Page:The Hunterian Oration1843.djvu/34

 benchesof the amphitheatre at the Jardin des Plantes, will ever forget the impression which he produced ?

This clearness of expression cannot be predicated of John Hunter. When he gets beyond mere description, his language becomes obscure, and it is evident that composition was not easy to him. As a consequence of this, many of his MSS., among others, the catalogue of his Museum, were never completed. When we view him as a teacher, how- ever, censure is swallowed up in admiration.

Nevertheless, it is said that he was deficient as a lecturer ; and he certainly seems to have wanted that vivid diction by which some men are enabled to enchain the attention of their audience, and lend the charm of novelty to the most familiar details. Sometimes, too, he appears to have been unable to express what he meant; and it has been boldly assumed, that on such occasions he had no meaning at all, and was “labouring with the delivery of nothing.” Let usdeem more nobly of John Hunter. Who can doubt, that in such instances, his mind was often wrapt in the dim vision of heights which he was not fated to ascend? What labourer, in science or in art, has not felt the force of the “ nequeo monstrare et sentio tantim?’ Without fluency and vivacity, however, a lecturer can rarely be popular ; and hence John Hunter’s lectures were but thinly attended. Like Milton, he probably was content if he could “a fit audience find, though few ;” and he might, indeed, have been satisfied could he have anticipated the future glories of his pupils.. Let us estimate his lectures, not by a cold