kewise illuminated in that
remarkable saying of Prodicus (fifth century B.C.), "That which benefits
human life is God." The Greek view of man was the very antithesis of
that which St. Paul enforced upon the Christian world. One idea pervades
thought from Homer to Lucian-like an aroma--pride in the body as a
whole. In the strong conviction that "our soul in its rose mesh" is
quite as much helped by flesh as flesh by the soul the Greek sang his
song--"For pleasant is this flesh." Just so far as we appreciate the
value of the fair mind in the fair body, so far do we apprehend ideals
expressed by the Greek in every department of life. The beautiful soul
harmonizing with the beautiful body was as much the glorious ideal of
Plato as it was the end of the education of Aristotle. What a splendid
picture in Book III of the "Republic," of the day when ". . . our youth
will dwell in a land of health, amid fair sights and sounds and receive
the good in everything; and beauty, the effluence of fair works, shall
flow into the eye and ear like a health-giving breeze from a purer
region, and insensibly draw the soul from earliest years into likeness
and sympathy with the beauty of reason." The glory of this zeal for
the enrichment of this present life was revealed to the Greeks as to no
other people, but in respect to care for the body of the common man, we
have only seen its fulfilment in our own day, as a direct result of
the methods of research initiated by them. Everywhere throughout the
Hippocratic writings we find this attitude towards life, which has never
been better expressed than in the fine phrase, "Where there is love of
humanity there will be love of the profession." This is well brought
out in the qualifications laid down by Hippocrates for the study of
medicine. "Whoever is to acquire a competent knowledge of medicine ought
to be possessed of the following advantages: a natural disposition;
instruction; a favourable position for the study; early tuition; love of
labour; leisure. First of all, a natural talent is required, for when
nature opposes, everything else is vain; but when nature leads the way
to what is most excellent, instruction in the art takes place, which
the student must try to appropriate to himself by reflection, becoming a
nearly pupil in a place well adapted for instruction. He must also bring
to the task a love of labour and perseverance, so that the instruction
taking root may bring forth proper and abu