the latter attribute a certain Agency to their dead Limbs. The Behaviour of Captain Bayard reads better, who, finding himself mortally wounded with a Shot from a Harquebufs, and being advised to retire out of the Field, made Answer, That he would not begin at the last Gafp to turn his Back to the Enemy, and fought on as long as he had Strength; till feeling himself too faint, and no longer able to fit his Horfe, he commanded his Steward to fet him down against the Root of a Tree, but in fuch a Pofture, that he might die with his Face towards the Enemy, which he did, The fingular I muft yet add another Example as remarkable, with regard to the prefent Subject, as the former. The Emperor Maximilian, GreatGrandfather to Philip the prefent King of Spain, was a Prince richly endowed with great Qualities, and remarkably handfome, but had withal a Humour very contrary to that of other Princes, who, for the Dispatch of their most important Affairs, convert their Close-stool into a Chair of State, viz. That he never permitted any of his Valets, how much a Favourite foever, to attend him in his Privy, but ftole afide to make Water; and was as fhy as a Virgin to discover either to his Phyfician, or any other Perfon whatsoever, thofe Parts of the Body that are by Custom kept fecret. And I myself, who never blush at what I fay, am yet naturally fo modest in this Point, that, unless it be at the Importunity of Neceffity or Pleasure, I very rarely let any one fee thofe Parts and Actions which Custom requires us to conceal. In this I alfo fuffer more Conftraint than I conceive is very well becoming a Man, especially of my Profeffion. But the Emperor indulged this modeft Humour to fuch a Degree of Superftition, as to give exprefs Orders in his laft Will, that they should put him on Drawers as foon as he was dead; to which, methinks, he would have done well to have added by a Codecil, that whoever put them on fhould be hoodwinked. Cyrus's Reve- The Charge which Cyrus left with his Chilrence for Reli- dren*, that neither they, nor any other, should gion. either fee or touch his Body after the Soul was departed * Xenophon's Cyropædia, lib. viii. cap. 7. towards the End. departed from it, I attribute to fome fuperftitious Devotion of his; both his Hiftorian, and himfelf, amongst other great Qualities, having, in the whole Courfe of their Lives, demonftrated a fingular Attention and Refpect to Religion. I was by no Means pleafed with a Story told me by a great Man, of a Relation of mine, who had been very eminent both in Peace and War, that, being arrived to a very old Age, and exceffively tormented with the Stone, he fpent the laft Hours of his Life in an extraordinary Solicitude about ordering the Pomp and Ceremony of his Funeral, preffing all the Men of Condition who came to fee him, to promife their Attendance on him to his Grave: And he most earneftly importuned the very Prince, who vifited him in his laft Agonies, that he would order his Family to join in the Funeral Proceffion, urging several Reasons and Examples to him, to prove that it was a Respect due to a Perfon of his Condition; and, having obtained a Promife, and appointed the Method and Order of his Funeral Parade, he feemed to die content. much Vanity as this was, to the very laft, I fcarce ever faw! So Funerals ought to be neither too magnificent,nor too mean. Another, though a contrary Curiofity (of which I do not want a domeftick Example) seems to be fomewhat a-kin to this; that a Man fhall cudgel his Brains, in the last Moments of his Life, to regulate his Obfequies with fo particular and unufual a Parfimony, as to permit no more Attendance than one fingle Servant with a Lanthorn; and yet I fee this Humour commended, as well as the Appointment of Marcus Æmilius Lepidus *, who forbad his Heirs to bestow upon his Corpfe fo much as the common. Ceremonies in Ufe upon fuch Occafions. Is it Temperance and Frugality to avoid Expence and Pleasure, when the Use and Knowledge thereof are by us imperceptible? An eafy and cheap Reformation this! If Inftruction were at all neceffary, I fhould be of Opinion, that this, as all other Actions of Life, fhould be reguVOL. I. lated C * Before he died, he commanded his Son to carry him to his Sepulchre on the bare Bed, without Linen, Purple, &c. In Epitome Liviana, lib. 48, * lated by every Man's Ability; and the Philofopher Lycon prudently ordered his Executors to difpofe of his Body where they fhould think most fit, and as for his Funeral, to order it neither fuperfluous, nor too mean. For my own Part, I fhould wholly leave the ordering of this Ceremony to Cuftom, and to their Difcretion to whofe Lot it fhall fall to do me that laft Office. Totus hic locus eft contemnendus in nobis, non negligendus in noftris †. The Place of our Sepulture is wholly to be contemned by us, but not to be neglected by our Friends; and it was a holy Saying of a Saint, Curatio funeris, conditio Sepulturæ, pompa Exequiarum, magis funt vivorum folatia, quàm