THE STRATFORD NATURALIST. 347
myself. What my condition may be in futurity is known only to the Disposer of
all things ; yet my present desires are (perhaps vain and inconsistent with the
nature of things ?) that I may become an intelligent spirit, void of gross matter,
brevity and levity, endowed with a voluntary motive power either to pierce
infinitely into boundless ethereal space, or into solid bodies ; to see and know,
how the parts of the great Universe are connected with each other, and by what
amazing mechanism they are put and kept in regular and perpetual motion. But
oh, in vain and daring presumption of thought, I most humbly submit my future
existence to the supreme will of the one Omnipotent ? "
Sometime after Mr. Edwards had been appointed Librarian
to the Royal College of Physicians, he was, on St. Andrew's Day,
in the year 1750, presented by the President and Council of the
Royal Society with the Gold Medal, the decoration of Sir
Godfrey Copley, Bart., annually given on that day to the Author
of any new discovery in Art or Nature, in consideration of his
Natural History just then completed. A copy of this medal he
afterwards caused to be engraved and placed under the general
title in the first volume of his history. He was subsequently
elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and on the 13th February,
1773, he became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and
also a member of many of the learned Societies in different parts
of Europe. In acknowledgment of these honorary distinctions
from such learned bodies, he presented elegant coloured copies of
all his works, to the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal
Society, the Society of Antiquaries, the British Museum ;
and to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, from which he
received the most cordial and complimentary letter of thanks by
their then Secretary, Monsieur Defouchy.
Several occasional papers upon natural history were com-
municated by Mr. Edwards to the Royal Society and inserted in
the Philosophical Transactions. They will be found in the 48th,
49th, 50th, 51st, 53rd, 55th, and 56th volumes of that valuable
collection, and most of them have since been added with new
engravings to the memoirs of his life, and to his writings. In a
few instances he contributed to other periodical publications.
The prefaces and introductions to many of his volumes contained
some interesting and ingenious essays relative to the object of his
principal pursuit. He also gave a brief and general idea of
drawing and painting in water colour, with instructions for
etching on copper plates. In 1770 these miscellaneous papers
were collected and published in one octavo volume, the object