Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/334

 exact in distinguishing Diseases, in observing the proper Symptoms of each, and taking notice of their Times and Accidents, thereby to make a Judgment how far they might be esteemed dangerous, and how far safe. Herein his particular Excellency seems to have lain; and this, in the Order of Knowledge, is the first Thing that a Rational Physician ought to make himself Master of: Which is a sure Argument that Hippocrates throughly understood what Things were necessary for him to study with the greatest Care, in order to make his Writings always useful to Posterity. (2.) That though we should allow the Methods of Practice used by the Ancients, to have been as perfect, nay, perfecter than those now in use, which some great Men have eagerly contended for; yet it does not follow, that they understood the whole Compass of their Profession so well as it is now understood; because it is absolutely impossible to form just Theories of all Diseases, so as to lay down the perfectest Methods of Cure possible, which shall be adapted to all Persons, in all Circumstances, till Anatomy and Physiology are perfectly known; and by Consequence, later Theories are always more esteemable, as they are raised upon newer Discoveries in