THE SECOND BOOK 279 



in their profession ; and no doubt upon this ground, that 

 they find that mediocrity and excellency in their art 

 maketh no difference in profit or reputation towards their 

 fortune ; for the weakness of patients and sweetness of 

 life and nature of hope maketh men depend upon physi- 

 cians with all their defects. But nevertheless these things 

 which we have spoken of are courses begotten between a 

 little occasion and a great deal of sloth and default ; for if 

 we will excite and awake our observation, we shall see in 

 familiar instances what a predominant faculty the sub- 

 tlety of spirit hath over the variety of matter or form. 

 Nothing more variable than faces and countenances ; yet 

 men can bear in memory the infinite distinctions of them ; 

 nay, a painter with a few shells of colours, and the benefit 

 of his eye and habit of his imagination, can imitate them 

 all that ever have been, are, or may be, if they were 

 brought before him. Nothing more variable than voices ; 

 yet men can likewise discern them personally ; nay, you 

 shall have a buffon or pantomimus will express as many as 

 he pleaseth. Nothing more variable than the differing 

 sounds of words ; yet men have found the way to reduce 

 them to a few simple letters. So that it is not the insuffi- 

 ciency or incapacity of man's mind, but it is the remote 

 standing or placing thereof, that breedeth these mazes and 

 incomprehensions : for as the sense afar off is full of 

 mistaking but is exact at hand, so is it of the understand- 

 ing ; the remedy whereof is not to quicken or strengthen 

 the organ, but to go nearer to the object; and therefore 

 there is no doubt but if the physicians will learn and use 

 the true approaches and avenues of nature, they may 

 assume as much as the poet saith : 



Et quoniam variant morbi, variabimus artes; 

 Milk mali species, milk salutis erunt : 



Which that they should do, the nobleness of their art doth 

 deserve; well shadowed by the poets, in that they made 

 Aesculapius to be the son of [the] Sun, the one being the 

 fountain of life, the other as the second stream ; but in- 

 finitely more honoured by the example of our Saviour, 



