Page:The Harveian oration, 1873.djvu/60

 54 that every great man in modern times had been anticipated by somebody or other in ancient ones, might still be going about in dry places, and might wholly enter into and entirely fill up the soul of some small an- tiquary, who, coming under such inspiration and guidance upon the passages which I have collected, might proceed to instruct the literary public as to Warner's claims. Whilst considering what indirect evidence might be brought together to rebut this pos- sible attempt at detraction, I came upon what led me to the discovery of the direct evidence I have promised to lay before you, in the shape of a clue which brought me, after a somewhat tortuous course, upon Walter Warner's actual autograph MS. I found, whilst following up Dr. Pell's history, scattered through Dr. Birch's unindexed His- tory of the Royal Society, that Dr. Birch had procured a number of MSS. of Mr. Walter Warner's for that Society mixed up with Dr. Pell's (see vol. ii. p. 342 ; vol. iv. p. 447). Coupling this statement with the voucher for Warner's claims, ascribed by Wood and Aubrey to Dr. Pell (who, however, is never