Alexander Pope

So modern 'pothecaries, taught the art
By doctor's bills to play the doctor's part,
Bold in the read more

So modern 'pothecaries, taught the art
By doctor's bills to play the doctor's part,
Bold in the practice of mistaken rules,
Prescribe, apply, and call their masters fools.

Ask you what provocation I have had?
The strong antipathy of good to bad.

Ask you what provocation I have had?
The strong antipathy of good to bad.

Who shall decide when doctors disagree,
And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me?

Who shall decide when doctors disagree,
And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me?

Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boast;
But shall the dignity of vice be lost?

Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boast;
But shall the dignity of vice be lost?

And each blasphemer quite escape the rod,
Because the insult's not on man, but God?

And each blasphemer quite escape the rod,
Because the insult's not on man, but God?