Page:The Harveian oration ; delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, June 26th, 1879 (IA b24976465).pdf/53

 beautiful. I cannot doubt that, in the contempla- tion of the order and mutual fitness in a great field of scientific truth, there may be, to some high intellects, a source of puro delight, such as are the sensuous beauties of nature to the cultivated artist mind, or virtue to the enlightened conscience. I believe that in contemplation such as this Hunter enjoyed a calm, pure happiness. So Reynolds, his friend, seems to tell of him. In that master- picco of portraiture, which teaches like a chapter of biography, Hunter is not shown as the busy anatomist or experimenter pursuing objective facts. The chief records of his work are in the background; he is at rest and looking out, but as one who is looking far beyond and away from things visible into a world of truth and law, which can only be intellectually discerned. The clear vision of that world was his reward, It may be the reward of all who will live the scientific life with the same devotion and simplicity."

I believe there are men amongst us who so love nature that they might prove even to Mr. Rus- kin that the microscopic cells and the spiral fibres seen in the dissection of the plant possess beauties of their own, and are but the elements which,