Page:The Harveian oration - delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, London, June 24, 1870 (IA b22307643).pdf/27

 The Harveian Oration. illustrations of one pervading law, reaching from the simple elements to the highest tissues and organs.

Not to occupy time by recapitulating the arguments of the Bridgewater Treatises, which, although written from another point of view, would equally prove this unity, I cannot forbear asking you for one moment to consider again this organization of our own bodies in relation to the earth we in- habit, and then say if it be otherwise con- ceivable but as the expression of the highest correlation of these external conditions. But some will reply, this is admitted, and explained by the direct operation of a Divine. Power upon the material, fitting one thing to another-the organ to its function, the sense to its object.' Accepting to the full all that could properly be contained in this assertion, it is still to be asked, in the in- terests of science, that, instead of closing the inquiry, it should, on the contrary, but open it, and quicken and make patient the understanding in our search after the facts by which such results are obtained; for the