“In this way,” replied Rodaja; “whenever other oils fail you, immediately you take that of the lamp, as being the one which most readily comes to hand.  But there is, indeed, another fault in your trade, and one that would suffice to ruin the most accredited physician in the world.”  Being asked what that was, he replied that an apothecary never ventured to confess, or would admit, that any drug was absent from his stock; and so, if he have not the medicine prescribed, he makes use of some other which, in his opinion, has the same virtues and qualities; but as that is very seldom the case, the medicine, being badly compounded, produces an effect contrary to that expected by the physician.

Rodaja was then asked what he though, of the physicians themselves, and he replied as follows:  “Honora medicum propter necessitatem, etenim creavit cum altissimus:  a Deo enim est omnis medela, et a rege accipiet donationem:  disciplina medici exaltavit caput illius, et in conspectu magnatum collaudabitur.  Altissimus de terra creavit medicinam, et vir prudens non abhorrebit illam. Thus,” he added, “speaketh the Book of Ecclesiasticus, of Medicine, and good Physicians; but of the bad ones we may safely affirm the very contrary, since there are no people more injurious to the commonwealth than they are.  The judge may distort or delay the justice which he should render us; the lawyer may support an unjust demand; the merchant may help us to squander our estate, and, in a word, all those with whom we have to deal in common life may do us more or less injury; but to kill us without fear and standing quietly at his ease; unsheathing no other sword than that wrapped in the folds of a recipe, and without being subject to any danger of punishment, that can be done only by the physician; he alone can escape all fear of the discovery of his crimes, because at the moment of committing them he puts them under the earth.  When I was a man of flesh, and not of glass, as I now am, I saw many things that might be adduced in support of what I have now said, but the relation of these I refer to some other time.”

A certain person asked him what he should do to avoid envying another, and Rodaja bade him go to sleep, for, said he, “While you sleep you will be the equal of him whom you envy.”

It happened on a certain occasion that the Criminal Judge passed before the place where Rodaja stood.  There was a great crowd of people, and two alguazils attended the magistrate, who was proceeding to his court, when Rodaja inquired his name.  Being told, he replied, “Now, I would lay a wager that this judge has vipers in his bosom, pistols in his inkhorn, and flashes of lightning in his hands, to destroy all that shall come within his commission.  I once had a friend who inflicted so exorbitant a sentence in respect to a criminal commission which he held, that it exceeded by many carats the amount of guilt incurred by the crime of the delinquents.  I inquired