[22] On the monumental tablet of Thomas, the first of the brothers who died, in the church of St. Peter’s-le-Poore, the mottos, doubtless supplied by a surviving member of the family, show this feeling. The inscription is as follows:
As in a Sheafe of Arrows.
Vis unita fortior.
The band of Love
The Unitor of Brethren.
Here Lyeth the body of Thomas Harvey,
Of London, Merchant,
Who departed this life
The 2nd of Feby. An. Dom.
1622.
(Stow’s London, third edit., fol. Lond. 1633.)
John Harvey, Esq., who died in 1645, left his brother William’s wife £50. Eliab Harvey attended particularly to his brother William’s interests; and William at his death returned Eliab’s kindness by leaving him his residuary legatee.
[23] This rather arduous undertaking in those days was accomplished, according to Aubrey, about the year 1649. But I have found so much to excite doubt in Aubrey’s Notes, that I greatly suspect the accuracy of his statement about the journey to Italy.
[24] De Generatione Animalium, 4to, London, 1651.
[25] This statue perished with the building, in the great fire of London in 1666, and seems never to have been replaced. The hall of the present College of Physicians is not graced as was the old one in Harvey’s time. The only sculptures of Harvey that I know of are busts, in the theatre of the College of Physicians and on his monument in Hempstead church, but of dates posterior to their subject, that at the College of Physicians being apparently after the portrait by Jansen in the library, and, as I am informed, by a sculptor of the name of Seemacher.
[26] Aubrey, l. c. p. 378.
[27] There is much information on the life of Harvey in the inscription upon the copper-plate which was attached to his portrait in the old College of Physicians. I give it entire, anxious to set before the reader every authentic word of his times that was uttered of Harvey. This inscription, but, unless I mistake, abbreviated, may be found in printed letters under the bust of Harvey in the theatre of the Royal College of Physicians:
GULIELMUS HARVÆUS,
Anglus natus, Galliæ, Italiæ, Germaniæ hospes,
Ubique Amor et Desiderium,
Quem omnis terra expetisset Civem,
Medicinæ Doctor, Coll. Med. Lond. Socius et Consiliarius,
Anatomes, Chirurgiæque Professor,
Regis Jacobi Familiæ, Caroloque Regi Medicus,
Gestis clarus, omissisque honoribus,
Quorum alios tulit, oblatos renuit alios,
Omnes meruit.
Laudatis priscorum ingeniis par;
Quos honoravit maxime imitando,
Docuitque posteros exemplo.
Nullius lacessivit famam,
Veritatis studens magis quam gloriæ,
Hanc tamen adeptus
Industria, sagacitate, successu nobilis
Perpetuos sanguinis æstus
Circulari gyro fugientis, seque sequentis,
Primus promulgavit mundo.
Nec passus ultrà mortales sua ignorare primordia,
Aureum edidit de ovo atque pullo librum,
Albæ gallinæ filium.
Sic novis inventis Apollineam ampliavit artem,
Atque nostrum Apollinis sacrarium augustius esse
Tandem voluit;
Suasu enim et cura D. D. Dⁿⁱ. Francisci Prujeani Præsidis
Et Edmundi Smith Electoris
An. MDCLIII,
Senaculum, et de nomine suo Musæum horto superstruxit,
Quorum alterum plurimis libris et Instrumentis Chirurgicis,
Alterum omnigena supellectile ornavit et instruxit,
Medicinæ Patronus simul et Alumnus.
Non hic anhela substitit Herois Virtus, impatiens vinci
Accessit porro Munificentiæ decus:
Suasu enim et consilio Dⁿⁱ. Dʳⁱˢ. Edv. Alstoni Præsidis,
Anno MDCLVI
Rem nostram angustam prius, annuo LVI. l. reditu auxit,
Paterni Fundi ex asse hæredem collegium dicens;
Quo nihil Illi charius Nobisve honestius.
Unde ædificium sartum tectum perennare,
Unde Bibliothecario honorarium suum, suumque Oratori
Quotannis pendi;
Unde omnibus sociis annuum suum convivium,
Et suum denique (quot menses) conviviolum censoribus parari,
Jussit.
Ipse etiam pleno theatro gestiens se hæreditate exuere,
In manus Præsidis syngrapham tradidit.
Interfuitque Orationi veterum Benefactorum novorumque Illicio,
Et Philotesio Epulo;
Illius auspicium et pars maxima;
Hujus conviva simul et convivator.
Sic postquam satis sibi, satis nobis, satis gloriæ,
Amicis solum non satis, nec satis patriæ, vixerat,
Cœlicolûm atria subiit
Jun. iii, MDCLVII.
Quem pigebat superis reddere, sed pudebat negare:
Ne mireris igitur Lector,
Si quem marmoreum illic stare vides,
Hic totam implevit tabulam.
Abi et merere alteram.