Out of mysticism, superstition and religious ritual the Greek went directly to nature and was the first to grasp the conception of medicine as an art based on accurate observation, and an integral part of the science of man.

What could be more striking than the phrase in "The Law," "There are, in effect, two things, to know and to believe one knows; to know is science; to believe one knows is ignorance" ?( 23) But no single phrase in the writings can compare for directness with the famous aphorism which has gone into the literature of all lands: "Life is short and Art is long; the Occasion fleeting, Experience fallacious, and Judgment difficult." (23) Littre: OEuvres d'Hippocrate, Vol.

IV, pp.

641-642.
Everywhere one finds a strong, clear common sense, which refuses to be entangled either in theological or philosophical speculations.

What Socrates did for philosophy Hippocrates may be said to have done for medicine.