SECT. 3] AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES 155 



But all these titles to remembrance, great as they are, do not 

 account for the pecuhar fascination of Harvey. A little of it is perhaps 

 due to his imaginative style, which comes out clearly in Martm 

 Llewellyn's English version. A word of censure is due to Willis 

 for transmuting it in his translation into the dull and pedestrian 

 style of 1847. None who reads the 1653 edition of Harvey can ever 

 forget such metaphors as this, "For the trunck of the body hitherto 

 resembles a skiff without a deck, being in no way covered up by 

 the anteriour parts"; or the vigour of diction which promotes such 

 remarks as, "In a hen-egge after the tenth day, the heart admits no 

 spectators without dissection"; or again, "For while the foetus is yet 

 feeble. Nature hath provided it milder diet and solider meats for its 

 stronger capacity, and when it is now hearty enough, and can away 

 with courser cates, it is served with commons answerable to it. And 

 hereupon I conceive that perfect eggs are not onely party-coloured, 

 but also furnished with a double white"; or, lastly, "An egge is, as it 

 were, an exposed womb ; wherein there is a substance concluded, as 

 the Representative and Substitute or Vicar of the breasts". 



In this connection, it would be a pity not to quote from the verses 

 which Llewellyn prefixed to his translation of Harvey's book. After 

 describing the controversies that followed the De Motu Cordis he wrote 



A Calmer Welcome this choice Peice befall, 



Which from fresh Extract hath deduced all, 



And for Belief, bids it no longer begg 



That Castor once and Pollux were an Egge : 



That both the Hen and Houswife are so matcht, 



That her Son born, is only her Son hatcht; 



That when her Teeming hopes have prosp'rous bin. 



Yet to conceive, is but to lay, within. 



Experiment, and Truth both take thy part: 



If thou canst 'scape the Women ! there's the Art. 



Live Modern Wonder, and be read alone, 



Thy Brain hath Issue, though thy Loins have none. 



Let fraile Succession be the Vulgar Care; 



Great Generation's Selfe is now thy Heire. 



Curiously enough, the "calmer welcome" which Martin Llewellyn 

 hoped for actually happened. Harvey's book was so well reasoned 

 and based on such good observations that it produced only two 



