Free Political Propositions

this unbreakable goal, track, or way must be kept: that all teachers of any art or science, beyond all reverence, must appear certain and infallible only according to reason. Or at least always with a distinct expression of what they firmly confirm and do not firmly confirm: so that one may always be able to ask them distinctively, either for the proof or for the probability of their statement: For it is irrefutably clear that when one, in the case of art or science, appeals to someone else's saying or writing as a way of proving, in the manner of today’s Theologanten theologians, Iuristen jurists, and Medici physicians, one then stands as fully confessed to being entirely without knowledge of that science or art. Once this is well understood and grasped, then a door can be opened to the most certain establishment and most infallible improvement of a most worthy and soul-glorifying Christian Religion. The warding off of bodily ailments and unhealthiness, and the most certain and swiftest curing of the same. Along with an evangelical-freedom-befitting Jurisprudence. Which last faculty and power consists solely in this: that each and every citizen, as well as young men, must be taught from the foundation, clearly and concisely, all of the Republic’s laws and ordinances that must serve for evangelical freedom and the common good. I would have the preservation of health, being feasible, brought to a common and clearest knowledge through some communicative colleges to be established.

• The means of healing, etc. It conflicts with all reason and equity, and consequently also against the common good, that in such a highly important matter as the preservation of health and the curing of unhealthiness, particular greed is allowed room, and even favored with privileges: for through this it happens that the practitioners of that art hide and go covered from one another, and moreover even try to slander and insult one another, contenting themselves with their outstanding and chartered title of Doctor, etc., arrogantly sticking out their chests, and furthermore being lazy and slow in the rest, contenting themselves with mere glancing into books, laying themselves out solely to earn money. And if we may then also believe the Amsterdam Dr. Koster—as I, for my part, because of the entire uncertainty that the most open-hearted and best physicians are now forced to confess in their art, cannot help but believe—it would be far better if there were no Dutch book-physicians found at all. And I am therefore fully of this opinion: that this otherwise noble art should only be investigated, taught, and practiced communicatively upon certain general privileges and honest support from the common, by such who would then solely present themselves for it and willingly offer themselves, who had a natural inclination for it, and which would undoubtedly also bring about the best physicians. Without ever allowing that they, practicing in particular, would ever be able to enjoy the least for it; but would have to be content with the nobility of their art, along with an honest subsidy drawn from the common for that purpose. The further utilities of investigating, learning, and practicing in the Dutch [language] communicatively, etc., lying in this worthy and noble art, this tract—much less a note of the same—does not allow for at all.

• The means of healing must likewise be communicatively investigated, practiced, and taught most surely and clearly through some colleges to be established, provided with some privileges and subsidies, with the warding off of all filthy gain or seeking of wealth. And which everything, and all, must necessarily happen through the medium of the Republic’s mother tongue, with the exclusion of all old and worn-out book-languages: So that all and every one of the citizens could have free hearing and access to this, in order to thus readily be able to perceive and understand the faithfulness as well as the infallibility of those teachers and instructors, and where the common good would also be most highly concerned: For