2i MODERN HISTORY 



never forgot that the physiologist is the minister and inter- 

 preter of nature : and iiowever little conversant he may 

 have been with human works, no man ever consulted with 

 a more attentive and scrutinizing eye the book of nature, 

 which always instructs, and never deceives us. His Museum 

 will teacli us how he endeavoured to learn the structure ; 

 and the records of his observations and experiments will 

 shew how he inquired into the actions of living beings. 

 Such were the means in his opinion best calculated to un- 

 fold the nature of life ; the characters of which he has 

 drawn, not with the wavering outline aud undefined forms 

 of speculation, nor in the gaudy and delusive tints of hypo- 

 thesis, but with the firm touch that real observation alone 

 could give, and in the sober colouring of that nature with 

 which he was so well acquainted. 



He seldom ventured into the regions of speculation ; aod 

 the fruits of his excursions, when he did thus indulge him- 

 self, are not calculated to make us regret they were so few. 

 They bear indeed the marks of the common weakness of 

 our nature ; and remind us of the observation applied to 

 the theological writings of Sir Isaac Newton — that they 

 afford to the rest of mankind a consolation and recompense 

 for the superiority he displayed over them in other respects. 

 I forbear any further disquisition of his merits, because 

 they have already been sufficiently explained to you this 

 year; and particularly in reference to our present subject 

 of comparative anatomy ; because too, the frequent repeti- 

 tion of the theme might lead you to entertain those doubts 

 and suspicions which uncommon earnestness and reiterated 

 recurrence often suggest, when they do not arise naturally 

 out of the subject. 



Comparative anatomy is still pursued with great zeal in 

 Germany, where literature and science are resuming that 

 activity which had experienced a short interruption from 

 war — the favourite, but costly and destructive game of 

 princes, and indeed of people. 



The structure, economy, and scientific classification of 

 intestinal worms have been illustrated by several German 



