19^ BIOLOGY AND ITS MAKERS 



lived, Malpighi could so successfully curb the tendency to 

 indulge in wordy disquisitions, and that he was satisfied to 

 observe carefully, and tell his story in a simple way. This 

 quality of mind is rare. As Emerson has said: ''I am im- 

 pressed with the fact that the greatest thing a human soul 

 ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it 

 saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one 

 who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. 

 To see clearly is poetry, philosophy, and religion all in one." 

 But " to see " here means, of course, to interpret as well as 

 to observe. 



Although there were observers in the field of embryology 

 before Harvey, little of substantial value had been produced. 

 The earliest attempts were vague and uncritical, embracing 

 only fragmentary views of the more obvious features of body- 

 formation. Nor, indeed, should we look for much advance 

 in the field of embryology even in Harvey's time. The reason 

 for this will become obvious when we remember that the 

 renewal of independent observation had just been brought 

 about in the preceding century by Vesalius, and that Harvey 

 himself was one of the pioneers in the intellectual awakening. 

 Studies on the development of the body are specialized, 

 involving observations on minute structures and recondite 

 processes, and must, therefore, wait upon considerable ad- 

 vances in anatomy and physiology. Accordingly, the science 

 of embryology was of late development. 



Harvey. — Harvey's was the first attempt to make a criti- 

 cal analysis of the process of development, and that he did not 

 attain more was not owing to limitations of his powers of dis- 

 cernment, but to the necessity of building on the general level 

 of the science of his time, and, further, to his lack of instru- 

 ments of observation and technique. Nevertheless, Harvey 

 may be considered as having made the first independent 

 advance in embryology. 



