H2 BACON 



jectural, and left the more room for imposture. Other arts 

 and sciences are judged of by their power and ability, and not 

 by success or events. The lawyer is judged by the ability of his 

 pleading, not the issue of the cause ; the pilot, by directing his 

 course, and not by the fortune of the voyage ; whilst the physi- 

 cian and statesman have no particular act that clearly demon- 

 strates their ability, but are principally censured by the event, 

 which is very unjust : for who can tell, if a patient die or recover, 

 or a state fall into decay, whether the evil is brought about by 

 art or by accident ? Whence imposture is frequently extolled, 

 and virtue decried. Nay, the weakness and credulity of men are 

 such, that they often prefer a mountebank, or a cunning woman, 

 to a learned physician. The poets were clear sighted in dis- 

 cerning this folly, when they made yEsculapius and Circe 

 brother and sister, and both children of Apollo, as in the 

 verses : 



" Ille repertorem medicine talis et artis, 

 Fulmine Phoebigenam Stygias detrusit ad undas: " 



and similarity of Circe, daughter of the sun : 



" Dives inaccessis ubi Soils fitia lucis 

 Urit odoratam nocturna in lumina cedrum." Virgil.ef 



For in all times, witches, old women, and impostors, have, in 

 the vulgar opinion, stood competitors with physicians. And 

 hence physicians say to themselves, in the words of Solomon : 

 " If it befall to me, as befalleth to the fools, why should I labor 

 to be more wise ? "e And, therefore, one cannot greatly blame 

 them, that they commonly study some other art, or science, 

 more than their profession. Hence, we find among them poets, 

 antiquaries, critics, politicians, divines, and in each more know- 

 ing than in medicine. Nor does this fall out, because as a cer- 

 tain declamor against physicians suggests/ being so often in 

 contact with loathsome spectacles, that they seize the first hour 

 of leisure to draw their minds from such contemplations. For 

 as they are men " Nihil humani a se alienum putent " no 

 doubt, because they find that mediocrity and excellency in their 

 own art make no difference in profit or reputation : for men's 

 impatience of diseases, the solicitations of friends, the sweet- 

 ness of life, and the inducement of hope, make them depend 

 upon physicians with all their defects. But when this is seri- 



