HIS PUBLIC CAREER. xxv 



The empiric under the title of the practical man, in his 

 unsuspecting ignorance, sets himself up and is admitted 

 as arbiter wherever there is difficulty : blind himself, he 

 leads the blinded multitude the way he lists. He who laid 

 the foundation of modern medical science lost his practice for 

 his pains, and the routineer, with an appropriate salve for 

 every sore, a pill and potion for each particular ache and ail, 

 would not give threepence for one of his prescriptions ! 

 did not admire his therapeutique way ! ! and could not tell 

 what he did aim at ! ! ! Ignorance and presumption have 

 never hesitated to rend the veil that science and modesty, 

 all in supplying the means, have still owned their inability 

 to raise. If Harvey faltered, who of his contemporaries could 

 rightfully presume to walk secure ? And yet did each and all 

 of them, unconscious of the darkness, tread their twilight 

 paths assuredly; whilst he, the divinity among them, with his 

 eyes unsealed, felt little certain of his way. So has it still 

 been with medicine ; and the world must make many a lusty 

 onward stride in knowledge before it can be otherwise. 



The first interruption to his ordinary professional pursuits 

 and avocations which Harvey seems to have suffered through 

 his connexion with the court, occurred in the beginning of 

 1630, when he was engaged "to accompany the young Duke 

 of Lenox in his travels beyond seas." In anticipation of a 

 removal from London, apparently, Harvey had already, in 

 December 1629, resigned his office of treasurer to the College 

 of Physicians, which he seems to have filled for several years. 



Of the course of Harvey's travels with the Duke of Lenox 

 we have not been able to gain any information. Their way 

 probably led them to the Continent, and it may have been on 

 this occasion and in this company that he visited Venice, as 

 we know from himself that he did in the course of one of his 

 journeys. Harvey must have been in England again in 1632 and 

 1633 ; for in the former year he was formally chosen physician 



