FAUSTUS
Is to dispute well logic's chiefest end?
Affords this art no greater miracle? (1.1.8-9)
Faustus is trying to decide which body of knowledge is worth his time by discovering what the goal of each discipline is. See, the problem with logic is that the whole point is to make you a good debater. But, really, who cares?
FAUSTUS
The end of physic is our body's health. (1.1.16)
Faustus sums up the study of medicine with this line. It may be true, but it occurs to us (as it does not to Faustus) that achieving that end is super complex and complicated—and well worth the time spent, right?
FAUSTUS
"Exhaereditare filium non potest pater, nisi—"
Such is the subject of the Institute
And universal body of the law.
This study fits a mercenary drudge,
Who aims at nothing but external trash;
Too servile and illiberal for me. (1.1.29-34)
The line from Justininan's Institutes that Faustus reads here translates into "a father may not disinherit his son unless—". What Faustus seems to be objecting to, then, is the focus of the law on issues of inheritance and property. Maybe that's why he calls it fitting for a "mercenary drudge"—someone who serves for money, and nothing else. Of course we're a little suspicious of his logic here, because when he learns magic, he doesn't exactly complain about the wealth it brings him.