Page:The Harveian oration for 1874.djvu/26

 heart, believing that it, like every good and perfect gift, cometh down from above from the Father of lights; and his longing for it seems to have become stronger as he grew older.

did it in the full conviction that here we know but in part, that we do but see as through a glass darkly; but that there, in the full effulgence of God’s own light, we shall see all clearly, and that there all secrets shall be revealed.

Such then was Harvey; so far at least as scanty materials allow us to sketch the outline, and as my unskilled pencil may enable me to fill in the details of the portrait. It will not be without interest to enquire in the midst of what surroundings he grew up; for though his was not the character to be shaped by outward circumstances, still no one can be altogether independent of their influence, and least of all in times such as were those in which Harvey lived.

The earliest lesson that he learned, next to