Page:The Harveian oration - delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, October 18th, 1899 (IA b24975941).pdf/12

 tion. It was the product of sane minds trained in the pure atmosphere of liberty, and nurtured in sound bodies developed by manly exercises. To the mind's eye it stands out, simple in form, faultless in beauty, eternal in strength; like the temple of Pallas Athene on the rock of the Acropolis, which, mangled though it be, still rears its noble form to check our tendency to mental arrogance and to inspire us with the hope that there be things which may outlive the ragings of man and the warring of the elements.

Darkness gradually overwhelmed the enlightenment of the Grecks. Philosophy gave way to mysticism, reason was swallowed up by superstition, and inquiry was strangled by authority. Men engaged in endless speculations, and tried by fire and sword to settle questions which could not be solved by reason-questions which now barely serve to furnish a little damp ammunition for the political pyrotechnist.

Intellectual training was almost limited to dialecties, and men could argue so nimbly and with such faultless logic from phantom premises, as to justify the later witticism that language was given us to conceal our thoughts. Under these blighting influences medicine withered almost to death, and the physicians of the fourteenth century were more ignorant than those of the first century. It is tolerably certain, to take a concrete example, that the beloved companion of St. Paul had a more