The Works of Sir Thomas Browne Volume III Part 10

[71] _The brain._ Hippocrates.

To burn the bones of the King of _Edom_[72] for Lyme, seems no irrational ferity; But to drink of the ashes of dead relations,[73] a pa.s.sionate prodigality. He that hath the ashes of his friend, hath an everlasting treasure: where fire taketh leave, corruption slowly enters; In bones well burnt, fire makes a wall against it self, experimented in copels, and tests of metals, which consist of such ingredients. What the Sun compoundeth, fire a.n.a.lyseth, not trans.m.u.teth. That devouring agent leaves almost alwayes a morsel for the Earth, whereof all things are but a colony; and which, if time permits, the mother Element will have in their primitive ma.s.s again.

[72] _Amos_ 2. 1.

[73] _As_ Artemisia _of her Husband_ Mausolus.

He that looks for Urnes and old sepulchral reliques, must not seek them in the ruines of Temples: where no Religion anciently placed them. These were found in a Field, according to ancient custome, in n.o.ble or private burial; the old practise of the _Canaanites_, the Family of _Abraham_, and the burying place of _Josua_, in the borders of his possessions; and also agreeable unto _Romane_ practise to bury by highwayes, whereby their Monuments were under eye: Memorials of themselves, and _memento's_ of mortality into living pa.s.sengers; whom the Epitaphs of great ones were fain to beg to stay and look upon them. A language though sometimes used, not so proper in Church-Inscriptions.[74] The sensible Rhetorick of the dead, to exemplarity of good life, first admitted the bones of pious men, and Martyrs within Church-wals; which in succeeding ages crept into promiscuous practise. While _Constantine_ was peculiarly favoured to be admitted unto the Church Porch; and the first thus buried in _England_ was in the dayes of _Cuthred_.

[74] Siste viator.

Christians dispute how their bodies should lye in the grave.[75] In urnal enterrment they clearly escaped this Controversie: Though we decline the Religious consideration, yet in cemiterial and narrower burying places, to avoid confusion and crosse position, a certain posture were to be admitted; which even Pagan civility observed, The _Persians_ lay North and South, The _Megarians_ and _Phnicians_ placed their heads to the East: The _Athenians_, some think, towards the West, which Christians still retain. And _Beda_ will have it to be the posture of our Saviour. That he was crucified with his face towards the West, we will not contend with tradition and probable account; But we applaud not the hand of the Painter, in exalting his Cross so high above those on either side; since hereof we finde no authentick account in history, and even the crosses found by _Helena_ pretend no such distinction from longitude or dimension.

[75] Kirckmannus de funer.

To be gnawd out of our graves, to have our sculs made drinking-bowls, and our bones turned into Pipes, to delight and sport our Enemies, are Tragical abominations, escaped in burning Burials.

Urnal enterrments, and burnt Reliques lye not in fear of worms, or to be an heritage for Serpents; In carnal sepulture, corruptions seem peculiar unto parts, and some speak of snakes out of the spinal marrow. But while we suppose common wormes in graves, 'tis not easie to finde any there; few in Church-yards above a foot deep, fewer or none in Churches, though in fresh decayed bodies. Teeth, bones, and hair, give the most lasting defiance to corruption. In an Hydropical body ten years buried in a Church yard, we met with a fat concretion, where the nitre of the Earth, and the salt and lixivious liquor of the body, had coagulated large lumps of fat, into the consistence of the hardest castle-soap; whereof part remaineth with us. After a battle with the _Persians_, the _Romane_ Corps decayed in few dayes, while the _Persian_ bodies remained dry and uncorrupted. Bodies in the same ground do not uniformly dissolve, nor bones equally moulder; whereof in the opprobrious disease we expect no long duration. The body of the Marquess of _Dorset_ seemed sound and handsomely cereclothed, that after seventy eight years was found uncorrupted.[76] Common Tombs preserve not beyond powder: A firmer consistence and compage of parts might be expected from Arefaction, deep burial or Charcoal. The greatest Antiquities of mortal bodies may remain in petrified bones, whereof, though we take not in the pillar of _Lots_ wife, or Metamorphosis of _Ortelius_,[77] some may be older then Pyramids, in the petrified Reliques of the general inundation. When _Alexander_ opened the Tomb of _Cyrus_, the remaining bones discovered his proportion, whereof urnal fragments afford but a bad conjecture, and have this disadvantage of grave enterrments, that they leave us ignorant of most personal discoveries. For since bones afford not only rect.i.tude and stability, but figure unto the body; It is no impossible Physiognomy to conjecture at fleshly appendencies; and after what shape the muscles and carnous parts might hang in their full consistences. A full spread _Cariola_ shews a well-shaped horse behinde, handsome formed sculls, give some a.n.a.logy of flesh resemblance. A critical view of bones makes a good distinction of s.e.xes. Even colour is not beyond conjecture, since it is hard to be deceived in the distinction of _Negro's_ sculls.

