De venis mesaraicis obstructis ipsarumque ita affectarum curatione Theses sive Pronunciata LX

A decorative initial G features a griffin-like creature.
TO THE MOST PIOUS AND ILLUSTRIOUS
MAN, DR. THOMAS PENNEIUS, AN ENGLISHMAN,
most skilled in both branches of medicine—as much in the metaphysical as in the natural—a professor among the Londoners,
and his own singular friend. Greetings.

Gratitude is praised by no barbarism of the nations, no savagery of the Scythians. Yet everyone condemns ingratitude, both by word and by spirit. Especially, however, the race of Christians and the nation of those who philosophize soundly do this. This reason perhaps moved Hippocrates to have a teacher autì patrós in place of a father, as he swears. What? Did he swear? Indeed, he swore by Apollo and Aesculapius, and by all the Gods and Goddesses, that he would hold those as parents through whom he had progressed in literary matters. May it not be permitted, by the example of the Coan Hippocrates was from Cos, for me to swear the same to you, O best of men? I know your character; I know what you are about to respond: namely, not so much to provide a good thing with words, as to execute it in deed; since this truly belongs to Christians, while that first thing is common even to the impious. Therefore, with Hippocrates as master, will it be permitted to cherish teachers in the manner of parents in deed? You respond from that saying of Pampelus the Pythagorean (for I seem to hear it): tôn gonéōn ē didaskálōn ameleîn oúte daímōn, hóti ánthrōpos sýmbolos ámpoka génoitó tiní, sýmmetron psychâs kektiménō tô sámau Neither a demon nor any man would ever persuade one to neglect parents or teachers, if one is gifted with any cognition worthy of a human, and possesses a soul commensurate with one's body. What do you say? Would neither a daemon nor any man ever persuade one to neglect their parents or teachers, provided they are possessed of any cognition worthy of a human? Yet how few (alas for our morals) are there who convert things best said by others into a rule of life? You reply now. But then—