LORD KENYON. 361 



themselves to the study of the ancient writers 

 upon medicine, with the view of becoming 

 more successful practitioners of that art, than 

 those were, who had learned it in the ordinary 

 manner. But the same skill in languages, which 

 was necessary for this undertaking, fitted them 

 also for the acquisition of every other kind of 

 knowledge, which had been treated of by the 

 authors of Greece and Rome. They made use 

 of this advantage, and physicians became noted 

 for their proficiency in every branch of the 

 learning of antiquity. This erudition naturally 

 rendered those who possessed it respectable, 

 and, by an obvious association, raised their 

 profession in the esteem of the public. It 

 produced the same effect in another way. A 

 tedious and even expensive education was 

 henceforward deemed requisite for physicians, 

 which could be borne only by persons of some 

 fortune, and therefore, less likely to be guilty 

 of baseness and deceit, than men in the low 

 condition of the former practitioners of me- 

 dicine. 



The operation of these causes was, in this 

 country, considerably assisted by the same cir- 

 cumstances, that have given our merchants and 

 manufacturers their present place in society ; 

 and by reason of this combination, its physicians 

 hold a much more elevated situation than those 



