36 LECTURE I. 



elated by the progress of science, may 

 think me hasty, and that I had better have 

 waited to see what her ample page might 

 have eventually unfolded. To them I bow 

 with respect, and assure them, that I would 

 have done so, had the subject been merely 

 an abstract question in Pliysiology. 



Few however are they who contemplate 

 the nature of life "in the calm lights of 

 mild Philosophy ;" nor do I affect to in- 

 clude myself among that very small num- 

 ber. In becoming the advocate of Mr. 

 Hunter's Theory of Life, I knew I should 

 irritate what many might consider as a very 

 formidable Party. Formidable, because 

 some of them possess extensive information, 

 are subtle disputants, have words at v/ill to 

 make the worse appear the better argu- 

 ment, and are writers even by profession. 

 Yet I feared them not, because I knew, 

 that words do not make, but merely adorn 

 arguments. Nevertheless I thought it pru- 

 dent to entrench my subject behind a little 



