THE METHOD OF HEALING

Indeed, this law was born together with the world. It proceeded from the highest mind and the divine power of God. For, as Plato says, when the creator of the Gods founded the world and nature, he simultaneously decreed fatal laws The Latin "leges fatales" refers to the laws of destiny or the inescapable physical laws of the universe. for it. Now truly, whatever is contained within the genus of living beings, plants, or metals, and is held within this lower region of the world, consists of a certain peculiar nature. This nature belongs to each specific thing. It protects and rules that which it has brought forth.

Again, this peculiar nature of each thing is guided by its own law. This law is stable and fixed. Through it, nature completes all its actions. It is entirely obedient and subject to universal nature. Its own specific law is subject to the supreme law, so that all things obey the commands of the highest law as if in one consensus and sympathy sympathia: the Stoic and Neoplatonic idea that all parts of the universe are interconnected and respond to one another. Therefore, whatever holds the power of nature is sustained by perpetual constancy, right reason, and suitable law.

If we refer these things to our medical contemplation, whatever exists in man beyond knowledge and the choice of will is entirely administered by the laws of nature.

Medicine is formed in imitation of nature.

Medicine is a certain image formed after this likeness. It always gazes upon the law of nature and is fixed upon it. It directs all its study and work toward the imitation of nature. It does this to preserve and protect a firm health for man that is least subject to disease. It works to raise up health when it has fallen or is afflicted, to restore it to its whole state, and to prolong life itself, safe and unharmed, for as long as possible.

That law of nature is born or rather eternal. Medicine, however, is the written law of nature. The former is the archetype and primary model. The latter is a solid and clear image of it. No human force, no change of regions or places, and no passage of time can subvert these laws. Instead, they remain inviolate, stable, and unchangeable through the eternity of all ages.

To these laws, even those who struggle to subject the peoples of all nations to themselves and bind them with laws must bow their necks. They do so even if unwillingly, because death is common to all. Emperors and the highest kings obey these laws. They certainly do not resist them without punishment. These are the most excellent of all laws. They are equally common to all nations and entirely necessary and unchangeable.

Since their necessity is so great and their excellence so high, we must strive to draw them whole, pure, and chaste from the healthiest and purest fountains of nature. These laws are not narrow or rigid. They are gentle and mild. They are intended to lift up, revive, and refresh those severely afflicted by disease. For those who...