fubfidia mortuorum i. e. The Care of Funerals, the Place of Sepulture, and the Pomp of the Obfequies, are rather Confolations to the Living, than any Benefit to the Dead. From this Confideration it was, that when Criton afked Socrates, on his Deathbed, How he would be buried? The Philofopher made him Anfwer, How ye will §. If I was to concern my felf further about this Affair, I fhould think it more genteel to imitate those who entertain themselves, while alive, with the Ceremony of their own Obfequies, and are pleased with beholding their own dead Countenances in Marble. Happy are the Men who can regale and gratify their Senfes by Infenfibility, and live even when they are dead! Cruel and child of their Dead. I am ready to conceive an implacable Hatif Superftitions red against all Popular Government, (though ofthe Athenians, I cannot but think it the moft natural and as to the Burial equitable of all others) so oft as I call to mind the Injustice and Inhumanity of the Athenians, who, without Mercy, or once vouchfafing to hear what they had to fay for themfelves, put to Death their brave. Captains newly returned triumphant from a naval Victory, which they had obtained over the Lacedemonians, near the Arginufian Iles, (the sharpeft and moft obftinate Engage ment * Diogenes Laertius, in Lycon's Life, lib. v. fect. 74. Edit. Wetft. Amfterdam, Anno 1692. + Cicero Tufcul. lib. i. c. 45. Auguft, de Civit. Dei. lib. i. c. 12. $ Plato's Phædon, towards the End. ¶ Diodorus of Sicily, lib. xiii. c. 31. Three Islands to the S. E. of that of Lefbos. ment which ever the Greeks fought at Sea) for no other Reafon but that the Greeks followed their Blow, and pursued the Advantages prefcribed them by the Law of Arms, rather than ftay to gather up and bury their Dead. An Execution that was yet rendered more odious, by the Behaviour of Diomedon, who, being one of the condemned Perfons, and a Man of eminent Virtue, both Political and Military, advancing to fpeak, after having heard the Sentence (till when he was not allowed a peaceable Hearing) instead of pleading his own Cause, or proving the manifest Impiety of fo cruel a Sentence, only expreffed a Concern for the Safety of his Judges, befeeching the Gods to convert this Sentence to their own Good; and praying, that, for neglecting to pay thofe Vows that he and his Companions had made (which he alfo acquainted them with) in Acknowledgment for fo glorious a Succefs, they might not pull down the Indignation of the Gods upon them; after which he went couragiously to his Execution. Fortune, not many Years after, dealt them the fame Bread: For Chabrias, Captain-General of their Naval Forces, having got the better of Pollis, Admiral of Sparta, about the Ile of Naxos, totally loft the Fruits of this Victory (of very great Importance to their Affairs) and left he fhould incur the Misfortune of the Athenian Captains, he chofe to fave a few Bodies of his. dead Friends that were floating on the Sea, which gave Opportunity to a great Number of his living Enemies to fail away in Safety, who afterwards made them pay dear for this unfeasonable Superftition. Queris quo jaceas poft obitum loco? Quo non nata jacent. Doft afk where thou fhalt, lye when dead? How punished. This other Paffage reftores the Senfe of Repofe to a Body without a Soul. C 2 Neque • Diodorus of Sicily, lib. xiji. c. 32. Seneca Tr. Chor. 2. v. 30. + Ibid. lib. xv. c. 9. Neque fepulcrum, quò recipiat, habeat portum corporis : Ubi, remiffa humana vitâ, Corpus requiefcat à malis *. Nor with a Tomb as with a Haven blest, Where, after Life, the Corpfe in Peace may reft. Juft fo Nature demonftrates to us, that feveral dead Things ftill retain an occult Relation to Life. Wine changes in Cellars, according to the Changes of the Seafons of the Vine from whence it came; and the Flesh of Venifon is faid to alter its Condition in the Powderingtub, and to vary its Tafte, according to the Seafons of the living Flesh of its Kind. CHA P. IV. How the Soul difcharges its Paffions upon falfe Objects, when the true are wanting. A Gentleman of my Country, who was very often tormented with the Gout, being often importuned by his Phyficians to abftain from falt Meats, ufed to reply merrily, That there was a Neceffity for his having fomething to quarrel with in the Extremity of his Pain, and that he fancied, that fometime railing at, and curfing the Bologna Sausages, at other Times the dry'd Tongues, and the Gammon, was some Mitigation of it. And in The Soul muft harve fome Objects for its At tention, whe ther true or falfe. good Truth, as we are chagrin'd if the Arm which is advanced to ftrike miffes the Mark, and spends itself in vain; and as alfo, that to make a Prospect pleafant, the Sight should not be loft and dilated in the Æther, but have fome Bounds to limit it at a reasonable Distance; Ventus, ut amittit vires, nifi robore denfæ As Winds do lofe their Strength, unless withstood * Cicero Tufcul. lib. i, c. 44. Lucan, lib. iii. v. 362, 363. |