“True,” said I; “it is the usual reward of virtue to have received ill for having merited well. But the winds which raised those storms, like the north-western blast, which drowns itself in its own rain, have only drawn mischief on themselves.”
Upon this he showed me his ‘Exercises on the Generation of Animals,’ a work composed with vast labour and singular care; and having it in my hands, I exclaimed, “Now have I what I so much desired! and unless you consent to make this work public, I must say that you will be wanting both to your own fame and to the public usefulness. Nor let any fear of farther trouble in the matter induce you to withhold it longer: I gladly charge myself with the whole business of correcting the press.”
Making many difficulties at first, urging, among other things, that his work must be held imperfect, as not containing his investigations on the generation of insects, I nevertheless prevailed at length, and he said to me, “I intrust these papers to your care with full authority either speedily to commit them to the press, or to suppress them till some future time.” Having returned him many thanks, I bade him adieu, and took my leave, feeling like another Jason laden with the golden fleece. On returning home I forthwith proceeded to examine my prize in all its parts, and could not but wonder with myself that such a treasure should have lain so long concealed; and that whilst others produce their trifles and emptinesses with much ado, their messes twice, aye, an hundred times, heated up, our Harvey should set so little store by his admirable observations. And indeed, so often as he has sent forth any of his discoveries to the world, he has not comported himself like those who, when they publish, would have us believe that an oak had spoken, and that they had merited the rarest honours,—a draught of hen’s milk at the least. Our Harvey rather seems as though discovery were natural to him, a thing of ease and of course, a matter of ordinary business; though he may nevertheless have expended infinite labour and study on his works. And we have evidence of his singular candour in this, that he never hostilely attacks any previous writer, but ever courteously sets down and comments upon the opinions of each; and indeed he is wont to say, that it is argument of an indifferent cause when it is contended for with violence and distemper; and that truth scarce wants an advocate.
It would have been easy for our illustrious colleague to have woven the whole of this web from materials of his own; but to escape the charge of envy, he has rather chosen to take Aristotle and Fabricius of Aquapendente as his guides, and to appear as contributing but his portion to the general fabric. Of him, whose virtue, candour, and genius are so well known to you all, I shall say no more, lest I should seem to praise to his face one whose singular worth has exalted him beyond the reach of all praise. Of myself I shall only say, that I have done no more than perform the midwife’s office in this business, ushering into the light this product of our colleague’s genius as you see it, consummate and complete, but long delayed, and fearing perchance some envious blast: in other words, I have overlooked the press; and as our author writes a hand which no one without practice can easily read (a thing that is common among our men of letters), I have taken some pains to prevent the printer committing any very grave blunders through this—a point which I observe not to have been sufficiently attended to in the small work of his which lately appeared.[121]
Here then, my learned friends, you have the cause of my addressing you at this time, viz. that you may know that our Harvey presents an offering to the benefit of the republic of letters, to your honour, to his own eternal fame.
Farewell, and prosper.
George Ent.
INTRODUCTION.
It will not, I trust, be unwelcome to you, candid reader, if I yield to the wishes, I might even say the entreaties, of many, and in these Exercises on Animal Generation, lay before the student and lover of truth what I have observed on this subject from anatomical dissections, which turns out to be very different from anything that is delivered by authors, whether philosophers or physicians.
Physicians, following Galen, teach that from the semen of the male and female mingled in coition the offspring is produced, and resembles one or other, according to the predominance of this one or of that; and farther, that in virtue of the same predominance, it is either male or female. Sometimes they declare the semen masculinum as the efficient cause, and the semen femininum as supplying the matter; and sometimes, again, they advocate precisely the opposite doctrine. Aristotle, one of Nature’s most diligent inquirers, however affirms the principles of generation to be the male and the female, she contributing the matter, he the form; and that immediately after the sexual act the vital principle and the first particle of the future fœtus, viz. the heart, in animals that have red blood, are formed from the menstrual blood in the uterus.
But that these are erroneous and hasty conclusions is easily made to appear: like phantoms of darkness they suddenly vanish before the light of anatomical inquiry. Nor is any long refutation necessary where the truth can be seen with one’s proper eyes; where the inquirer by simple inspection finds everything in conformity with reason; and where at the same time he is made to understand how unsafe, how base a thing it is to receive instruction from others’ comments without examination of the objects themselves, the rather as the book of Nature lies so open and is so easy of consultation.