102 THE ADVANCEMENT OP LEARNING. 



&quot; If it befall to me as befalleth to the fools, why should I labour 

 to be more wise ? &quot; And therefore I cannot much blame physi 

 cians that they use commonly to intend some other art or 

 practice, which they fancy more than their profession ; for you 

 shall have of them antiquaries, poets, humanists, statesmen, 

 merchants, divines, and in every of these better seen than in 

 their profession ; and no doubt upon this ground that they find 

 that mediocrity and excellency in their art maketh no difference 

 in profit or reputation towards their fortune : for the weakness 

 of patients, and sweetness of life, and nature of hope, maketh 

 men depend upon physicians with all their defects. But, never 

 theless, these things which we have spoken of are courses be 

 gotten between a little occasion and a great deal of sloth and 

 default ; for if we will excite and awake our observation, we 

 shall see in familiar instances what a predominant faculty the 

 subtlety of spirit hath over the variety of matter or form. 

 Nothing more variable than faces and countenances, yet men 

 can bear in memory the infinite distinctions of them ; nay, a 

 painter, with a few shells of colours, and the benefit of his eye, 

 and habit of his imagination, can imitate them all that ever 

 have been, are, or may be, if they were brought before him. 

 Nothing more variable than voices, yet men can likewise dis 

 cern them personally : nay, you shall have a buffon or panto- 

 mimus will express as many as he pleaseth. Nothing more 

 variable than the differing sounds of words ; yet men have 

 found the way to reduce them to a few simple letters. So 

 that it is not the insufficiency or incapacity of man s mind, but 

 it is the remote standing or placing thereof that breedeth these 

 mazes and incomprehensions ; for as the sense afar off is full of 

 mistaking, but is exact at hand, so is it of the understanding, 

 the remedy whereof is, not to quicken or strengthen the organ, 

 but to go nearer to the object ; and therefore there is no doubt 

 but if the physicians will learn and use the true approaches 

 and avenues of nature, they may assume as much as the poet 

 saith : 



&quot; Et quoniam variant morbi, variabimus artes ; 

 Mille mail species, mille salutis erunt.&quot; 



Which that they should do, the nobleness of their art doth 

 deserve : well shadowed by the poets, in that they made 

 jEsculapius to be the son of [the] sun, the one being the 

 fountain of life, the other as the second stream ; but infinitely 

 more honoured by the example of our Saviour, who made the 

 body of man the object of His miracles, as the soul was the 

 object of His doctrine. For we read not that ever He vouch- 



