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A Physitian hath some affinity with the Lawyer; and although they act not the same part on this earthly Theater, yet gaine is communis terminus which con∣nects them.
Iuris consultorum idem status & medicorum est. D••mna quibus licito sunt aliena lucro. Hi morbis aegrorum, a∣g••orum l••tibus ••ui. Dant pattenter opem, dum potiantur opum.
The Lawyers and Physitians case have neer affinity; For others ruines make them rich, no doubt most lawfully. These sucke the sicke for potions, pounds. For Law those lands purloine: These promise health, and so get wealth; Those quietnesse for coine.
When men prevaile in strength of body, they consult with the lying Oracle the Lawyer who makes them wa••t so long attendance, and ••o often
explicate their wearied joints that hee makes them sicke; then they consult with as bad an Oracle, the Oracle of Apollo (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 I had al∣most said) the Physitian, to recover their former health. Ones exit be∣ing the others Intrat. The dignity of a Physi∣tian is great, though sometimes base abjects in themselves, are the objects of his speculati∣on, and the restauration of a frail habitation is the finis cujus of his pra∣ctice. Christ is a Physi∣tian both of soule and body: the body cannot be cured except the soul
of the Physician doth prescribe a medicine, the soule of the Physitian cannot prescribe a reme∣dy, except God who is the soule of his soule doth enlighten that di∣vine part, no more then the lower orbes move without the primum mobile. Sabid King of Arabid, Sabor and Giges Kings of the Medes, Mithridates King of Po••tus, Dionysius, Tyr. Si••ulus, with many o∣ther blazing stars in the worlds firmament, were professed Physitians.
The Poets faine Apollo to be ••he first inventer of Physicke or Medicine:
Inventumque medecinae meum est, opiferque per orbem Dicor—
And certainly many Physitians may bee cal∣led by the name of Apol∣lo, derived from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which signifies to perish (not onely formaliter but effective) for either they are such unskilf••ll Empericks, as Pliny spea∣keth of, Qu•• exper••men∣ta per mortes gunt, which give men many poyso∣nous pilles to gaine ex∣perlence; and s•• Offici∣osiss me muitos occidunt, they are very busie to cast many men away with expedition, wan∣ting
skill: Or else wan∣ting will to recover their patients, they let them lie languishing at Sicke∣mans Hospitall under the burthen of a life worse then death.
Gaine is the center of most Physitians practice, bodies are the orbes which receive the influ∣ence of these stars, whose nature it is to suffer a continuall eclipse with∣out the often interpositi∣on of earth. You must supple their hands with some unguentum rubrum or album, which is in your purse, or else they will hardly feele your pulse, but rather will ex∣tinguish
the lampe of your life then preserve it, and many times the bo∣dy if it bee sicke is con∣tent to buy unguentum aereum with unguentum aurcum, leaden trash with golden cash. Hee tells your disease in some hyperbolicall bombaste words, though it be but an ague or tooth ach, and his Rethoricke is to per∣swade that you are des∣perately sicke, almost ir∣recoverable, that his gaine might bee greater, and his skill seem incom∣parable.
Without action and passion the Physitian would scarce bee in the
predicament of sub∣stance: he drawes good out of evill, and when∣soever he is in the voca∣tive case, his patient must bee in the ablative. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Who is this, a Physitian? Oh in what an ill case every Physitian would bee, if no man were in an ill case. Corruption is his conservation, and Adams fall was his rise. Phy∣sicke includes sicke, They that are whole need not a Physitian. Thrice happy are they who are not necessitated to embrace such a wal∣king
consumption of the purse, who though by his art he prolongs your life, he will bee the At∣tropos who shall cut off the golden thread of your livelihood, and so spinne a faire thread for himselfe.
I have read the Socrates never needed a Physiti∣an, Pomponius a Poet of noble Progeny, was so sound that he never bel∣ched: Anthonia the wife of Drusus never spit: If all were so, D••t Galenus opes were false. Nico∣cles would have wanted an occasion to call Phy∣sitians happy (because their good successe the
Sunne beholds, and their errors the earth buries in obscurity) if there were no objects to worke on, for then like empty sto∣macks, they will worke upon themselves. Who∣soever keepes a good di∣••et using Vel modico me∣d••cè vel medico modicè is a Physitian to himselfe, and needs not worship. Aesculapius who is ado∣red in a serpentine form, but if (ad medicam confugit aeger opem) any man bee constrained to fly to the Physitian, let him use none but such as are skilfull (and so able to give a reason for a re∣medy, if with Aristotle
Owen Epis. 71. l. 1.
Metam. l. 1.
Ovid de Ponto.
Aelian l. 9 c. 23. var. hist.