Page:The Harveian oration for 1874.djvu/55

 Oration three years ago blame me if I pass without further notice that great work on Generation, which (incomplete though it is, and imperfect as it must needs be, owing to the absence in Harvey’s time of many of those helps which were absolutely essential to arriving at the truth) remains like the torso of some ancient statue, the imperishable monument of the artist’s genius.

I will keep, with your permission, Sir, to the lower level, where I can walk most securely. ‘I am not high-minded, I have not high thoughts, I meddle not with things that are too wonderful for me,’ said one of old, and the tradition has been well kept up in the College, which once enrolled you among its Fellows, Mr. President: and where the low and narrow gate Humility leads to the gate of Honour.