360 LETTER TO 



Aurelius, for a pain in his stomach, because it 

 was too strong a remedy for an emperor. 



It forms no argument against the justness of 

 this statement, either that kings and princes 

 anciently exercised the medical art, or that 

 physicians were sometimes held in considerable 

 estimation by the great. For, in the first place, 

 there are many arts which adorn those who 

 cultivate them for their own use or amusement, 

 or for the benefit of others, but which degrade 

 the persons that practise them for money. Our 

 country gentlemen are very desirous of knowing 

 the diseases of horses, and their remedies : but 

 the trade of a farrier is with us a very low one. 

 The talent of singing is much prized by females 

 of the highest rank ; yet how meanly are those 

 persons thought of, who gain by it their liveli- 

 hood ? And secondly, eunuchs, and other men 

 confessedly of the vilest condition, have not un- 

 frequently been entrusted with the management 

 of empires. 



Physicians have, in modern Europe, obtained 

 a higher rank in society, than they possessed 

 among the ancients, principally however, as it 

 appears to me, by means entirely unconnected 

 with the exercise of their profession. For, 

 upon the revival of a taste for letters in our 

 western parts of the world, spme persons applied 



