"In proportion to the pains we have taken in this algebraical process of the mind, and our assurance of its correctness, so do we contemplate the conclusion or consummation of our labours with satisfaction[49]."
CHARACTERISTIC OF HIS INCLINATION TO THE LAW.
"Gentlemen (of the jury), I trust I can prove to your perfect conviction, by ample and incontrovertible evidence, that my client (John Hunter) died seized and possessed of very considerable literary property, the hard-earned gainings of great talent and unparalleled industry. It is not, however, for the property that I plead; because already that is secured; it is fenced in; land-marks are set up; it is registered in public documents. I plead only for the restitution of a great and accumulated income of reputation derivable from that property, which, I trust, you will perceive to be justly due, and will consequently award to my client, and his country[50]."
"Believing that no man will labour in the strenuous and unremitting manner that Mr. Hunter did, and to the detriment of his own private interest, without some strong incentive; I have supposed that at an early period he conceived those notions of life which were confirmed by his future inquiries and experiments. He began his observations on the incubated egg, in the year 1755, which must either have suggested or corroborated all his opinions with regard to the cause of the vital phenomena. He perceived that, however different in form and faculty, every creature was nevertheless allied to himself, because it was a living being; and therefore he became solicitous to inquire how the vital processes were carried on in all the varieties of animal and even vegetable existence."
"In the progress of science, genius with light and airy steps often far precedes judgment, which proceeds slowly, and either finds or forms a road along which all may proceed with facility and security; but the _direction_ of the course of judgment is often suggested, and its actions are excited and accelerated, by the invocations of preceding genius[51]."
REITERATION OF THE DENIAL THAT HE IDENTIFIED LIFE WITH
"As Sir H. Davy's experiments fully prove that electricity may be superadded to, and that it enters into, the composition of all those substances we call matter, I felt satisfied with the establishment of the philosophy of Mr. Hunter's views, nor thought it necessary to proceed further, but merely added: 'It is not meant to be affirmed that electricity is life.' I only mean to argue in favour of Mr. Hunter's theory, by showing that a subtile substance of a quickly and powerfully mobile nature seems to pervade everything, and appears to be the life of the world; and that therefore it is probable a similar substance pervades organized bodies, and is the life of these bodies. I am concerned, yet obliged, to detain you by this recapitulation, because my meaning has been either misunderstood or misrepresented[52]."