Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/344

 had Occasion to use some few Geometrical Terms, as Cone, Axis, Triangle, and the like; he makes a long Excuse, and tells a tedious Story of a Daemon that appeared to him, and commanded him to write what he did; and all this least the Physicians of that Age should think that he conjured, and so take a Prejudice against all that he said. This shews that in Galen's Time at least, there was little Correspondence between Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and that Mankind did not believe that there was so intimate a Relation between them as it is now generally known there is. Many a Man that cannot demonstrate any one single Proposition in Euclid, takes it now for granted that Geometry is of infinite Use to a Philosopher; and it is believed now upon trust, because it is become an Axiom amongst the Learned in these Matters. And if it had been so received in Galens Time, or by those more ancient Authors, whom Galens Contemporaries followed, or pretended at least to follow, as their Patterns; such as Hippocrates, whom all sides reverenced, Herophilus, Erasistratus, Asclepiades, and several more, there would have been no need of any Excuses for what he was doing; since his Readers being accustomed to