_Dantes_[78] Characters are to be found in sculls as well as faces.

_Hercules_ is not onely known by his foot. Other parts make out their comproportions, and inferences upon whole, or parts. And since the dimensions of the head measure the whole body, and the figure thereof gives conjecture of the princ.i.p.al faculties; Physiognomy out-lives our selves, and ends not in our graves.

[76] _Of_ Thomas _Marquesse of_ Dorset, _whose body being buried 1530, was 1608 upon the cutting open of the Cerecloth found perfect and nothing corrupted, the flesh not hardened, but in colour, proportion, and softnesse like an ordinary corps newly to be interred._ Burtons _descript. of_ Leicesters.h.i.+re.

[77] _In his Map of_ Russia.

[78] _The Poet_ Dante _in his view of Purgatory, found gluttons so meagre, and extenuated, that he conceived them to have been in the siege of_ Jerusalem, _and that it was easie to have discovered_ h.o.m.o _or_ Omo _in their faces: M being made by the two lines of their cheeks, arching over the Eye-brows to the nose, and their sunk eyes making O O which makes up_ Omo. Parean l'occhiaie anella senza gemme che nel viso de gli huomini legge huomo Ben'hauria quiui conosciuto l'emme.

Severe contemplators observing these lasting reliques, may think them good monuments of persons past, little advantage to future beings. And considering that power which subdueth all things unto it self, that can resume the scattered Atomes, or identifie out of any thing, conceive it superfluous to expect a resurrection out of Reliques. But the soul subsisting, other matter clothed with due accidents, may salve the individuality: Yet the Saints we observe arose from graves and monuments, about the holy City. Some think the ancient Patriarchs so earnestly desired to lay their bones in _Canaan_, as hoping to make a part of that Resurrection, and though thirty miles from Mount _Calvary_, at least to lie in that Region, which should produce the first-fruits of the dead. And if according to learned conjecture, the bodies of men shall rise where their greatest Reliques remain, many are not like to erre in the Topography of their Resurrection, though their bones or bodies be after translated by Angels into the field of _Ezechiels_ vision, or as some will order it, into the Valley of Judgement, or _Jehosaphat_.[79]

[79] Tirin. _in Ezek._

CHAPTER IV

Christians have handsomely glossed the deformity of death, by careful consideration of the body, and civil rites which take off brutal terminations. And though they conceived all reparable by a resurrection, cast not off all care of enterrment. And since the ashes of Sacrifices burnt upon the Altar of G.o.d, were carefully carried out by the Priests, and deposed in a clean field; since they acknowledged their bodies to be the lodging of Christ, and temples of the holy Ghost, they devolved not all upon the sufficiency of soul existence; and therefore with long services and full solemnities concluded their last Exequies, wherein[80]

to all distinctions the Greek devotion seems most pathetically ceremonious.

[80] Rituale Graec.u.m opera J. Goar in officio exequiarum.

Christian invention hath chiefly driven at Rites, which speak hopes of another life, and hints of a Resurrection. And if the ancient Gentiles held not the immortality of their better part, and some subsistence after death; in several rites, customes, actions and expressions, they contradicted their own opinions: wherein _Democritus_ went high, even to the thought of a resurrection,[81] as scoffingly recorded by _Pliny_.

What can be more express than the expression of _Phocyllides_?[82] Or who would expect from _Lucretius_[83] a sentence of _Ecclesiastes_?

Before _Plato_ could speak, the soul had wings in _Homer_, which fell not, but flew out of the body into the mansions of the dead; who also observed that handsome distinction of _Demas_ and _Soma_, for the body conjoyned to the soul and body separated from it. _Lucian_ spoke much truth in jest, when he said, that part of _Hercules_ which proceeded from _Alchmena_ perished, that from _Jupiter_ remained immortal. Thus _Socrates_[84] was content that his friends should bury his body, so they would not think they buried _Socrates_, and regarding only his immortal part, was indifferent to be burnt or buried. From such Considerations _Diogenes_ might contemn Sepulture. And being satisfied that the soul could not perish, grow careless of corporal enterrment.

