Page:The Harveian oration (electronic resource) - Royal College of Physicians, 1881 (IA b20411911).pdf/10

 had questioned Nature, and the early dawn had brightened into day.

Harvey's discovery came so soon after the publication of the Novum Organon, that it is not surprising to find in his writings phrases almost identical with those of Bacon, proving, as they do, that the general principles of that philosophy were congenial to his mind. But, to my thinking, he was not in any sense a logician, and did not attempt to frame his arguments on any defined rulc. His was a mind to which a false argument was impossible; he rejected it, not because he had applied to it any test of its logical fallacy, but simply because, tonhis clear intellect, the argument itself was unsound. I trust my younger hearers will not misunderstand me. The clear perception of truth, the faculty to analyse, and the power to grasp it in all its bearings, belong but to a few gifted individuals. Even to them, the cultivation of these talents is of the utmost importance; to the great majority of us, such education of mind is absolutely essential if we would arrive at truth. Almost all the mistakes into which men of pure and simple aim have fallen may be traced to the imperfect development of the logical faculty. Without it true theories and correct practice are equally impossible. Where was it, we may well ask, when in Paris half a century ago, patients were actually bled to death in rheumatic fever? Where is it now, in this enlightened