40 The Harveian Oration.
ing our comprehension; if we may not, in fine, without the charge of temerity, ven- ture to assign the why in physical causes, how much more open are we to the charge when we set up ourselves as judges of the moral purposes of disease?
I cannot doubt it is on all sides impera- tive upon us to limit, and if possible to blot out, all diseases of whatever kind. Who would assume the responsibility of letting a preventable evil fester in society, on a pre- tence of a knowledge of the divine purposes, or under the pretext that public morality would be thereby promoted? The duty which lies nearest to us must ever have the first claim; and it cannot but be admitted that the nearest duty each man has to his fellow is to save him as far as possible from all injury, even though that injury may arise as the consequence of his own fault. Nor will it be questioned that the cause of morality is more advanced by beneficent interference than by permitting ourselves. to stand passively by whilst intemperance
