Be RY Bt PF AS CoE. ix 
varied, produce that aftonithing variety in Nature, which is infinitely 
beyond our knowledge or comprehenfion. Hence arife the fympathies 
and antipathies fo aftonifhingly confpicuous in all the productions of the 
earth, whether animate or inanimate, in men or brutes, in vegetables or 
minerals, and in every fpecies of matter definable to our fenfes. Here 
alfo we difcover the efential properties and firff ground of all medicine, 
and are furnifhed with the beft reafons why it is impoflible to prefcribe 
remedies at all times applicable to the ftupendous varieties afflicting the 
body of man, without the aid of fydereal learning. | 
There is no doubt but the remote as weil as the-propinguate caufes 
of things ought ferioufly to be inveftigated both by philofophers and 
phyficians ; or elfe the mufic of {cience will often fail of its harmony, 
and produce difcord and difguft. The planetary influx, and the force of 
the ambient, is as neceflary to be confulted, as the ftru€ture of the body, — 
and the laws of pulfation ; otherwife our practice will be imperfect, and _ 
our fuccefs determined by chance. For this reafon, the learned Senertus, 
in his Elements of Phyfic, highl y commends thofe modern phyficians, who 
unite aftrological with medical knowledge. ‘* For,—continues this in- 
genious author,—the ftars a&t upon inferior bodies not only by heat and 
light, but by occu/t influence. Nor can it be doubted but that all plants 
are under the government of fome particular planet, and —— their 
operations by virtue of the fympathy co-exiftent in their nature.” 
By the right knowledge of times and feafons—of cau/es and hits the 
moft important cures have unqueftionably been performed. ‘* No many 
fays Galen, can reafonably deny, but that the natural ground of medicine 
and difeafe depends much upon aftral influx and elementary impreffion ; 
and hence it is, that, by the nativity or decumbiture of the patient, we are _ 
enabled to difcern both the caufe and conclufion of the difeafe, And i! ae 
3 confidering the quality, of the principal afpects in airy, eet arthy, e 
Nes b i 
