358 LETTER TO 



the cure of diseases ; among those nations in- 

 deed, the different trades of conjurer and phy- 

 sician are commonly exercised by the same 

 person. But such a course of life must debase 

 the character, in every respect, of him who 

 follows it. No one can promise to himself, 

 that he will stop at any certain point in villany. 

 Temptation solicits him to proceed, and his 

 powers of resistance diminish as he advances ; 

 till at length he arrives where honesty and 

 truth seem no more than scare-crows, set up 

 by designing men to prevent the weak and 

 timid from pursuing their own good. 



As the knowledge of diseases and their re- 

 , medies increases, the obtaining of it becomes 

 more difficult, and from the general progress 

 of improvement, there are now men who can 

 estimate the value of the acquisition. Phy- 

 sicians are therefore less tempted either to con- 

 ceal their methods of cure, or to pretend to 

 derive assistance from supernatural agents. 

 Hence medicine, considered as a gainful pro- 

 fession, has for the most part been less despised 

 in civilized, than in barbarous nations. It ap- 

 pears, however, to have been held in very little 

 estimation, even by the most polished nations 

 of antiquity, of which we have any tolerably 

 well authenticated accounts. 



