t
appears that Sydenham, having been for some time absent from the
university, returned to it, in order to pursue his physical inquiries,
before he was twenty-four years old; for, in 1648, he was admitted to
the degree of bachelor of physick.

That such reports should be confidently spread, even among the
contemporaries of the author to whom they relate, and obtain, in a few
years, such credit as to require a regular confutation; that it should
be imagined that the greatest physician of the age arrived at so high
a degree of skill, without any assistance from his predecessors; and
that a man, eminent for integrity, practised medicine by chance, and
grew wise only by murder; is not to be considered without
astonishment.

But if it be, on the other part, remembered, how much this opinion
favours the laziness of some, and the pride of others; how readily
some men confide in natural sagacity; and how willingly most would
spare themselves the labour of accurate reading and tedious inquiry;
it will be easily discovered, how much the interest of multitudes was
engaged in the production and continuance of this opinion, and how
cheaply those, of whom it was known that they practised physick before
they studied it, might satisfy themselves and others with the example
of the illustrious Sydenham.

It is, therefore, in an uncommon degree useful to publish a true
account of this memorable man, that pride, temerity, and idleness, may
be deprived of that patronage which they have enjoyed too long; that
life may be secured from the dangerous experiments of the ignorant and
presumptuous; and that those, who shall, hereafter, assume the
important province of superintending the health of others, may learn,
from this great master of the art, that the only means of arriving at
eminence and success are labour and study.

From these false reports it is probable that another arose, to which,
though it cannot be with equal certainty confuted, it does not appear
that entire credit ought to be given. The acquisition of a Latin style
did not seem consistent with the manner of life imputed to him; nor
was it probable, that he, who had so diligently cultivated the
ornamental parts of general literature, would have neglected the
essential studies of his own profession. Those, therefore, who were
determined, at whatever price, to retain him in their own party, and
represent him equally ignorant and daring with themselves, denied him
the credit o