Copy 1, Volume 1

The works of Thomas Sydenham, M.D / Translated from the Latin edition of Dr. Greenhill, with a life of the author, by R.G. Latham.

  • Thomas Sydenham
Date:
1848-1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The works of Thomas Sydenham, M.D / Translated from the Latin edition of Dr. Greenhill, with a life of the author, by R.G. Latham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    115/390 (page 5)
    made the following discovery, viz., that I had opened my eyes only to get them filled with dust—no Olympic! dust either. On the one side, I had no guide whatsoever ; on the other, only the fancies of my own brain. Much, therefore, as I could have wished that these lucubrations of mine should have been increased and confirmed by the experience of years, I was, never- theless, so fretted by the sneers and insults of pretenders, that lat length considered what was due to myself, and undertook my defence accordingly. In doing this, I was prevailed on by my friends, amongst whom I must name with honour, the saga- cious Master Walter Needham, Doctor of Medicine, an orna- ment both to his profession and to literature. I trust that the facts which I record and publish will ensure me the candid part of mankind as partisans. In respect to the rest, I apply to them the acute saying of Seneca: “ Haxpectabo scilicet ut quicquam calumnie sit sacrum cui nec Rutilius sacer fuit nee Cato ?? If, however, men be still found in whom the lust of abuse has been engrafted upon a natural discourtesy, and savageness of temper; if such men neglect to consider fairly whether I have written rightly or wrongly; and, finally, if they deem themselves injured when others proclaim new facts, of which they themselves had no previous knowledge—if such, I say, be found, I hope and trust that I shall endure them with a patient spirit. At any rate, I shall not reciprocate the asperities of their abuse, I shall oppose to them only what Titus Tacitus? opposed to the abuse of Metellus, a sentence which would have become even a Christian, “ Facile est in me dicere, cum non sim responsurus : tu didicisti maledicere; ego, conscientia teste, didici maledicta contemnere. St tu lingue tue dominus es, ut quicquid lubet effutias ; ego aurium. mearum sum dominus, ut quicquid obvenerit audiant inoffense,” ! “Sunt quos curriculo pulverem Olympicum Collegisse juvat. Horat.,O0d. 1,1. à. [G.] 2 De Vita Beata, c. 18... .[G.] ? [ have not found this passage in any of the ancient writers. Refer, however, to Beyerlinck, Magn. Theatr. Vit. Human., tom. vi, p. 60, H. (Lugd. 1666, fol.) —[G.) The quotation in Beyerlinck is as follows: Tacitus Lucio Metello ei in Senatu male- dicenti respondit, “facile est in me dicere; quia non responsurus sum, potentia ergo tua non mea patientia est accusanda.” The classical author referred to by Beyerlinck is Seneca. I have not succeeded, however, in finding the passage in any of the common editions of that classic.