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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.