Page:Lives of British Physicians.djvu/86

 68 BRITISH PHYSICIANS. Vulgar and Common Errors appeared, which, as it did not arise, like his former one, from fancy and invention, but from observation and the study of books, and was an enumeration of many uncon- nected particulars, must have been the collection of years, and the result of a design early formed and long- pursued. Of its originality, and conse- quent difficulty, he speaks himself in his preface — find no open tract, or constant manuduction, in this labyrinth ; but are ofttimes fain to wander in the Am,erica and untravelled parts of truth. And therefore we are often constrained to stand alone against the strength of opinion, and to meet the Goliah and giant of authority, with contemptible pebbles, and feeble arguments, drawn from the scrip and slender stock of ourselves." Of this ingenious, amusing, and rambling far- rago, a few specimens may be selected at random. " The conceit and opinion of the Centaurs be- gan in the mistake of the beholders, as is declared by Servius, when some young Thessalians on horse- back were beheld afar olf, while their horses wa- tered, that is, while their heads were depressed, they were conceived by the spectators to be but one animal, and answerable hereunto have their pictures been drawn ever since." — Pseudodoocia Epidejuica, book i., page 13. " The antipathy between a toad and a spider, and that they poisonously destroy each other, is very famous, and solemn stories have been written of their combats ; wherein most commonly the vic- tory is given unto the spider — of what toads and spiders, it is to be understood, would be considered.
 * ' We hope it will not be unconsidered, that we