were allowed to take upon themselves the task of mending them, except
those whom God has constituted the supreme rulers of his people or to whom
he has given sufficient grace and zeal to be prophets; and although my
speculations greatly pleased myself, I believed that others had theirs,
which perhaps pleased them still more. But as soon as I had acquired some
general notions respecting physics, and beginning to make trial of them in
various particular difficulties, had observed how far they can carry us,
and how much they differ from the principles that have been employed up to
the present time, I believed that I could not keep them concealed without
sinning grievously against the law by which we are bound to promote, as
far as in us lies, the general good of mankind. For by them I perceived it
to be possible to arrive at knowledge highly useful in life; and in room
of the speculative philosophy usually taught in the schools, to discover a
practical, by means of which, knowing the force and action of fire, water,
air the stars, the heavens, and all the other bodies that surround us, as
distinctly as we know the various crafts of our artisans, we might also
apply them in the same way to all the uses to which they are adapted, and
thus render ourselves the lords and possessors of nature. And this is a
result to be desired, not only in order to the invention of an infinity of
arts, by which we might be enabled to enjoy without any trouble the fruits
of the earth, and all its comforts, but also and especially for the
preservation of health, which is without doubt, of all the blessings of
this life, the first and fundamental one; for the mind is so intimately
dependent upon the condition and relation of the organs of the body, that
if any means can ever be found to render men wiser and more ingenious than
hitherto, I believe that it is in medicine they must be sought for. It is
true that the science of medicine, as it now exists, contains few things
whose utility is very remarkable: but without any wish to depreciate it, I
am confident that there is no one, even among those whose profession it
is, who does not admit that all at present known in it is almost nothing