It has been held that Æsculapius, like More’s Utopians, did not think it wise to bring to bear the art of healing in the case of any one who might not be restored to health and to usefulness to himself and others. Says Plato: “He thought medical treatment ill bestowed upon one who could not live in his regular round of duties, and so was of no use either to himself or to the State.”[141] The great philosopher accordingly regarded him as “a profound politician.” For, in his ideal state, this celebrated theorizer would have physicians “bestow their services on those only of the citizens whose bodily and mental constitutions are sound and good, leaving those that are otherwise, as to the state of their body, to die, and actually putting to death those who are naturally corrupt and incurable in soul.”[142] Some excellent reasons might be advanced in favor of such a harsh policy, but, while human love of life and human sympathy remain as now, it will never be brought into play.[143] As an ideal physician, Æsculapius could hardly have been an advocate of it.[144] I may say a word about the charge of Pindar, that the efforts of Æsculapius to recall the dead to life were inspired by temptation with gold. The poet says:— “Alas! that filthy gain can blind the wise! The glittering gold betrayed the noble leech, From the dark prison-house to bid arrive A captive thrall of death! But Jove with wrathful hand refused to each The hallowed breath. Down came the bolt of fire.”[145] Making such an ugly charge is probably unjust to the great healer. The historian, Grote, thinks so, and expresses the opinion that Pindar was disposed “to extenuate the cruelty of Zeus by imputing guilty and sordid views to Æsculapius.”[146] Long ago the accusation was met by Plato. Says he: “While they[147] assert that Æsculapius was the son of Apollo, they declare that he was induced by a bribe of gold to raise to life a rich man who was dead, which was the cause of his being smitten with a thunderbolt. But we, with our principles, cannot believe both these statements of theirs. We shall maintain that, if he was the son of a god, he was not covetous; if he was covetous, he was not the son of Apollo.”[148] He was the son of Apollo. To conclude this imperfect sketch of the life of Æsculapius, I may add that he was married, as every wise as well as respectable physician should be,[149] and, as was desirable in an exemplar, the father of at least six children,—two sons and four daughters. The two sons, Machaon and Podalirius, taught by their “parent god,” as Homer informs us, became “famed surgeons,” “divine professors of the healing art,”[150] and were also distinguished warriors under Agamemnon. Of the daughters, Hygeia, Panacea, Jaso, and Ægle, the first became the goddess of health, of whom more anon. CHAPTER VII. THE IMAGE OF ÆSCULAPIUS.