All you who study medicine have, one may say, humanity for your profession: and I think that one who preferred your science to all the serious pursuits of life would form the proper judgment, and not miss the right decision, if it be true that life, the most valued of all things, is a thing to be shunned, and full of pain, if it may not be had with health, and health your art supplies. But in your own case the science is in a notable degree of double efficacy; you enlarge for yourself the bounds of its humanity, since you do not limit the benefit of your art to men’s bodies, but take thought also for the cure of troubles of the mind. I say this, not only following the common reports, but because I have learnt it from experience, as in many other matters, so especially at this time in this indescribable malice of our enemies, which you skilfully dispersed when it swept like some evil flood over our life, dispelling this violent inflammation of our heart by your fomentation of soothing words. I thought it right, indeed, in view of the continuous and varied effort of our enemies against us, to keep silence, and to receive their attack quietly, rather than to speak against men armed with falsehood, that most mischievous weapon, which sometimes drives its point even through truth. But you did well in urging me not to betray the truth, but to refute the slanderers, lest, by a success of falsehood against truth, many might be injured.

Ἔστι μὲν καὶ πᾶσιν ὑμῖν τοῖς τὴν ἰατρικὴν μετιοῦσι φιλάνθρωπον τὸ ἐπιτήδευμα καί μοι δοκεῖ τῶν κατὰ τὸν βίον σπουδαζομένων ἁπάντων ὁ τὴν ὑμετέραν προτιθεὶς ἐπιστήμην ἐπιτυχεῖν ἂν τῆς πρεπούσης κρίσεως καὶ μὴ διαμαρτεῖν τοῦ προσήκοντος, εἴπερ τὸ πάντων προτιμότατον, ἡ ζωή, φευκτόν ἐστι καὶ ἐπώδυνον, ἐὰν μὴ μεθ' ὑγείας ἐξῇ ταύτην ἔχειν: ὑγείας δὲ χορηγὸς ἡ ὑμετέρα τέχνη. ἀλλὰ σοὶ διαφερόντως περιδέξιός ἐστιν ἡ ἐπιστήμη καὶ μείζονας ποιεῖς σεαυτῷ τῆς φιλανθρωπίας τοὺς ὅρους οὐ μέχρι τῶν σωμάτων περιορίζων τὴν ἐκ τῆς τέχνης χάριν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν ψυχικῶν ἀρρωστημάτων ἐπινοῶν τὴν διόρθωσιν. ταῦτα δὲ λέγω οὐ μόνον ταῖς τῶν πολλῶν φήμαις ἑπόμενος, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῇ κατ' ἐμαυτὸν διδαχθεὶς πείρᾳ ἐν πολλοῖς τε ἄλλοις καὶ διαφερόντως νῦν ἐν τῇ τῶν ἐχθρῶν ἡμῶν ἀνεκδιηγήτῳ κακίᾳ, ἣν ῥεύματος πονηροῦ δίκην κατὰ τῆς ζωῆς ἡμῶν ἐπιρρυεῖσαν εὐμηχάνως διέχεας, τὴν βαρεῖαν ταύτην φλεγμονὴν τῆς καρδίας ἡμῶν τῇ ἐπαντλήσει τῶν παρηγορικῶν λόγων διαφορήσας. ἐγὼ γὰρ πρὸς τὴν ἐπάλληλον τῶν ἐχθρῶν καὶ ποικίλην καθ' ἡμῶν ἐπιχείρησιν ἀποβλέπων σιωπᾶν ᾤμην δεῖν καὶ δέχεσθαι καθ' ἡσυχίαν τὰ ἐπαγόμενα μηδὲ ἀνταίρειν τοῖς καθωπλισμένοις τῷ ψεύδει, τῷ πονηρῷ τούτῳ ὅπλῳ τῷ καὶ διὰ τῆς ἀληθείας πολλάκις τὴν αἰχμὴν εἰσωθοῦντι: σὺ δὲ καλῶς ποιῶν μὴ καταπροδιδόναι τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐνεκελεύσω, ἀλλὰ διελέγχειν τοὺς συκοφάντας, ὡς ἂν μὴ πολλοὶ παραβλαβεῖεν κατευημεροῦντος τῆς ἀληθείας τοῦ ψεύδους.