The charges on which he disowned me before
can be readily understood from the present situation.
To those charges I have made a sufficient answer, I

 

think, by my subsequent life, and these accusations
which he now brings I shall dispose of to the best of
my ability; but first I shall tell you a little about my
position. 
I who am so difficult and disobedient, who so disgrace my father and act so unworthily of my family,
on the former occasion thought it behoved me to
make little opposition to him when he was making
all that clamour and straining his lungs. On leaving
the house, I expected to have a grand jury and a
true verdict in my subsequent life, with its disclosure
that I was at a very great remove from those offences
with which I had been charged by my father, that I
had devoted myself to the noblest of pursuits, and
that I was frequenting the best company. I foresaw,
too, something like this, suspecting even then that it
indicated no great sanity in a father to be angry
unjustly and to concoct false accusations against a
son. And there were those who held all that to be
the beginning of madness, the hostile demonstration
and skirmish-fire of the disease that was soon to
fall upon him—the insensate hatred, the cruel law,
the ready abusiveness, the grim tribunal, the clamour,
the anger, and in general the atrabiliousness which
impregnated the whole proceedings. Therefore I
expected that perhaps I should some day need a
knowledge of medicine.
 
I went abroad, then, studied with the most famous
physicians in foreign parts, and by dint of great
labour and insistent zeal thoroughly mastered the
art. On my return I found my father by then defin-


 

itively insane and given up by the local physicians, who
had not profound insight and could not accurately distinguish different forms of disease. Yet I did as was
natural for an uprigne son to do, neither cherishing
a grudge because of my being disowned, nor waiting
to be sent after; for I had no fault to find with him
personally, but all those offences were of extraneous
origin and, as I have said already, peculiar to the
disease. So I came without being called, but did
not begin the treatment at once. It is not our
custom to do so, and the art of medicine does not recommend that course; we are taught first of all to
observe whether the disease is curable or irremediable
and beyond the limits of medical skill. Then, if it
is manageable, we put our hands to it and make
every effort to save the patient; but if we see that
the ailment already has the upper hand and is victorious, we do not touch it at all, observing an ancient
law of the progenitors of the art of medicine, who
say that one must not lay hand to those who are
overmastered. Hippocrates, de Arte, 3. 
Since I saw that my father was still within hope
and his ailment not beyond professional skill, after
long observation and accurate investigation of all
details I set my hand to it at last and compounded
my remedy confidently, although many of those
present were suspicious of my prescription, critical of
my treatment of the case, and ready to bring charges
against me.
 
My stepmother was present also,
panic-stricken and distrustful, not because she hated
me but because she was fearful and well aware that
he was in a bad way; she knew it because she alone
associated exclusively with him and lived side by


 

side with his disorder. Nevertheless, without any
timidity (for I knew that the symptoms would not
cheat me or betray the profession) I applied the
treatment at the nick of time for the attempt,
although some of my friends advised me not to be
overbold for fear that failure bring upon me a more
serious imputation of avenging myself upon my father
with poison, having conceived a grudge against him
for what I had suffered at his hands.
 To sum it up, he became well at once, recovered
his sanity, and was thoroughly in command of his
faculties. Those present were amazed, and my
stepmother was full of praise, making it plain to all
that she was delighted with my success and his
sanity. And as for my father here (for I am able to
testify on his behalf) without delay and without
asking any advice in this matter, as soon as he had
heard the whole story from those who were there, he
annulled the disownment and made me his son once
more, calling me his saviour and benefactor, admitting
that he had tested me thoroughly, and defending
himself for his former charges. This event gave joy
to many, the men of rectitude who were there, and
pain to those who preferred the disownment of a
son to his resumption. I saw, anyhow, at the time
that not all were equally pleased with the affair, but
at once one or another showed changed colour, disturbed eyes, and an angry face, such as comes from
jealousy and hatred. 
Well, we were rejoicing and making merry, as
was natural, since we had regained each other,