Without the least Detraction however from this excellent Physician, it may be admitted that a few others, in many other Countries, might have sufficient Abilities and Experience for the Production of a like Work, on the same good Plan. This, we find, Dr. _Hirzel_, principal Physician of _Zurich_, had in Meditation, when the present Treatise appeared, which he thought had so thoroughly fulfilled his own Intention, that it prevented his attempting to execute it. But the great Difficulty consisted in discovering a Physician, who, with equal Abilities, Reputation and Practice, should be qualified with that _much rarer_ Qualification of caring so much more for the Health of those, who could never pay him for it, than for his own Profit or Ease, as to determine him to project and to accomplish so necessary, and yet so self-denying, a Work. For as the Simplicity he proposed in the Style and Manner of it, by condescending, in the plainest Terms, to the humblest Capacities, obliged him to depress himself, by writing rather beneath the former Treatises, which had acquired him the Reputation of medical Erudition, Reasoning and Elegance; we find that the Love of Fame itself, so stimulating even to many ingenuous Minds, was as impotent as that of Wealth, to seduce him from so benign, so generous a Purpose. Though, upon Reflection, it is by no Means strange to see wise Men found their Happiness, which all [however variously and even oppositely] pursue, rather in Conscience, than on Applause; and this naturally reminds us of that celebrated Expression of _Cato_, or some other excellent Ancient, "that he had rather _be_ good, than _be reputed_ so." However singular such a Determination may now appear, the Number of reputable medical Translators into different Languages, which this original Work has employed on the Continent, makes it evident, that real Merit will, sooner or later, have a pretty general Influence; and induce many to imitate that Example, which they either could not, or did not, propose. As the truly modest Author has professedly disclaimed all Applause on the Performance, and contented himself with hoping an Exemption from Censure, through his Readers' Reflection on the peculiar Circumstances and Address of it; well may his best, his faithfullest Translators, whose Merit and Pains must be of a very secondary Degree to his own, be satisfied with a similar Exemption: especially when joined to the Pleasure, that must result from a Consciousness of having endeavoured to extend the Benefits of their Author's Treatise, to Multitudes of their own Country and Language.