Biographical Memoir of the late Dr Henry. 5 



Gregory, whose marked originality of thought and humour, 

 and whose happy talent of arresting attention by illustrative 

 cases, narrated with dramatic effect, threw around the descrip- 

 tions of disease a fascinating interest, to which they would 

 seem naturally most alien. On Dr Henry's second visit in 

 1805 to the University, he found the chair of Physical Science 

 adorned by the profound mathematical learning of Playfair, 

 and that of Moral Philosophy occupied by Stewart, whose pre- 

 eminence as a teacher has been beautifully celebrated by the 

 most competent judge of modern times.* Of the invaluable in- 

 structions of Mr Stewart, Dr Henry was prevented from avail 

 ing himself by the necessity of following at the same hour 

 some j^rofessional lectures ; but he has confessed that he not 

 unfrequently deserted the Clinical Theatre for the impressive 

 lessons of a higher wisdom. He ever retained and expressed 

 the deepest admiration for the compositions of these two mas- 

 ter minds. The style of Playfair, in his Dissertation on Phy- 

 sical Science, and in liis biographical notices of Hutton and 

 Robison, Dr Henry regarded as, upon the whole, the best ad- 

 apted to philosojihical purposes which our language possesses, 

 and he had certainly erected it into a standard for his own imi- 

 tation. In the writings of Stewart he was accustomed to praise 

 the delicacy and correctness of his taste in arts and letters, the 

 easy and melodious flow of his periods, his graceful distribu- 

 tion of ornament ; but above all, the elevation and purity of 

 his moral judgments and sensibilities, and tlie fervour and 

 depth of conviction, with which he ever advocates as insepara- 

 ble, the interests of philosophy and of virtue. 



To this period of his life, Dr Henry always looked back, as 

 a season of pure and unmingled happiness, arising out of the 

 consciousness of a steady and rapid progress in knowledge, un- 

 disturbed by the cares and practical business of life, and quick- 

 ened by constant intercommunion with minds ardently devoted 

 to similar pursuits. He seems, indeed, to have been peculiarly 

 happy in his intimate associates and fellow-labourers. Nor 

 has the Metropolis of the North ever before or since assembled 

 within its halls of science, cither so many illustrious teachers, 



• Sir Jaiiius Mackintosli, ricliininai y Dissertation, ji. 3f!0. 



