The Complete Works of Claudius Galen, Vol. 18 Pt. 2

Ed. Chart. VIII. [586. 587.]

Ed. Bas. V. (119.)

...to be taken according to the common meaning. For pronoia (premeditation/providence) so called is said only of good things. For the pronoia of the universe cannot be of evil deeds, and for this reason, prognosis is of things according to the three times, not only of those that are in the future. Yet a prophet is no less admirable who, without having seen them, relates things that have come to pass as if they were present, than one who relates things that are about to come to pass; and thus he who relates what is currently being done before he has seen it is a prophet in no way inferior to them. Hippocrates himself indicated this, saying: for he who makes prognosis and predicts for the sick both what is present, what has happened before, and what will happen. Therefore, it is of the same art to speak—without having seen them—of what has happened before, and to declare what is present and what will happen. In their utility, however, they differ greatly from one another. For the prognosis of what is about to happen is most useful. But for things that have already happened, while it is useless for other matters, it happens to be useful only to the physician who wishes to display his own art. These things, then, even if they do not pertain to the medical...