ON THOUGHT IN MEDICINE. 225 



to achieve by toilsome labour, hypotheses will be started 

 which, propounded as dogmas, at once promise to 

 solve all riddles. And as long as there are people who 

 believe implicitly in that which they wish to be true, 

 so long will the hypotheses of the former find credence. 

 Both classes will certainly not die out, and to the latter 

 the majority will always belong. 



There are two characteristics more particularly 

 which metaphysical systems have always possessed. 

 In the first place man is always desirous of feeling 

 himself to be a being of a higher order, far beyond the 

 standard of the rest of nature ; this wish is satisfied by 

 the spiritualists. On the other hand, he would like 

 to believe that by his thought he was unrestrained 

 lord of the world', and of course by his thinking with 

 those conceptions, to the development of which he 

 has attained ; this is attempted to be satisfied by the 

 materialists. 



But one who, like the physician, has actively to face 

 natural forces which bring about weal or woe, is also 

 under the obligation of seeking for a knowledge of 

 the truth, and of the truth only ; without considering 

 whether, what he finds, is pleasant in one way or the 

 other. His aim is one which is firmly settled ; for him 

 the success of facts is alone finally decisive. He must 

 endeavour to ascertain beforehand, what will be the 

 result of his attack if he pursues this or that course. 



ii. VI 



