148 DOCTOR ENT'S EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 



Animals/ a work composed with vast labour and singular care ; 

 and having it in my hands, I exclaimed, " Now have I what I 

 so much desired ! and unless you consent to make this work 

 public, I must say that you will be wanting both to your own 

 fame and to the public usefulness. Nor let any fear of farther 

 trouble in the matter induce you to withhold it longer : I gladly 

 charge myself with the whole business of correcting the 

 press/' 



Making many difficulties at first, urging, among other things, 

 that his work must be held imperfect, as not containing his in- 

 vestigations on the generation of insects, I nevertheless prevailed 

 at length, and he said to me, " I intrust these papers to your 

 care with full authority either speedily to commit them to the 

 press, or to suppress them till some future time." Having re- 

 turned him many thanks, I bade him adieu, and took my leave, 

 feeling like another Jason laden with the golden fleece. On 

 returning home I forthwith proceeded to examine my prize in 

 all its parts, and could not but wpnder with myself that such a 

 treasure should have lain so long concealed; and that whilst 

 others produce their trifles and emptinesses with much ado, their 

 messes twice, aye, an hundred times, heated up, our Harvey 

 should set so little store by his admirable observations. And 

 indeed, so often as he has sent forth any of his discoveries 

 to the world, he has not comported himself like those who, 

 when they publish, would have us believe that an oak had 

 spoken, and that they had merited the rarest honours, a 

 draught of hen's milk at the least. Our Harvey rather seems 

 as though discovery were natural to him, a thing of ease 

 and of course, a matter of ordinary business ; though he may 

 nevertheless have expended infinite labour and study on his 

 works. And we have evidence of his singular candour in this, 

 that he never hostilely attacks any previous writer, but ever 

 courteously sets down and comments upon the opinions of each; 

 and indeed he is wont to say, that it is argument of an indif- 



