Excerpt from Vital Dynamics: The Hunterian Oration Before the Royal College of Surgeons in London, 14th February, 1840Notwithstanding the favourable testimony of friends, on Whose judgment I rely, to the success of the Oration which I now offer to the candid and impartial criticism of those engaged in scientific pursuits, I shall neither be surprised nor offended, if it should appear that some of my auditors deemed it unsuited to the occasion on which it Was delivered, or, that many of my readers consider it unsuited to any occasion. I cannot conceal from my self the fact, that the students of philosophy, to whom I address myself, are few in number, and that in this country men, even of appa rently high cultivation, turn With scorn or in difference from what are called metaphysical pursuits. And if indeed, by the term meta physics, we designate unmeaning subtleties, vague fancies, and, in general, speculations which properly transcend the human faculties, we might well be content to turn from them as a mere waste of time and abuse of the mind. But if by this term we mean (as in all reason we should) that which, in contradistinction to sensuous facts and appearances, is therefore.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.