Page:The Harveian oration, 1875 (IA b22314611).pdf/54

 to Medicine." Add to this evidence, if not of views committed to writing, at least of ample material collected, the preparations and writings which a puritan mob destroyed, and the books, objects of curiosity, and surgical instruments which the great fire of London consumed, to the irreparable injury of this college, and we have before us proofs of an unwearied industry guided by rare intelligence and practical tact, which it is no injustice to the greatest men who have preceded and followed him to characterize as unrivalled.

If we would judge of the spirit and temper in which Harvey worked, we must listen to the language of his old age, as he takes a mournful retrospect of his first great trouble and heavy loss. “Let gentle minds forgive me, if, recalling the irreparable injuries I have suffered, I here give vent to a sigh. This is the cause of my sorrow:—whilst in attendance on his majesty the King during our late troubles and more than civil wars, not only with the permission but by command of the Parliament, certain rapacious bands stripped not only my house of all its furniture, but what is subject of far greater regret with me, my enemies abstracted from my museum the fruits of many years of toil.