HUNTERIAN ORATION. 45 



more advantageous to his reputation first in- 

 duced me to proposeto him questions, merely 

 in order to learn how he would answer 

 them : yet this seeming desire of inform- 

 ation- on my part, acting on his benevolent 

 mind, induced him to pay me much more 

 attention than I had been accustomed to 

 receive from others. He invited me to 

 come to his house, to sit and converse with 

 him. I now regret that I profited so little 

 by the opportunities he offered me ; but I 

 was at that time ignorant of the value of 

 the information which I might have de- 

 rived from him. That benevolence was a 

 predominant sentiment of Mr. Hunter's 

 mind may be inferred from his fondness 

 for animals, his aversion to operations, 

 and from the zeal with which he assisted 

 every poor man of merit. Upon men- 

 tioning my conviction on this point to a 

 surgeon who knew him intimately, he re- 

 plied, " I am sure I have reason to think 

 so, for I was ill, and he kindly and dili- 

 gently attended me : nay, he brought those 

 of his medical friends to visit me in whose 

 judgment he placed most confidence. My 

 illness being, however, tedious, I was at 



