theses, fictions, and arbitrary assumptions, and by considering life as a Law ;-implying that it is a power anterior, in the order of thought, to organization, which yet it animates, sustains, and repairs-a power originative and constructive of organization, in which it continues to manifest itself in all the forms and functions of living being. He has thus furnished the grounds of a new science, the science of Comparative or Universal Physiology; and with it the well founded, and not unconfirmed, hope of making every part of the organized creation give intelligibility to every other part, and all to the crown and consummation of all, the Human Frame.

My present purpose, however, is not that of dwelling on Hunter's merit as a physiologist and surgeon; but of considering how far his excellence may be deemed a pattern for the formation of a scientific character in unison with the requirements of our profession. We are here indeed, on the very threshold of our enquiry, met by a difficulty, which can neither be overlooked nor disregarded; it is this, that the predominant and characteristic trait of Hunter's mind was Genius. Now if, in accordance with almost universal belief, we admit without qualification that this attribute implies a perfection unattainable by human effort that it is absolutely a special gift of Providence imparting to the mind of its pos

sessor somewhat of the power originative and creative of the Divine Giver—we must humbly confess that Genius is not an imitable acquirement, and we shall be constrained to abandon as hopeless any search for the means of emulating Hunter's peculiar excellence by mental culture and self-exertion. Nevertheless, who will deny, that by educing and cultivating the powers, which any fairly endowed individual may possess, we may preserve the freshness, improve the vigour, and favor the originative faculties of the mind? And if, as cannot be doubted, the art and science of healing eminently require a mind relying on its own resources, it cannot be unworthy of our study how the mind may be best trained in order to elicit its inherent powers and native energies, and to render that calculable and regular, which otherwise would be but a happy accident.

On the other hand, were the inventive faculties of inborn Genius not sustained and reinforced by facilities acquired by habitual exercise, by laborious trains of thought, and by the accumulated lessons of experience, we should find original power elanguesce, and exhaust itself in immature and abortive productions:

"alterius sic

Altera poscit opem res, et conjurat amice."--Horace. And this view is not a little strengthened by the history of those favored individuals, who lay the highest claim to original and creative

thought. The unceasing application and marvellous industry of Hunter himself have been too often urged from this place to need additional praise or comment. And if our immortal Milton, in the full maturity of his genius,

"fed on thoughts that voluntary move Harmonious numbers,”

he had acquired this power, he had earned this facility, this spontaneous activity, by the industry with which in early life he had accustomed himself

“to build the lofty rhyme."

The processes of thought, which in the mind of an ordinary man form his distinct consciousness, and move separately and slowly before him, have by fusion and acceleration passed into the intellectual life of the man of genius in the moment of productive action. But, mighty as the collected stream, still it is the rills and rivulets of reflection, by which the mass of waters is fed ;—the raindrops of the overhanging tree are not neglected, and the snows, which it melts and unites with itself, add both to the depth and the current.

Instead then of treating Genius as a mysterious endowment and occult faculty, I would say that it far rather designates the healthy balance and proportionate development of all the powers and faculties, that are essentially human, and their harmonious constitution to

B

One. Hence a more correct and significant expression for what we mean by Genius, would be Individuality; since hereby we understand that union of Free Will and Reason, by which man consciously affirms his Personality, and therein continuously asserts his sphere of thought and act:-and it would be at least difficult to discover a more appropriate meaning for genius than the achievement of this individuality according to the idea, or the approximation to its excellence, which consists in a higher potentiation and happier combination of the human powers, intelligent and active, by the animating, modifying and intensive energy of the sole font of original power within us, which we name free or moral Will. Various, indeed, may be the forms, which reveal the essential idea of our common Humanity, various the causes of degeneracy, which render its growth imperfect or abortive, various the forms of mental excellence and of moral dignity, to which it gives birth: but still it is the living and persistent energy of the moral Will, which gives the impress of character and of genial power to a Luther, a Dante, and a Milton, and stamps an indelible unity on their aspirations and acts, their works and their aims. I need scarcely remind you that I am not speaking here of the predominance of moral Will, in its proper character and highest func

*See Appendix A.

tions, as guiding and determining human conduct in relation to the Conscience;-though I must ever believe that Genius in its undoubted and paramount dignity is always associated with moral worth, -as has been well expressed in the noble saying of Strabo, as applied eminently to the poet : 'Η δὲ ἀρετὴ) ποιητοῦ συνέζευκται τῇ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου· καὶ οὐχ οἷόν τε ἀγαθὸν γενέσθαι ποιητὴν, μὴ πρότερον γενηθέντα ἄνδρα ἀγαθόν.*

Hence then-if the individuality of man be universally in its end and aim the harmonious development and union of those constituent powers, moral and intellectual, which are the birthright of our humanity-we may now, with better hope of a successful solution, revert to the problem, which we have proposed, of educing the excellence, in which Genius, or the ideal individuality of man consists. This is the goal, or ideal point, to which, however distant its actual attainment may be, it must ever remain our object to approach, as near as we can and I anticipate no objection when I state that the process, for attaining or approximating to this great moral result, constitutes, in its scope and end,-a Liberal Education. And in the following attempt to define the intellectual discipline, which may best prepare the mind for the scientific cultivation of a profession, and aid the individual in forming his

Geograph. Lib. I. cap. ii. See Coleridge's Table Talk, v. ii. p. 245.

1