nubilatur_, with this
tempest of contention, the serenity of charity is overclouded, and there be
too many spirits conjured up already in this kind in all sciences, and more
than we can tell how to lay, which do so furiously rage, and keep such a
racket, that as [161]Fabius said, "It had been much better for some of them
to have been born dumb, and altogether illiterate, than so far to dote to
their own destruction."

"At melius fuerat non scribere, namque tacere
Tutum semper erit,"------[162]

'Tis a general fault, so Severinus the Dane complains [163]in physic,
"unhappy men as we are, we spend our days in unprofitable questions and
disputations," intricate subtleties, _de lana caprina_ about moonshine in
the water, "leaving in the mean time those chiefest treasures of nature
untouched, wherein the best medicines for all manner of diseases are to be
found, and do not only neglect them ourselves, but hinder, condemn, forbid,
and scoff at others, that are willing to inquire after them." These motives
at this present have induced me to make choice of this medicinal subject.

If any physician in the mean time shall infer, _Ne sutor ultra crepidam_,
and find himself grieved that I have intruded into his profession, I will
tell him in brief, I do not otherwise by them, than they do by us. If it be
for their advantage, I know many of their sect which have taken orders, in
hope of a benefice, 'tis a common transition, and why may not a melancholy
divine, that can get nothing but by simony, profess physic? Drusianus an
Italian (Crusianus, but corruptly, Trithemius calls him) [164]"because he
was not fortunate in his practice, forsook his profession, and writ
afterwards in divinity." Marcilius Ficinus was _semel et simul_; a priest
and a physician at once, and [165]T. Linacer in his old age took orders.
The Jesuits profess both at this time, divers of them _permissu
superiorum_, chirurgeons, panders, bawds, and midwives, &c. Many poor
country-vicars, for want of other means, are driven to their shifts; to
turn mountebanks, quacksalvers, empirics, and if our greedy patrons hold us
to such hard conditions, as commonly they do, they will make most of us
work at some trade, as Paul did, at last turn taskers, maltsters,
costermongers, graziers, sell ale as some have done, or worse. Howsoever in
undertaking this task, I hope I shall commit no great error or _indecorum_,
if all be considered aright, I can vindicate myse