Page:The Harveian oration for 1874.djvu/48

 perpetual flux and reflux, an ebbing and a flowing tide, a tide,—so influenced by the same causes as govern the tides of ocean; and hence, even in ordinary functions of the body, the aspect of the moon, the conjunctions of the stars, controlled or at least modified them all. The heart, too, was not only the generator of vital heat and seat of life, but the source of the passions, and, when unrenewed, the dwelling-place of evil, its seat and throne.

So sings, or stammers rather, one of Harvey’s contemporaries, the least poetical of a family of poets.

I have quoted these lines, not for their merit certainly, but because they afford a good illustration of that mixing up of the figurative expressions of theology in scientific enquiries which interferes grievously with the