Page:The Hunterian oration, for the year 1819.djvu/41

Rh never consent to such regulations; for their effect would be, to deny the body the rite of Christian burial. But that the funeral service availeth not to the dead is made manifest, even by that sublime ritual itself, which places before our view the valueless nature of the dead body by the most emphatic language. We therefore commit the body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. That is to say, confident it must, according to the laws of nature, resolve itself into other forms, and become again an undistinguished part of the common constituent matter of the universe. Religion also “doth teach us for to render the deeds of mercy” and benevolence to those that want them, which deeds cannot be properly administered to such as suffer from illness or injury, unless in consequence of our obtaining an accurate knowledge of the structure of the human body. There is also another point on which some concession on the part of the public is required for the promotion of medical know-