the morning paper, so up-to-date does genius ever remain:--

And whensoever I shall have occasion to contend in the School with
such a Doctor, who knows not how himself to prepare his own
medicines, but commits that business to another, I am sure I shall
obtain the Palm from him; for indeed that good man knows not what
medicines he prescribes to the sick; whether the color of them be
white, black, grey, or blew, he cannot tell; nor doth this wretched
man know whether the medicine he gives be dry or hot, cold or humid;
but he only knows that he found it so written in his Books, and
thence pretends knowledge (or as it were, Possession) by
Prescription of a very long time; yet he desires to further
Information Here again let it be lawful to exclaim, Good God, to
what a state is the matter brought! what goodness of minde is in
these men! what care do they take of the sick! Wo, wo to them! in
the day of Judgment they will find the fruit of their ignorance and
rashness, then they will see Him whom they pierced, when they
neglected their Neighbor, sought after money and nothing else;
whereas were they cordial in their profession, they would spend
Nights and Days in Labour that they might become more learned in
their Art, whence more certain health would accrew to the sick with
their Estimation and greater glory to themselves. But since Labour
is tedious to them, they commit the {69} matter to chance, and being
secure of their Honour, and content with their Fame, they (like
Brawlers) defend themselves with a certain garrulity, without any
respect had to Confidence or Truth.

Perhaps one of the reasons why Valentine's book has been of such
enduring interest is that it is written in an eminently human vein and
out of a lively imagination. It is full of figures relating to many
other things besides chemistry, which serve to show how deeply this
investigating observer was attentive to all the problems of life
around him. For instance, when he wants to describe the affinity that
exists between many substances in chemistry, and which makes it
impossible for them not to be attracted to one another, he takes a
figure from the attractions that he sees exist among men and women.
There are some paragraphs with regard to the influence of the passion
of love that one might think rather a quotation from an old-time
sermon than from a great ground-breaking book in the science of
chemistry.