16 PROLEGOMENON. 



course of life and thought, and disinclination to exertion, 

 in the inhabitants, who in consequence give themselves up 

 to indolence and love of ease; whereas the Europeans, 

 living on a poorer soil and in a climate of frequent vicis- 

 situdes, are compelled for self-protection to exert them- 

 selves in various ways, and thus acquire habits of self- 

 reliance, and display greater courage. Hellenic pride, 

 and consciousness of superior advantages, speak through 

 the medical philosopher when he tells us, 'On this account 

 the inhabitants of Europe are more warlike than the 

 Asiatics ; and also owing to their institutions, because they 

 are not governed by kings like the latter ; for where men 

 are governed by kings there they must be very cowardly, 

 as I have stated before, for their souls are enslaved, and 

 they will not readily or willingly undergo dangers in order 

 to promote the power of another. But those that are FREE 

 undertake dangers on their own account, and not for the 

 sake of others : they court hazard and go out to meet it ; 

 for they themselves bear off the rewards of victory : and 

 thus these institutions contribute not a little to their 

 courage/ Ethno-climatic-MEDiCAL and political teachings 

 of this nature ought to find willing disciples among the 

 people of the United States." And here the observation 

 might be recorded, that the profession of mq^icine could 

 certainly profit by an occasional retrospective glance into 

 the past, and even by return to, and some gleanings of, the 

 ancient fields, if only to demonstrate that Priessnitz, 

 Hobensack, Hahnemann, and the whole ravens army of 

 quackdom, have all been surrounded, and the ground pre- 

 occupied, by science and reason, both, it may be admitted, 

 in a state of comparative infancy in those far-off ages, 

 and walking with somewhat tottering and uncertain steps, 

 i)at still under the influence of the great and healthy in- 

 stincts of the soul, and under the direction of the great 

 ORGANIC EYE which has progressively opened, and now 

 drinks in the strongest sunlight of the mind of the present 

 hour. 



