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The PREFACE.
xxiii

Days, but does not tell us to what Class or Species those Fevers belong; but however since there are no Fevers, such as he treats oft that are of so long Duration to be met with in this Age and Country, it is a manifest Proof that the Fevers, which Hippocrates saw, were different from those that prevail here; which is directly contrary to the Assertion of a late learned Commentator upon that Writer: And therefore the antient Authors and modern too, in very remote Countries, should not be of great Value here, for the Nature of Diseases, and the Force of Medicines, are by no Means the same in distant Climates, nor in distant Ages of the World.

As for his Book of Aphorisms, it is like my Lord Bacon's of the same Title, a Book of Jests, or a grave Collection of trite and trifling Observations, of which though many are true and certain, yet they signify nothing, and may afford Diversion, but no Instruction, most of them being much inferior to the Sayings of the Wise-men of Greece, which yet are so low and meany that we are entertained every Day with more valuable Sentiments at the Table-Conversation of ingenious and learned Men. Many of this

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