INFALLIBILITY OF PHILOSOPHICAL THERAPEUTICS. 89 
delights in incessantly developing perfect in all parts, and in- 
teresting to a degree, whence arise those erroneous systems 
whose baseless fabric invariably crumbles under the march 
of time, the sure destroyer of all that is not based upon and 
upheld by truth 1 Let the question be asked of error and va- 
nity, for from them only can we receive a reply. 
The natural taste for novelty contributes, also, in no small 
degree to bring forth the errors of particular systems, and won- 
derfully increases their transient triumphs; whilst imagination, 
uncontrolled by sound judgment, seeks the most extraordinary 
changes. How contrary to the uniformity and simplicity of 
nature ! Thence, doubtless, the causes to which we must attri- 
bute all past and future heresies — the doctrine of Hahnemann 
and his shallow disciples, who, failing to comprehend the im- 
mutable truths of our great ancestors, — truths consecrated by 
time and experience, — have adopted, with the earnestness due 
only to truth, the dreams of their notorious leader, whose know- 
ledge of human weakness taught him to infuse that much of 
truth in his counsels which gives error such vitality and progress. 
And here I must point out the extraordinary modesty of those 
infinitesimal gentlemen, who, by virtue of their own and their 
master’s authority, put to naught the time-tried wisdom of Hip- 
pocrates and his worthy imitators, and stifle the experience of a 
thousand years, making it almost appear, that at length, after 
six thousand years, they alone have discovered the truth, and, 
of course, are justly entitled to bear the noble task of rebuild- 
ing on a new basis the Temple of Medicine l 
But fortunately this heresy, though one of the most pre- 
sumptuous, is at the same time one of the most insignificant and 
least dangerous which has ever existed. Its active powers are 
as feeble for mischief as for benefit, the weapon of the sincere 
disciple being absolutely nothing ; and bad indeed is the for- 
tune of those patients who, deserted by Nature, have only the 
infinitesimal powers to rely upon. Justice would demand that 
the fees of these learned gentry should bear some proportion to 
the professional guinea that their remedies do to the active and 
invaluable remedies they dare to reject. But this subject is 
too serious in the eyes of just and feeling men to bear jesting 
upon ; and the ideological nullity which does not prevent death 
whilst promising a cure can never be defended, nor could, 
indeed, ever hold its ground, were not men so strangely misled 
by the passion for strange things and the power of mysterious 
art. But, in truth, if we look at the history of all nations, we 
shall see novelty in every page, folly, fashion, or opinion, pro- 
curing the triumph of the most absurd ideas, the learned or 
unlearned alike swelling the general praise. It is, doubtless, 
