50 BRITISH PHYSICIANS. of his time as his immortal treatise on the circu- lation of the blood. " I fomid him," says Ent, " in his retirement not far from town, with a sprightly and cheerful countenance, investigating, like Democritus, the nature of things. Asking if all were well with him, — ' How can that be,' he repHed, ' when the state is so agitated with storms, and I myself am yet in the open sea ? And, indeed,' added he, ' were not my mind solaced by my studies and the recollec- tion of the observations I have formerly made, there is nothing which should make me desirous of a longer continuance. But, thus employed, this obscure life, and vacation from public cares, which disquiet other minds, is the medicine of mine.' " Ent goes on to relate a philosophical conversation between them, that brought on the mention of these papers of liis, which the public had so long expected. After some modest alter- cation, Harvey brought them all to him, with per- mission either to publish them immediately, or to suppress them till some future time, " I went from him," says Dr. Ent, " like another Jason, in possession of the golden fleece, and when I came home, and perused the pieces singly, I was amazed that so vast a treasure should have been so long hidden ; and that while others with great parade exhibit to the public their stale trash, this person should seem to make so little account of his admirable observations." Indeed, no one appears to have possessed, in a greater degree than Harvey, that genuine modesty which distin- guishes the real philosopher from the superficial pretender to science. Hjs great discovery was not
