Page:The Hunterian oration, for the year 1819.djvu/31

Rh light was, to think.” Mr. Hunter did not begin to learn anatomy till he was eighteen years of age; but when the book of nature lay exposed to his view, he read it with facility, interest, intelligence, and diligence; and the idle youth became a most industrious man. Like Haller, he devoted himself to physiology. Such minds could not but be highly sensible of the interest and importance of this study: they could not be contented with the mere notation of facts, without enquiring into their probable causes and uses. Like Haller, he became an exact and comprehensive anatomist. No structure, nor substance wanting structure, yet possessing life, escaped his strictest scrutiny. Like Haller, he investigated the nature of function by experiment, yet how different is the conclusion of the labours and reflections, or the principles of the physiological doctrines of these almost contemporary and very extraordinary characters;—the one enriched from the possessions of all others, and endowed with great degrees of intellectual powers; the ether, rich only in natural genius and talent.