The Works of William Harvey M.D.: Translated from the Latin with a life of the authorHarvey, William
Science
The Works of William Harvey M.D.: Translated from the Latin with a life of the author
Harvey, William
Blood -- Circulation -- Early works to 1800; Embryology -- Early works to 1800; Physiology -- Early works to 1800
Having studied and made ourselves familiar with these, we may turn to
the consideration of the more abstruse nature of the vegetative soul,
and feel ourselves in a condition to understand the method, order, and
causes of generation in animals generally; for all animals resemble one
or other of those above mentioned, and agree with them either generally
or specifically, and are procreated in the same manner, or the mode of
their generation at least is referrible by analogy to that of one or
other of them. For Nature, perfect and divine, is ever in the same
things harmonious with herself, and as her works either agree or differ,
(viz. in genus, species, or some other proportion,) so is her agency in
these (viz. generation or development) either the same or diverse. He
who enters on this new and untrodden path, and out of the vast realm of
Nature endeavours to find the truth by means of anatomical dissections
and experiments, is met by such a multitude of facts, and these of so
unusual an aspect, that he may find it more difficult to explain and
describe to others the things he has seen, than he reckoned it labour to
make his observations; so many things are encountered that require
naming; such is the abundance of matter and the dearth of words. But if
he would have recourse to metaphors, and by means of old and familiar
terms would make known his ideas concerning the things he has newly
discovered, the reader would have little chance of understanding him
better than if they were riddles that were propounded; and of the thing
itself, which he had never seen, he could have no conception. But then,
to have recourse to new and unusual terms were less to bring a torch to
lighten, than to darken things still more with a cloud: it were to
attempt an explanation of a matter unknown by one still more unknown,
and to impose a greater toil on the reader to understand the meaning of
words than to comprehend the things themselves. And so it happens that
Aristotle is believed by the inexperienced to be obscure in many places;
and on this account, perhaps, Fabricius of Aquapendente rather intended
to exhibit the chick in ovo in his figures than to explain its formation
in words.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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