lesome outdoor life, and so created a
civilization in which health very largely took care of itself. An
examination of what records remain to us hardly sustains the accepted
opinion that the Greeks had made substantial advances along purely
scientific lines,[16] but at any rate as far as medicine goes, there is
little to choose between the Greece of the fourth century before Christ
and the Europe of the sixteenth century after, save that the life of the
Greek was far more normal, temperate and hygienic and the mind of the
Greek more open, sane and balanced.

[Footnote 16: Probably too strong a statement. For an opposite view
strongly supported by a scholar's research see Singer's article in "The
Legacy of Greece" (Oxford Press), p. 201.]

Plato anticipated conclusions which we are just beginning to reach when
he said, "the office of the physician extends equally to the
purification of mind and body. To neglect the one is to expose the other
to evident peril. It is not only the body which, by sound constitution,
strengthens the soul, but the well regulated soul, by its authoritative
power, maintains the body in perfect health." Whether the best classic
civilization made, consciously, its own this very noble insight of
Plato, the best classic civilization did secure the sound mind and the
sound body to an extent which puts a far later and far more complex
civilization to shame. Perhaps the greatest contribution of the Greek to
this whole great subject was his passion for bodily well-being and his
marvellous adaptation of his habits and type of life to that end.

He did, moreover, separate religion, magic and medicine to some
appreciable extent and he gave us at least the beginnings of a medical
profession, approaching medicine from the scientific rather than the
religious or traditional point of view. Even though his science was a
poor enough thing, his doctors were none the less doctors and the
medical profession to-day is entirely within its right when it goes back
to Hippocrates for the fathering of it.

_The Attitude of the Early and Medieval Church_

Christianity changed all this and on the whole for the worse. And yet
that statement ought to be immediately qualified, for Christianity did
bring with it a very great compassion for suffering, a very great
willingness to help the sick and the needy. The Gospels are inextricably
interwoven with accounts of the healing power of the founder of
Christianity. All the