METHOD OF STUDY. 425 



ed, it will upon the whole appear, that at present we can have no 

 other foundation for the regular study of the practice of physic. 

 But observe, that my argument here is, that the study of a dogma- 

 tic system is necessary to the acquiring and ascertaining the facts 

 of physic; I might maintain this by many other considerations, 

 but shall mention only two. The first is, that if the observa- 

 tion of remote causes is useful in physic, as every one allows, 

 and particularly towards establishing the proper distinction be- 

 tween diseases, as might be easily shewn, I say that a dog- 

 matic system is absolutely necessary to ascertain the facts on 

 this subject. For when the human body, as often happens, has 

 been at the same time exposed to the action of many different 

 powers, it is difficult to determine which of them, how many of 

 them, or what concurrence of them, has operated in producing 

 diseases. It cannot indeed be determined without the philoso- 

 phy of those several powers ; and as it is also well known that 

 these powers operate very variously, according to the different 

 condition of the subject they operate upon, so not only the 

 philosophy of external powers, but the philosophy also, that is 

 the physiology and pathology, of the human body, is necessary 

 to determine most of the facts with regard to remote causes. 

 In the second place, a dogmatic system is necessary to ascertain 

 the facts with regard to remedies. This proceeds upon reasoning 

 of the same kind ; and while the consideration of remedies often 

 leads to the distinction of diseases, and is otherwise a head to 

 which most of the facts of empiricism are to be referred, it is at 

 the same time well known that most of the facts with regard to 

 remedies have been involved in the greatest uncertainty ; and I 

 think it can be shown, that they never can be tolerably ascertain- 

 ed but by the cultivation of all the several parts of a dogmatic 

 system. But now to conclude, I hope you are in general aware 

 that we do and must assume that the facts of physic are more 

 frequently the inferences of reason than the simple objects of 

 sense, and therefore that the bringing out the facts that are ne- 

 cessary, and the ascertaining them to be such, will always pro- 

 ceed in proportion to our advances in the knowledge of system,, 

 and that truly an empiric system can hardly be perfect till the 

 dogmatic is nearly so. 



But there is a still greater difficulty in the way of analo- 

 VOL. i. 2 i 



