Page 861 of 1391

And therefore our politic Asclepius may be supposed to have

exhibited the power of his art only to persons who, being

generally of healthy constitution and habits of life, had a

definite ailment; such as these he cured by purges and

operations, and bade them live as usual, herein consulting the

interests of the State; but bodies which disease had penetrated

through and through he would not have attempted to cure by

gradual processes of evacuation and infusion: he did not want to

lengthen out good-for-nothing lives, or to have weak fathers

begetting weaker sons;-if a man was not able to live in the

ordinary way he had no business to cure him; for such a cure

would have been of no use either to himself, or to the State.

Then, he said, you regard Asclepius as a statesman.