Thus the motto of a pharmaceutical company, which I came across minutes before I read that England had the wettest January on record. And the record goes back a quarter of a millennium, no less. “Nature heals,” I mumbled under my breath, “but who from whom?” Indeed, what if nature is healing itself from us, the greatest vermin well before any record? Idle thoughts, to be sure, but Latin occasionally sounds soothing on account of its longevity. As well as its stubborn perseverance over more than a couple of millennia. For many of us, it is the oldest language on record, too.

Addendum (February 3, 2014)

The Latin proverb behind the motto is of interest, too: Medicus curat, natura sanat. Although the medic cures, or administers the cure, it is actually nature that heals. The notion that the medic heals is therefore wrong. Not a bad proverb, to be sure. But it is of no relevance to this piece, for the medic is entirely irrelevant when nature turns to healing itself. In fact, the medic is in peril when nature is in need of healing. At any rate, a new Latin proverb is nigh: Natura sanat se ipsum. Medics beware!

To James Lovelock