ESSAY X. THE DIFFICULTIES OF HOMEOPATHY. "The fruit Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste MILTON. ESSAY X. THE DIFFICULTIES OF HOMEOPATHY. "Every science has its difficulties."-JOHNSON. As WHATEVER Costs little trouble is commonly of small value, while that which is worth possessing is difficult to obtain. there is no royal road to knowledge, so neither is there a smooth path for the discharge of duty and the satisfying of conscience. If the path be rugged, it behoves us to examine it the more warily; to look all difficulties in the face, and not to imitate the ostrich, which, when pursued, buries its head in the sands. The difficulties of Homœopathy are twofold :—they are either temporary or permanent. They belong to ourselves, rather than to it. I. Of the difficulties, which it may be hoped are temporary, some have a special reference to the medical profession,others to Hahnemann ;—some arise from the public,—others from the circumstances in which Homœopathists are at present placed. Of these temporary difficulties the following appear to me among the most important : 1. The novelty of the system now proposed to be adopted. It is "véa kai Eévn," new and strange. This is a difficulty which unavoidably attaches itself to every thing which involves fundamental changes. It is a good check upon restless minds. It may sometimes impede a useful improvement, but it more frequently retards and obviates mischievous alterations. The feeling out of which the difficulty springs has its expression in the proverb "meddle not with them that are given to change." But in cases like the present it must be remembered that when a discovery of nature's truth has been made, there is no novelty in the natural facts; they have been from the beginning; the novelty is in us, in our knowing now what we were ignorant of before. When sufficient evidence of facts is presented to us, unless blinded by prejudice, we cannot but believe them to be true, and believe also that they were true before we knew them, and whether we knew them or not. It frequently happens that, on further inquiry, we find that though the truth is new to us, glimpses of it have been seen from time to time in former ages,-occasionally the discovery is more entirely new. The principle of Homœopathy is of the former kind, it has been indicated, though never practically carried out before Hahnemann; the action of infinitesimally small doses belongs to the latter; it is a truth of which we had little or no intimation till it was discovered by Hahne mann. This first difficulty of Homœopathy is inseparable from the exhibition of new truth. It has accompanied all discoveries of truth. It must be borne peaceably, until Time has effec tually removed it. 2. The prejudices of education and modes of thought. These much more frequently operate injuriously than beneficially. They are wonderfully strong among the professors of the art of healing, as the history of every discovery in medicine testifies. The reception of Homoeopathy has not differed in this respect from that of the most valuable additions of knowledge and improvements of practice of former times. How just is the satire of Molière in the commenda |