546 THE MOUNTAIN. 



remedies, [by every conceivable influence, force, or power 

 of the world which makes it, the medical art, a perfect and 

 limitless formula,] to elevate mankind to the highest degree 

 of strength and physical perfection ; while the ' macrobiotic' 

 proves that here, even, there is a maximum, [in mathema- 

 tics, greatest quantity attainable,] and that strengthening, 

 [elevating mankind to highest perfection] carried too 

 far, [??!!] may tend to accelerate, and consequently, to 

 shorten its duration. The practical part of medicine, there- 

 fore, ['all science has but one aim, to find a theory of nature, 

 and to a sound judgment the most abstract truth is the most 

 practical;' the only evidence, therefore, of the profundity 

 and validity of a theory being its applicability to nature, it 

 is clear that 'the only part of medicine' which men hold to be 

 of any consequence, is the 'practical,' or true and only 

 science of medicine,'] in regard to the macrobiotic art, is to 

 be considered only as an auxiliary science which teaches 

 us how to know diseases, [of course, their opposite, health, 

 and thus, physiology and pathology, the only two condi- 

 tions it is possible to conceive of the body existing in at 

 all,] the enemies of life, and how to prevent and expel 

 them, but which, however, must itself be SUBSERVIENT to 

 the higher laws of the latter." 



It would be natural to inquire what is meant by the " prac- 

 tical part of medicine ?" Is it the mere art of drugging 

 (posology) by routine, or the application of the dead letter 

 of the Pharmacopoeia to the dead letter of the nosological 

 table, or the art, which, with all the light of the moment, 

 cognizes and treats with scientific precision, prophylactically 

 and therapeutically, all normal and abnormal conditions of 

 the human body ? 



Whence did the art of macrobiology obtain a knowledge 

 of the "higher laws" to which the " art of medicine" must 

 be "subservient?" Whence its knowledge of man ? There 

 is but one key to all knowledge of man : the anatomy and 

 physiology of the human body, the foundation of the " art 

 of medicine." Whence its knowledge of the "life of man 



