II.] ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 17 j 



compounded mass. The soul on the other side is the simplest of 

 substances, as i? well expressed : 



Purumque rcliquit 

 iEthcreum scnsum, atque aurai simplicis ignem. 



So thru it is no marvel though the soul so placed enjoy no rest, if that 

 principle be true, that &quot; Motus rerum cst rapidus extra locum, placidus 

 in loco.&quot; But to the purpose : this variable composition of man s 

 body hath made it as an instrument easy to distemper, and therefore 

 the poets did well to conjoin music and medicine in Apollo, because 

 the office of medicine is but to tune this curious harp of man s body, 

 and to reduce it to harmony. So then the subject being so variable, 

 hath made the art by consequence more conjectural ; and the art 

 being conjectural, hath made so much the more place to be left for 

 imposture. For almost all other arts and sciences arc judged by 

 acts or master pieces, as 1 may term them, and not by the successes 

 and events The lawyer is judged by the virtue of his pleading, and 

 not by the issue of the cause. The master of the ship is judged by 

 the directing his course aright, and not by the fortune of the voyage. 

 But the physician, and perhaps the politician, hath no particular acts 

 demonstrative of his ability, but is judged most by the event ; which 

 is ever but as it is taken : for who can tell, if a patient die or recover, 

 or if a state be preserved or ruined, whether it be art or accident ? 

 And therefore many times the impostor is prized, and the man of 

 virtue taxed. Nay, we see the weakness and credulity of men is such, 

 as they will often prefer a mountebank or witch before a learned 

 physician. And therefore the poets were clear-sighted in discerning 

 this extreme folly, when they made /Esculapius and Circe brother and 

 sister, both children of the sun, as in the verses ; ALn. vii. 772. 



Ipsc repertorcm mcdicinae talis ct artis 



Fulmiac I hu:b!i,criam Siygias detrusit ad undas : 



Ar.d ajjain. 



Dives inacccssos uti Solis filia lucos, etc. StLn vii. ir. 



For in a!l times, :.n the opinion of the multitude, witches, and old 

 women, and impcctors, have had a competition with physicians. And 

 what follovvcth ? Even this ; that physicians say to themselves, as 

 Solomon exprcsscth it upon an higher occasion ; &quot; If it bcf.il to me, 

 as befalieth to the fools, why should I labour to be more wise?&quot; And 

 therefore I cannot much blame physicians, that they use commonly 

 to intend some other art or practice, which they f.incy more than, 

 their profession. For you shall have of them, antiquaries, poets, 

 humanists, statesmen, merchants, divines, and in every of these better 

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

 they find that mediocrity and excellency in their art makcth no dif 

 ference in profit or reputation towards their fortune; for the weakness 

 of patitnts, and sweetness of life, and nature of hope, maketh men 

 &amp;lt;jf&amp;gt;cnd on physicians with all their defects. But, nevertheless, these 



