Page:The Hunterian Oration 1832.djvu/23

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19

the voice of truth: her nearest and noblest relative :

"the parent this
Of Science, or the lofty pow'r herself,
Science herself, on whom the wants and cares
Of social life depend, the substitute
Of God's own wisdom in this toilsome world,
The Providence of Man!"

It rarely happens, that the disadvantages, arising from the neglect of classical studies in our youth, can be removed by any subsequent diligence. If Horn Tooke and Dean Swift were exceptions, similar success cannot fall to the lot of those, whose daily occupations lead them into the busy scenes of life. With respect to John Hunter, his case may have been an instance of partial evil leading to universal good; and sober philosophy may even discern in this great man's abstraction from the beauties of classic knowledge, one cause of his unrivalled success in the cultivation of those branches of science, to which the faculties of his mind seem to have been peculiarly adapted. Certainly, it is impossible to say, what might have happened, had he imbibed an early taste