Page:The Emperor Marcus Antoninus - His Conversation with Himself.djvu/435

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of Cebes the Theban.
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give the owners the the Satisfaction to know they are out of Danger as long as they live. In earnest, said I, this Lady has an excellent Hand at making Presents! But what makes her stand without the Gate? To cure those that come hither, and give them her Cephalick Prescription; and when the Potion has cleans’d their Constitution, she brings them in, and presents them to the Virtues. How is this? I don't rightly understand you. I’l clear it to you, says he, ’tis just as when a Patient dangerously ill, is undertaken by a Physician: In the place first the Doctor endeavours to remove the Cause and discharge the Morbifick Matter, and when this is done, strength returns of Course, and the Man is set up. But if he won't take his Physick, and be govern’d, ’tis no wonder if he dies of the Distemper. I apprehend you, Sir, said I, Thus, says he, when any one is brought to Learning, and Philosophy, she falls to Doctoring of him presently, gives him a purging Dose out of her own Dispensatory, that all the ill Humours may be carry’d off in the first place. And what are those? They are Ignorance and Error, which Imposture drench’d him with; they are Pride, Appetite, and Intemperance, Anger, and Avarice; and the rest of that

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