IDOLS. CC1XXV 



if they do seldom and for so short a time appear above 

 ground out of their holes, and do not continually live 

 under the contemplation of nature as in the open air.&quot; 

 Of these Idols of the Den, the attachment of professional 

 men, divines, lawyers, politicians, &c. to their respective 

 sciences, are glaring instances, (a) 



(a) Medical Antipathy. Dr. William Hunter, in his introduction to 

 his anatomical lectures, after having referred to the improvements in 

 anatomy by Malpighi and other Italians, says, the senior professors were 

 inflamed to such a pitch, that they endeavoured to pass a law whereby 

 every graduate should be obliged to take the following additional clause to 

 his solemn oath on taking his degree : &quot; You shall likewise swear that you 

 will preserve and defend the doctrine taught in the University of Bononia, 

 viz. that of Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen, which has now been 

 approved of for so many ages, and that you will not permit their principles 

 and conclusions to be overturned by any person, as far as in you lies.&quot; 

 &quot; Pro toto tui posse,&quot; is the expression. &quot; But,&quot; says our author, &quot; this 

 was dropt, and the philosophizing with freedom remains to this day.&quot; 



Antipathy of Divines and Politicians. The antipathy of these profes 

 sions is explained by Lord Bacon, in the opening of his treatise &quot; De 

 Augmentis,&quot; to which I must content myself in this place by referring. 



Antipathy of Sailors. Soon after the invention of steam-boats, I hap 

 pened to be on the walk in Greenwich hospital, opposite to the river, 

 when the Margate steam-boat was passing. &quot; I hate them steam-boats,&quot; 

 said one of the Greenwich pensioners, walking away in great dudgeon, 

 &quot; they are clean contrary to nature.&quot; 



Antipathy of Lawyers. The lawyers, and particularly St. Paul, were 

 the most violent opposers of Christianity. The civilians, upon being- 

 taunted by the common lawyers with the cruelty of the rack, answered, 

 &quot; non ex saevitia, sed ex bonitate talia faciunt homines.&quot; In Utopia, 

 when the archbishop objected to the punishment of death for theft, the 

 counsellor answers, &quot; that the law can never be altered without endangering 

 the whole nation.&quot; 



Pastoret, a French judge, who wrote on penal lays, &quot; Je voudrois 

 pouvoir defendre 1 humanite sans accuser notre legislation ; mais qu est la 

 loi positive aupres des droits immuables de la justice et de la nature ? 

 Des magistrats merne, je ne me le dissimule point, sont opposes aux 

 reformes desires par la nation entiere. Nourris dans une connoissance 

 intime de la jurisprudence penale, ayant pour elle 1 attachement si commun 

 pour des idees anciennes, ils y sont encore attaches par un sentiment plus 



