THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD. 441 



published, have raised. Better it is, certainly, at 

 some time, to endeavour to grow wise at home in 

 private, than by the hasty divulgation of such things 

 to the knowledge whereof you have attained with 

 vast labour, to stir up tempests that may deprive 

 you of your leisure and quiet for the future." 



His merits were, however, soon generally recog- 

 nized. He was 16 made physician to James the First, 

 and afterwards to Charles the First, and attended 

 that unfortunate monarch in the civil war. He had 

 the permission of the parliament to accompany the 

 king on his leaving London ; but this did not pro- 

 tect him from having his house plundered in his 

 absence, not only of its furniture, but, which he 

 felt more, of the records of his experiments. In 

 1652, his brethren of the College of Physicians 

 placed a marble bust of him in their hall, with an 

 inscription recording his discoveries ; and two years 

 later, he was nominated to the office of president 

 of the College, which however he declined in conse- 

 quence of his age and infirmities. His doctrine 

 soon acquired popular currency; it was, for instance, 

 taken by Descartes 17 as the basis of his physiology 

 in his work On Man ; and Harvey had the pleasure, 

 which is often denied to discoverers, of seeing his 

 discovery generally adopted during his lifetime. 



18 Biog. Brit. 1? Cuv. 53. 



