It was the antithesis of the rationalized social welfare state, an attempted return to premodern dispensation of patronage and tutelage, a gross violation of individualism.
Rather, expressions such as thirty-two grains of wheat, taken from the middle of the ear appear to have been ritualistic formulas, essentially the premodern equivalent of legal boilerplate.
Though herbalist have traditionally offered the most ready treatment of illness, premodern traditional beliefs stressed the combination of spiritual and physical healing.
However, dreams "as" art, without a real frame story, appear to be a later developmentthough there is no way to know whether many premodern works were dream-based.
This is because, in contrast to industrial economies, the average income ceiling of premodern agrarian societies was quite low everywhere, possibly not higher than twice the subsistence level.