Page:The Harveian oration - delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, October 18th, 1899 (IA b24975941).pdf/34

30 THE HARVEIAN ORATION. towards research can do anything but harm to the cause of the suffering poor.

In this country we have always wisely recognised the uses of opposition. The stability of our political organisation has been largely due to the fact that the party in power is subjected to the ruthless criticism of the Opposition, "the toad ugly and venomous which "wears yet a precious jewel in its head." So it has been in medicine, where scientific advance has been checked not only by the criticism of the learned, but occasionally by the clamour of the prejudiced and ignorant. We have seemed at times to lag behind our neighbours, but our advance, if occasionally slow, has generally been sure. The party of scientific advance is necessarily always a small one, and it is possible that the relatively ignorant may cause some temporary discomfort to the learned few. But this is the extent of their power. The true spirit of inquiry, like the divine afflatus of the poet, is not subject to human control, and the laws of Nature are more permanent than Acts of Parliament.