Page:The Harveian oration - delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, London, on October 18, 1884 (IA b21778929).pdf/19

 let me call your attention to his forethought, and instructive prevision of some of the results obtained by the labours of those who followed him.

c. Great men have always foreseen much; or, at all events, have said or seen things of which they perhaps did not, and could not fully appreciate the meaning. They have scattered gerins of thought around them, as they passed, through the varying fields of life, to the point, or end that their determination impelled them to attain; and some of these seeds of future discovery have "fallen on good ground, and brought forth fruit." There is here some instance of the process of "Evolution" in regard to scientific discovery. Harvey reaped much that he had not sown; but he sowed much more which others, after him, might reap.

The evolution of scientific discovery-which is a matter of simple fact-suggests questions, which cannot be discussed on this occasion, but which we may do well to consider.

Is there any "spontaneous generation" of ideas?

Can man ever do anything outside the lines in which his forefathers thought and reasoned ?

Can he originate anything, as by a "sport;" or, must all that he can think or know, be but the outgrowth of the germ-thoughts of others; or, the mere learning of details quite far away from what we mean by discovery?

There is ancient authority for believing that "There is no new thing under the sun;" but has there been no new thought? If creative energy be limited in matter; is it also limited in mind? If there has, ever, been an act of "creation," may not such an act be repeated ?

May I not further ask, if, in the words of the really great Men, there are so many fertile seeds, which alone are the germs of all that is to come, we may not, instead of adopting hastily, as we sometimes do, the most charming generalizations of the last few years, and saying, along these lines