The _Stoicks_ who thought the souls of wise men had their habitation about the _Moon_, might make slight account of subterraneous deposition; whereas the _Pythagorians_ and transcorporating Philosophers, who were to be often buried, held great care of their enterrment. And the Platonicks rejected not a due care of the grave, though they put their ashes to unreasonable expectations, in their tedious term of return and long set revolution.

[81] Similis reviviscendi promissa Democrito vanitas, qui non revixit ipse. Quae, malum, ista dementia est; iterari vitam morte. _Plin.

l. 7 c. 55._

[82] ?a? t??a d' ?? ?a??? ??p???e? ?? f??? ???e?? ?e??a? ?p????????.

[83] Cedit enim retro de terra quod fuit ante In terram, _etc._ _Lucret._

[84] Plato _in_ Phaed.

Men have lost their reason in nothing so much as their Religion, wherein stones and clouts make Martyrs; and since the Religion of one seems madness unto another, to afford an account or rational of old Rites, requires no rigid Reader; That they kindled the pyre aversly, or turning their face from it, was an handsome Symbole of unwilling ministration; That they washed their bones with wine and milk, that the mother wrapt them in Linnen, and dryed them in her bosome, the first fostering part, and place of their nourishment; That they opened their eyes towards heaven, before they kindled the fire, as the place of their hopes or original, were no improper Ceremonies. Their last valediction[85] thrice uttered by the attendants was also very solemn, and somewhat answered by Christians, who thought it too little, if they threw not the earth thrice upon the enterred body. That in strewing their Tombs the _Romanes_ affected the Rose, the Greeks _Amaranthus_ and myrtle; that the Funeral pyre consisted of sweet fuel, Cypress, Firre, Larix, Yewe, and Trees perpetually verdant, lay silent expressions of their surviving hopes: Wherein Christians which deck their Coffins with Bays have found a more elegant Embleme. For that tree seeming dead, will restore it self from the root, and its dry and exuccous leaves resume their verdure again; which if we mistake not, we have also observed in Furze. Whether the planting of Yewe in Churchyards, hold not its original from ancient Funeral Rites, or as an Embleme of Resurrection from its perpetual verdure, may also admit conjecture.

[85] Vale, vale, vale, nos te ordine quo natura permittet sequemur.

They made use of Musick to excite or quiet the affections of their friends, according to different harmonies. But the secret and symbolical hint was the harmonical nature of the soul; which delivered from the body, went again to enjoy the primitive harmony of heaven, from whence it first descended; which according to its progresse traced by antiquity, came down by _Cancer_, and ascended by _Capricornus_.

They burnt not children before their teeth appeared, as apprehending their bodies too tender a morsel for fire, and that their gristly bones would scarce leave separable reliques after the pyral combustion. That they kindled not fire in their houses for some dayes after, was a strict memorial of the late afflicting fire. And mourning without hope, they had an happy fraud against excessive lamentation, by a common opinion that deep sorrows disturbed their ghosts.[86]

[86] Tu manes ne laede meos.

That they buried their dead on their backs, or in a supine position, seems agreeable unto profound sleep, and common posture of dying; contrary to the most natural way of birth; Nor unlike our pendulous posture, in the doubtful state of the womb. _Diogenes_ was singular, who preferred a p.r.o.ne situation in the grave, and some Christians[87] like neither, who decline the figure of rest, and make choice of an erect posture.

[87] Russians, _etc._

That they carried them out of the world with their feet forward, not inconsonant unto reason: As contrary unto the native posture of man, and his production first into it. And also agreeable unto their opinions, while they bid adieu unto the world, not to look again upon it; whereas _Mahometans_ who think to return to a delightful life again, are carried forth with their heads forward, and looking towards their houses.

They closed their eyes as parts which first die or first discover the sad effects of death. But their iterated clamations to excitate their dying or dead friends, or revoke them unto life again, was a vanity of affection; as not presumably ignorant of the critical tests of death, by apposition of feathers, gla.s.ses, and reflexion of figures, which dead eyes represent not; which however not strictly verifiable in fresh and warm _cadavers_, could hardly elude the test, in corps of four or five dayes.

That they suck'd in the last breath of their expiring friends, was surely a practice of no medicall inst.i.tution, but a loose opinion that the soul pa.s.sed out that way, and a fondnesse of affection from some _Pythagoricall_[88] foundation, that the spirit of one body pa.s.sed into another; which they wished might be their own.

[88] Francesco Perucci Pompe funebr.

