81 save a man, from falling into the use of false or extravagant imagery. Harvey, besides the advantages accruing from acquaintance with the great minds of the past, enjoyed also those which may be gotten from familiar intercourse with great contemporary minds. These advantages constitute in themselves a second educa- tion; and they were at Harvey's command for the period of more than forty years during which he was prominently before the public. It is recorded as one of the many distinc- tions of John Greaves (see Life, by T. Smith, 1699, P- 44-)> the once celebrated astronomer and antiquary, and a man whom we can well believe to have done more, as a Fellow of Merton, than give a silent vote for Harvey when he was chosen Warden, that he was one of the friends of Harvey as well as of Archbishops Laud and Usher. It is indeed in a letter to this latter dignitary, and in answer, we may suppose, to an appeal from him on behalf of Harvey, that we find John Greaves pledging himself in a postscript, under date Sept. 19, 1644, the year before Harvey's election as Warden of Merton, to G
