(seq. 11)

violated. A good man should abhor such subterfuges; a wise
man should disdain to employ them. For if a physician loses
the confidence of his patient (and he would deserve to lose
it, if he were guilty of falsehood), he loses the best means of ad-
ministering either to his cure, or to his comfort.

In conducting the treatment of the sick, a physician is not
to be lightly charged with imbecility, because he may seem
to the unwise to be doing little. It has been well said - "In
medicina multa scire, pauca agere oportet". For it is a com-
mon observation, that those, who have least knowledge,
have usually the most confidence - απειρια δειλιης τι και
θρασυτητος τιθηνη . (Kippoer . ΝομΘ). While the spirits are ardent,
& hope is fresh, the young entertain the highest opinion of the
powers of medicine, before experience has humbled their proud
expectations, & taught them less & less to value the operations
of human invention, and more & more to rely upon those
resources of the constitution impressed upon it by the hand
of its Maker. For what reflecting mind can withold its ad-
-miration of the construction, & self preservation of the com-
-plicated machine which constitutes the human body? We are
indeed fearfully & wonderfully made. While ignorance
therefore is forward & presumptuous , "Bold to prescribe, and
busy to apply", eager to employ the most powerful remedies,
& to promise their undoubted success; real knowledge, modest
& reserved, is continued patiently to persevere in the adminis-
-tration of such means as are within her reach, gently to
cherish the wasted powers of the body, & gradually to remove
the impediments to returning health; or lastly, to alleviate
& soften those calamities, which she is no longer able to avert.