That they powred oyle upon the pyre, was a tolerable practise, while the intention rested in facilitating the accension; But to place good _Omens_ in the quick and speedy burning, to sacrifice unto the winds for a dispatch in this office, was a low form of superst.i.tion.

The _Archimime_ or _Jester_ attending the Funeral train, and imitating the speeches, gesture, and manners of the deceased, was too light for such solemnities, contradicting their funerall Orations, and dolefull rites of the grave.

That they buried a peece of money with them as a Fee of the _Elysian Ferriman_, was a practise full of folly. But the ancient custome of placing coynes in considerable Urnes, and the present practice of burying medals in the n.o.ble Foundations of _Europe_, are laudable wayes of historicall discoveries, in actions, persons, Chronologies; and posterity will applaud them.

We examine not the old Laws of Sepulture, exempting certain persons from burial or burning. But hereby we apprehend that these were not the bones of persons Planet-struck or burnt with fire from Heaven: No Reliques of Traitors to their Countrey, Self-killers, or Sacrilegious Malefactors; Persons in old apprehension unworthy of the _earth_; condemned unto the _Tartara's_ of h.e.l.l, and bottomlesse pit of _Pluto_, from whence there was no redemption.

Nor were only many customes questionable in order to their Obsequies, but also sundry practises, fictions, and conceptions, discordant or obscure, of their state and future beings; whether unto eight or ten bodies of men to adde one of a woman, as being more inflammable, and unctuously const.i.tuted for the better pyrall combustion, were any rational practise: Or whether the complaint of _Perianders_ Wife be tolerable, that wanting her Funerall burning she suffered intolerable cold in h.e.l.l, according to the const.i.tution of the infernal house of _Pluto_, wherein cold makes a great part of their tortures; it cannot pa.s.se without some question.

Why the Female Ghosts appear unto _Ulysses_, before the _Heroes_ and masculine spirits? Why the _Psyche_ or soul of _Tiresias_ is of the masculine gender; who being blinde on earth sees more then all the rest in h.e.l.l; Why the Funeral Suppers consisted of Egges, Beans, Smallage, and Lettuce, since the dead are made to eat _Asphodels_ about the _Elysian_ medows? Why since there is no Sacrifice acceptable, nor any propitiation for the Covenant of the grave: men set up the Deity of _Morta_, and fruitlesly adored Divinities without ears? it cannot escape some doubt.

The dead seem all alive in the humane _Hades_ of _Homer_, yet cannot we speak, prophesie, or know the living, except they drink blood, wherein is the life of man. And therefore the souls of _Penelope's_ Paramours conducted by _Mercury_ chiriped like bats, and those which followed _Hercules_ made a noise but like a flock of birds.

The departed spirits know things past and to come, yet are ignorant of things present. _Agememnon_ fortels what should happen unto _Ulysses_, yet ignorantly enquires what is become of his own Son. The ghosts are afraid of swords in _Homer_, yet _Sybilla_ tells _aeneas_ in _Virgil_, the thin habit of spirits was beyond the force of weapons. The spirits put off their malice with their bodies, and _Caesar_ and _Pompey_ accord in Latine h.e.l.l, yet _Ajax_ in _Homer_ endures not a conference with _Ulysses_: And _Deiphobus_ appears all mangled in _Virgils_ Ghosts, yet we meet with perfect shadows among the wounded ghosts of _Homer_.

Since _Charon_ in _Lucian_ applauds his condition among the dead, whether it be handsomely said of _Achilles_, that living contemner of death, that he had rather be a Plowmans servant then Emperour of the dead? How _Hercules_ his soul is in h.e.l.l, and yet in heaven, and _Julius_ his soul in a Star, yet seen by _aeneas_ in h.e.l.l, except the Ghosts were but images and shadows of the soul, received in higher mansions, according to the ancient division of body, soul, and image or _simulachrum_ of them both. The particulars of future beings must needs be dark unto ancient Theories, which Christian Philosophy yet determines but in a Cloud of opinions. A Dialogue between two Infants in the womb concerning the state of this world, might handsomly ill.u.s.trate our ignorance of the next, whereof methinks we yet discourse in _Platoes_ denne, and are but _Embryon_ Philosophers.

_Pythagoras_ escapes in the fabulous h.e.l.l of _Dante_,[89] among that swarm of Philosophers, wherein whilest we meet with _Plato_ and _Socrates_, _Cato_ is to be found in no lower place then Purgatory.

Among all the set, _Epicurus_ is most considerable, whom men make honest without an _Elyzium_, who contemned life without encouragement of immortality, and making nothing after death, yet made nothing of the King of terrours.