit of that fingularly just man, whom he regarded as a predeftinated foul, and as a martyr." Many others feemed to think the fame, without daring to declare their fentiments fo openly. In citing this paffage, I have nothing in view but to fhew the high efleem his virtue was held in, and the homage paid to it.

At mid-day the church was fhut, and the corpfe withdrawn from the fight of the people. It was removed into the facrifly, where no one was allowed to enter. Towards midnight it was put into the fame coach that had brought it thither, followed alfo by the fecond, and conveyed with lighted torches to the church of the Jefuits, where every thing was ready for the burial, according to the Pope's orders, and the request of the venerable old man. The prefident

of the houfe faid the prayers of the church over the corpfe, before it was let down into the vault. The body was then put into a coffin, which was placed on the fide of his predeceffors Centurioni and Vifconti, in quality of Geneal of the Society of Jefus. To ferve by way of epitaph, a feroll of parchment was fixed to the cof. fin, on which were written his name, his age, the time and place of his death, and the number of years he had been General of his order.

Such was the end of this, the eighteenth and laft General of the Jefuits. Some time before his death, he had the precaution to draw up, write himself, and fign with his own hand, a declaration of his own and his order's innocence; left his laft illness fhould prevent his vindicating both by word of mouth; and he then entrufted this declaration to one of the foldiers of the caftle, on whofe fidelity he thought he could beft rely, and who in effect discharged his truft faithfully.

This authentic piece is preferved with great care, and from this original is drawn the Italian copy, from whence are taken the French and English translations.

It feems impoffible to call in question the authenticity of this piece; for the characters and tignature of his hand cannot but be known, and they may be confronted with many of his letters, fome of which no doubt are still in being.

An authentic Copy of the Protefta tion which Abbé Lawrence Ricci left at his Death.

"THE uncertainty of the time when it will pleafe Almighty God