Who worse than a physician
Would this report become? But I consider
By med'cine life may be read more

Who worse than a physician
Would this report become? But I consider
By med'cine life may be prolonged, yet death
Will seize the doctor too. How ended she?

Medicine sometimes snatches away health, sometimes gives it.

Medicine sometimes snatches away health, sometimes gives it.

Even as a Surgeon, minding off to cut
Some cureless limb, before in use he put
His read more

Even as a Surgeon, minding off to cut
Some cureless limb, before in use he put
His violent Engins on the vicious member,
Bringeth his Patient in a senseless slumber,
And grief-less then (guided by use and art),
To save the whole, sawes off th' infected part.
- Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas,

We do not bear sweets; we are recruited by a bitter potion.
[Lat., Dulcia non ferimus; succo renovamus amaro.]

We do not bear sweets; we are recruited by a bitter potion.
[Lat., Dulcia non ferimus; succo renovamus amaro.]

When I was sick, you gave me bitter pills,
And I must minister the like to you.

When I was sick, you gave me bitter pills,
And I must minister the like to you.

And in requital ope his leathern scrip,
And show me simples of a thousand names,
Telling their read more

And in requital ope his leathern scrip,
And show me simples of a thousand names,
Telling their strange and vigorous faculties.

A pill that the present moment is daily bread to thousands.

A pill that the present moment is daily bread to thousands.

A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. (Proverbs 17:22)

A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. (Proverbs 17:22)

Learn'd he was in medic'nal lore,
For by his side a pouch he wore,
Replete with strange read more

Learn'd he was in medic'nal lore,
For by his side a pouch he wore,
Replete with strange hermetic powder
That wounds nine miles point-blank would solder.