ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 185 



the sweetness of life, and the inducement of hope, make 

 them depend upon physicians with all their defects. But 

 when this is seriously considered, it turns rather to the re 

 proach than the excuse of physicians, who ought not hence 

 to despair, but to use greater diligence. For we see what 

 a power the subtilty of the understanding has over the 

 variety both of the matter and form of things. There is 

 nothing more variable than men s faces, yet we can re 

 member infinite distinctions of them; and a painter with 

 a few colors, the practice of the hand and eye, and help 

 of the imagination, could imitate thousands if brought be 

 fore him. As variable as voices are, yet we can easily dis 

 tinguish them in different persons, and a mimic will express 

 them to the life. Though the sounds of words differ so 

 greatly, yet men can reduce them to a few simple letters. 

 And certainly it is not the insufficiency or incapacity of the 

 mind, but the remoteness of the object that causes these 

 perplexities and distrusts in the sciences: for as the sense 

 is apt to mistake at great distances, but not near at hand, 

 so is the understanding. Men commonly take a view of 

 nature as from a remote eminence, and are too much 

 amused with generalities: whereas, if they would de 

 scend, and approach nearer to particulars, and more ex 

 actly and considerately examine into things themselves, 

 they might make more solid and useful discoveries. The 

 remedy of this error, therefore, is to quicken or strengthen 

 the organ, and thus to approach the object. No doubt, 

 therefore, if physicians, leaving generalities for a while, 

 and suspending their assent, would advance toward na 

 ture, they might become masters of that art of which the 

 poet speaks 



&quot;Et quoniam variant morbi, variabimus artes 

 Mille mail species mille salutis erunt. &quot; 7 



They should the rather endeavor this, because the philoso 

 phies whereon physicians, whether methodists or chemists, 



7 Ovid, Remedia Amoris, 525. 



