Page:The Hunterian oration, for the year 1819.djvu/53

 and we find him complaining of this, like one who had felt it sorely.

Those who far precede others must necessarily remain alone; and their actions often appear unaccountable, nay even extravagant, to their distant followers; who know not the causes that give rise to them, nor the effects which they are designed to produce. In such a situation stood Mr. Hunter with relation to his contemporaries. It was a comfortless precedence, for it deprived him of sympathy and social co-operation; and he felt that his labours and merits were not known, or fairly estimated.

None of these causes of irritation, however, in general disturbed the patience and good-humour of John Hunter, who found ample consolation, in thinking of what he had already done, and might still do, for the attainment of knowledge, the most important to humanity.

That Mr. Hunter had a very susceptible mind can scarcely be doubted. Sir Everard