[Gargantua and Pantagruel Book IV. by Francois Rabelais]@TWC D-Link bookGargantua and Pantagruel Book IV. BOOK IV 12/33
Sometimes I at large relate to them how Hippocrates in several places, and particularly in lib.6.Epidem., describing the institution of the physician his disciple, and also Soranus of Ephesus, Oribasius, Galen, Hali Abbas, and other authors, have descended to particulars, in the prescription of his motions, deportment, looks, countenance, gracefulness, civility, cleanliness of face, clothes, beard, hair, hands, mouth, even his very nails; as if he were to play the part of a lover in some comedy, or enter the lists to fight some enemy.
And indeed the practice of physic is properly enough compared by Hippocrates to a fight, and also to a farce acted between three persons, the patient, the physician, and the disease. Which passage has sometimes put me in mind of Julia's saying to Augustus her father.
One day she came before him in a very gorgeous, loose, lascivious dress, which very much displeased him, though he did not much discover his discontent.
The next day she put on another, and in a modest garb, such as the chaste Roman ladies wore, came into his presence.
The kind father could not then forbear expressing the pleasure which he took to see her so much altered, and said to her: Oh! how much more this garb becomes and is commendable in the daughter of Augustus.
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