of his profession had been tendered to him, and gracefully declined. To a mind like Harvey's, and with the opportunity afforded him of making so graceful a concession, the foremost place was certainly a higher distinction unaccepted, than it had been enjoyed.—The excuse for declining the office of president was not merely personal: it was not alone that he was an old man, infirm in health, and incompetent for so great a trust; but, the affairs of the college had greatly thriven under the prudent management and constant care of the late president, and it was no more than right that he who had but just laid down should be re-established in authority.
Harvey, we have said, was childless; his wife, though we have not the date of her death, he had certainly lost by this time. His only surviving brother Eliab was rich; his nephews were prosperous merchants and on the road to the independence and titles which several of them afterwards achieved: he, therefore, determined to make the College of Physicians not only heirs to his paternal estate, worth, at that time, 56l. per annum, but to bestow it on them in free gift during his life. This purpose he carried into effect by means of a formal instrument, which he delivered to the college in the month of July, 1656; the special provisions in the deed settling one sum, by way of salary for the librarian, and another sum, for the delivery of a solemn oration annually, in commemoration of those who had approved themselves benefactors to the college, and, by extension, who had added aught to the sum of medical science in the course of the bygone year.[1]
- ↑ 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 Præidis
Et Edmundi Smith Electoris
An. mdcliii,
Senaculum, et de nomine suo Musæum horto superstuxit,
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.
