752 THE HARVEIAN ORATION. 



to the conclusion that every great man in modern times had been 

 anticipated by somebody or other in ancient ones, might still be 

 going- about in dry places, and might wholly enter into and en- 

 tirely fill up the soul of some small antiquary, who, coming under 

 such inspiration and guidance upon the passages which I have col- 

 lected, might proceed to instruct the literary public as to Warner's 

 claims. 



Whilst considering what indirect evidence might be brought 

 together to rebut this possible attempt at detraction, I came 

 upon what led me to the discovery of the direct evidence I have 

 promised to lay before you, in the shape of a clue which brought 

 me, after a somewhat tortuous course, upon Walter Warner's 

 actual autograph MS. I found, whilst following up Dr. Pell's 

 history, scattered through Dr. Birch's un indexed ' History of the 

 Royal Society,' that Dr. Birch had procured a number of MSS. of 

 Mr. Walter Warner's for that Society mixed up with Dr. Pell's 

 (see vol. ii. p. 342 ; vol. iv. p. 447). Coupling this statement with 

 the voucher for Warner's claims, ascribed by Wood and Aubrey to 

 Dr. Pell (who, however, is never reported in Dr. Birch's History, 

 so far as I found, to have given currency to this statement), I 

 thought that by these MSS. I should be able to test the truth of 

 these statements. But the librarian of the Boyal Society knew 

 nothing of any MSS., either of Pell's or of Warner's ; and, as the 

 result will show, it' would have been odd if he had — at least, in his 

 official capacity. I then made inquiry of the Duke of North- 

 umberland, in whose library xhe MS. of Warner, once a pensioner 

 of his house, might possibly be preserved ; but Mr. J. E. Martin 

 informed me that this hope was a vain one. I found that Sion 

 College had once possessed one MS. of Warner's ; but I learnt from 

 the Rev. W. W. Milman that they had lost it, and much besides, 

 in the great fire of London in i665. Finally, when taking the 

 register of Merton College up to the British Museum for the pur- 

 pose of comparing the entries made in that volume during Harvey's 

 wardenship with his one authentic autograph MS. now in the 

 national collection, I bethought me of making, at the same time, 

 some inquiries as to Warner and Pell ; and at last, when I least 

 expected it, and had nearly ceased to hope for it, I came upon 

 Walter Warner's MS., contained in Dr. Birch's collection (which, 

 according to him, had been made over to the Royal Society), under 



