Page:The Harveian oration for 1874.djvu/40

 says the poet; consummate in wisdom, pagan in creed, born by a strange anachronism in Christian times.

And Harvey might well have rejoiced in this his heritage, whose value it yet needed genius like his to turn to good account. Vague traditions, gleams of information derived from veteran mariners, the seeds and fruits of unknown plants washed upon the western coasts of Europe, were the grounds on which Columbus built his hypothesis of a New World, whose discovery has rendered his name immortal. The facts were there, but others lacked the skill to interpret them. In the case of Columbus the writing on the wall had remained unread for ages: in that of Harvey the characters had not been traced so long. I do not know that that detracts from the skill of the interpreter.

We have no means of telling what foreshadowings of his great discovery had been present to Harvey’s mind in Padua, though it is evident from various incidental allusions to his work there that it had constant reference to the great unsolved problem which he was the first to answer.