178 PARACELSUS 



" The physician should be well versed in physical 

 science. He should know the action of medicines, and 

 learn by his own experience and by the experience of 

 others. He should know how to regulate the diet of 

 the patient, and neither overfeed nor starve him. He 

 should know the ordinary course of disease, and the 

 premonitory symptoms; for a disease is like a plant, 

 which may grow to a big tree if it is not rooted out 

 while it is young. A child can cut down an old oak 

 when it first comes out of an acorn, but in time it will 

 require a strong man and an axe to cut it down. 



" A physician should be learned, and profit by the 

 experience of others, but blessed is he who knows the 

 living medicine and how to obtain it. He knows that 

 there are innumerable remedies in Nature, which are 

 the Magnalia Dei — i.e., the mysteries of God, hidden 

 from the eyes of the vulgar, but opened to the spiritual 

 perception of the wise " ^ (Comm.). 



4. The physician must have a natural qualification for 

 his occupation. 



" He who can cure disease is a physician. To cure 

 diseases is an art which cannot be acquired by the mere 

 reading of books, but which must be learned by ex- 

 perience. Neither emperors nor popes, neither colleges 

 nor high schools, can create physicians. They can confer 

 privileges and cause a person who is not a physician 

 to appear as if he were one, but they cannot cause 

 him to be what he is not; they can give him per- 

 mission to kill, but they cannot enable him to cure 

 the sick, if he has not already been ordained by God. 

 Theory should precede practice ; but if it consists in 

 mere suppositions and assumptions, and is not confirmed 

 by practical works, such a theory is worthless and ought 



necessary to cure themselves. In such cases we should show them 

 energy instead of a helpless commiseration. 



1 Modern medicine, with its "hypnotism," and "suggestion," seems 

 to be about to learn the first letters of the alphabet of the system of 

 Paracelsus. 



