Page:The Harveian oration - delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, London, June 29th, 1867 (IA b22315263).pdf/31

 ceiving an intelligent award is a harder grievance than the absence in our profession of those rich prizes which are meted out so liberally to the successful in the sister faculties of Divinity and Law.

This allusion to the name of Harvey warns me once more to revert to the duty of the day, and suggests that I have scarcely borne the meed of honour due to his great memory. It was more than talent, more than devoted industry, which were needed to make up the complement of noble qualities by which a fame like his could rise and live. Modest, courageous, temperate, generous and courteous—a brilliant catalogue of virtues!—these were his; and genial circumstances attended his career. Obstructions and neglect, we know, crossed him. When has the path of human life been trodden without meeting them? Yet, as regards his scientific labours, it may be questioned whether difficulties in the establishment of any new-found truth ought to be esteemed a hardship. New knowledge must be proved; and a too facile acceptation can be wished for only by pro-