Page:The Harveian oration for 1874.djvu/75

 might, had he chosen, have prevented. Much ingenuity has been exerted in the endeavour to explain away these difficulties, and at the same time to resist the conclusion, ‘Non omnis moriar,’ which explains them all.

But our profession gives us, in its daily exercise, the solution of the problem. We have to do with the spoilt, not with the perfect; the meaning presses on us; we find it in a brief sentence, half of which most are ready to utter with reverence, ‘Deus qui humanæ substantiæ dignitatem mirabiliter condidisti;’ ‘God who in creating human nature didst wonderfully dignify it;’ but two words are still wanting to complete it, ‘et mirabilius reformasti,’ ‘and hast still more wonderfully renewed it.’ These solve the otherwise insoluble equation, these give the answer to the enigma.

I have thus striven, Sir, as best I could, to obey your commands, and to set before the Fellows and Members of this College the great Harvey and the times in which he lived. I have endeavoured especially to dwell upon those features in his character—the gentleness, the forgetfulness of injury, the love of truth, the love of others, the highest love in which all of us can best hope to follow his example.