Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/12

viii this would have been almost as obviously out of place as commentary, and the inclination towards such an agreeable undertaking was also resisted.

It appeared, nevertheless, that the Works of our great physiological discoverer might be advantageously prefaced by some account of his Life and Writings. One great motive with me, indeed, for undertaking the office of Editor of the Works of Harvey was, that I might thus find a fitting opportunity for writing his life, a task which, in other circumstances than those that now surround me, it had still been a cherished purpose with me to perform. The Life of Harvey, by one who had maintained a familiarity with anatomy and physiology, had always seemed to me a desideratum in our medical literature.

This portion of my work I have only achieved with an effort, and at something like disadvantage. Incessantly engaged by night and by day in the laborious and responsible duties of a country practice, enjoying nothing of learned leisure, but snatching from the hours that should rightfully be given to rest, the time that was necessary to composition, remote too from means of information which I must nevertheless send for and consult — for I could not draw entirely upon memory and old recollections of Harvey, I have been much longer about this work than its length might indicate. In spite of many disadvantages, however, I trust it will be found that I have included everything of moment in my narrative of the life of Harvey; that I have set his claims to the whole and sole merit of the discovery of the Circulation in a new and clearer light than they have yet been seen; and that I have done more than any preceding biographer in exhibiting his moral nature; for truly he was as noble in nature as he was intellectually great.