HYGBIA. 563 



ful thing, allied to the labors of the gods, to cure a disease, 

 (that is, of course, to lend a help to nature, which she could 

 not do without,) and to stoop, with the power of an angel's 

 wing, to snatch a perishing mortal from the grave. And 

 here it occurs to the reflecting mind, that if the making of 

 man was to God the infinite, the crowning of his creation, 

 the finishing of his work, and the perfection of his glory, 

 surely the saving from destruction of his " heaven-labored 

 form, erect, divine," is the crowning of all human art, and 

 stands the perfection and splendor of all man the finite's 

 creations or works. It appears, then, that while it is ob- 

 vious that the prevention of disease is one of the highest 

 and noblest efforts of man, the curing of a disease already 

 in existence, the saving from pain and death, and the resur- 

 rection, as it were, of the body from the grave, is certainly 

 the grandest revelation of human power, and that art the 

 most exalted of all arts. Wonderful is it that the spirit 

 and far-reaching prophecy of the classical myth has be- 

 come a revelation of truth in the sanitary department 

 of this mundane sphere, and the god of medicine stands 

 arrayed in the full grandeur of his attributes and proper 

 function, namely, the publication of the life of man free 

 from disease and infirmity in all its terrestrial relations, 

 with the possibility of patriarchal longevity and soundness ; 

 while the mild maid, with flowing robes, representing " one 

 of his attributes," that of preserving health when given by 

 a higher power, and guarding with care the restored sick, or 

 essaying to prevent the calamities which only her sire, the 

 great god ^Esculapius himself, can certainly avert, must for- 

 ever lean upon her beneficent parent. To prevent disease, 

 if possible, is blessed and great, but to cure it, when in ex- 

 istence, is heavenly and divine. 



Hand in hand stand the elements of the great science of 

 man, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Hygiene, not sepa- 

 rate sciences, (at the bedside of the diseased sufferer SURELY 

 not separate,) not dissevered members, not merely "subor- 

 dinate" or "ancillary," not simply "auxiliary," not "en- 



