42 THE GROWTH OF TRUTH 



But the moving hand reminds your orator, Mr. Presi- 

 dent, of a bounden duty laid upon him by our great 

 Dictator to commemorate on this occasion by name all 

 of our benefactors; to urge others to follow their 

 example ; to exhort the Fellows and Members to study 

 out the secrets of Nature by way of experiment ; and, 

 lastly, for the honour of the profession, to continue in 

 love and affection among ourselves. No greater tribute 

 to Harvey exists than in these simple sentences in which 

 he established this lectureship, breathing as they do the 

 very spirit of the man, and revealing to us his heart of 

 hearts. Doubtless, no one more than he rejoices that 

 our benefactors have now become so numerous as to 

 nullify the first injunction ; and the best one can do is to 

 give a general expression of our thanks, and to mention 

 here and there, as I have done, the more notable among 

 them. But this is not enough. While we are praising 

 famous men, honoured in their day and still the glory of 

 this College, the touching words of the son of Sirach 

 remind us : ' Some there be that have no memory, who 

 are perished as though they had never been, and are 

 become as though they had never been born.' Such 

 renown as they had, time has blotted out ; and on them 

 the iniquity of oblivion has blindly scattered her poppy. 

 A few are embalmed in the biographical dictionaries; 

 a few are dragged to light every year at Sotheby's, or 

 the memory is stirred to reminiscence as one takes down 

 an old volume from our shelves. But for the immense 

 majority on the long roll of our Fellows names! 

 names ! names ! nothing more ; a catalogue as dry and 

 meaningless as that of the ships, or as the genealogy of 

 David in the Book of Chronicles. Even the dignity of 

 the Presidential chair does not suffice to float a man down 

 the few centuries that have passed since the foundation 



