Page:The Harveian oration ; delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, June 26th, 1879 (IA b24976465).pdf/36

 many parts of his writings, was acquainted with the true method, although his protests against the speculations of the ancients, made him lay so much stress on what is called induction. Nevertheless, it may be considered remarkable that the results of Bacon and Harvey's investigations should have appeared at the same epoch, and that Harvey, master of the true method, had never read a linc of Bacon. If these men had no knowledge of one another, we need not ask whence they gained their inspiration; but rather how it was that two men endowed with the same spirit of inquiry should have arisen on the earth at the same moment. I should answer by saying that a general development had been going on in the womb of time, and that the moment of fruition had arrived when the world looked upon Bacon and Harvey.

What makes the reign of Elizabeth shine out so brilliantly in England's history? If Bacon had strength enough of intellect to throw off the yoke of Aristotle and Plato, which for centuries had weighed on mankind, if Harvey soon afterwards had sufficient force of will to put aside his Aristotle and Galen, and search nature for himself, if