Nay, we see [the] weakness and credulity of men is such, as they
will often refer a mountebank or witch before a learned physician.
And therefore the poets were clear-sighted in discerning this
extreme folly when they made AEsculapius and Circe, brother and
sister, both children of the sun, as in the verses -
"Ipse repertorem medicinae talis et artis
Fulmine Phoebigenam Stygias detrusit ad undas."
And again -
"Dives inaccessos ubi Solis filia lucos," &c.
For in all times, in the opinion of the multitude, witches and old
women and impostors, have had a competition with physicians. And
what followeth? Even this, that physicians say to themselves, as
Solomon expresseth it upon a higher occasion, "If it befall to me as
befalleth to the fools, why should I labour to be more wise?" And
therefore I cannot much blame physicians that they use commonly to
intend some other art or practice, which they fancy more than their
profession; for you shall have of them antiquaries, poets,
humanists, statesmen, merchants, divines, and in every of these
better seen than 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 physicians with all their defects.
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