Page:The Hunterian Oration 1832.djvu/13

 conceive; and though, on certain occasions, we find an approach to this nullity of intellectual existence, it is not that the seeds of improvement are entirely wanting, but only the stimulus, which should make them grow. Thus, as is well observed by a late professor of this College, the New Hollander, in his savage state, scarcely excels the beasts, his companions, and shows no tendency to better his condition, or to improve his faculties; yet, place him in communication with civilized man, and, though averse to leave his savage habits, he shows the original endowments of our nature, and vindicates, by his sympathies and his intelligence, his claims to be considered human.

The admirable Shakespeare has predicted, that


 * "the great globe itself,
 * Yea, all who it inherit, shall dissolve,
 * And, like the insubstantial pageant faded,
 * Leave not a rack behind!"