amongst all those rare discoveries and curious pieces I find in the fabrick of man, I do not so much content myself, as in that I find not, that is, no organ or instrument for the rational soul; for in the brain, which we term the seat of reason, there is not any thing of moment more than I can discover in the crany of a beast: and this is a sensible and no inconsiderable argument of the inorganity of the soul, at least in that sense we usually so receive it. Thus we are men, and we know not how; there is something in us that can be without us, and will be after us, though it is strange that it hath no history what it was before us, nor cannot tell how it entered in us.3 SECT. XXXVII. Now, for these walls of flesh, wherein the soul doth seem to be immured before the resurrection, it is nothing but an elemental composition, and a fabrick that must* fall to ashes. "All flesh is grass," is not only metaphorically, but literally, true; for all those creatures we behold are but the herbs of the field, digested into flesh in them, or more remotely carnified in ourselves. Nay, further, we are what we all abhor, anthropophagi and cannibals, devourers not only of men, but of ourselves; and that not in an allegory but a positive truth for all this mass of flesh which we behold, came in at our mouths; this frame we look upon, hath been upon our 2 and this is a sensible, &c.] This concluding part of the sentence is omitted in all the MSS. and Edts. 1642.-Ed. 3 In our study of anatomy, &c.] “What a contrast," says Dr. Drake, after quoting this and several other similar passages, "do these admirable quotations form, when opposed to the scepticism of the present day, to the doctrines of the physiological materialists of the school of Bichat! A system of philosophy, if so it may be called, which, should it ever unhappily prevail in the medical world, would render the often-repeated, though hitherto ill-founded, sarcasm against the profession, ubi tres medici, duo Athei, no longer a matter of calumny. It is, however, with pride and pleasure that, at a period when scepticism has been obtruded upon us as a topic of distinction and triumph, and even taught in our public schools, we can point to a roll of illustrious names, the most consummate for their talent among those who have made the study of life, and health and disease their peculiar profession, who have publicly borne testimony to their firm belief in the existence of their God, and in the immortality of the human soul. When Galen, meditating on the structure and functions of the body, broke forth into that celebrated declaration, Compono hic profecto Canticum in creatoris nostri laudem, he but led the way to similar but still more important avowals from the mighty names of Boerhaave and of Haller, of Sydenham and of Browne, and of Mead; men unrivalled for their professional sagacity, and alike impressed with the deepest conviction of one great first cause of future being and of eternity, "that ancient source as well as universal sepulchre of worlds and ages, in which the duration of this globe is lost as that of a day, and the life of man as a moment." Drake's Evenings in Autumn, vol. ii, p. 71-73.-Ed. 4 must] Edts. 1642 read, may.— Ed. trenchers; in brief, we have devoured ourselves.5 I cannot believe the wisdom of Pythagoras did ever positively, and in a literal sense, affirm his metempsychosis, or impossible transmigration of the souls of men into beasts. Of all metamorphoses or transmigrations, I believe only one, that is of Lot's wife; for that of Nabuchodonosor proceeded not so far. In all others I conceive there is no further verity than is contained in their implicit sense and morality. I believe that the whole frame of a beast doth perish, and is left in the same state after death as before it was materialed unto life: that the souls of men know neither contrary nor corruption; that they subsist beyond the body, and outlive death by the privilege of their proper natures, and without a miracle: that the souls of the faithful, as they leave earth, take possession of heaven: that 5 Nay, further, &c.] The Latin annotator is not content to receive this singular passage literally, as the author clearly intended it. He gives the following notes; "Ipsi anthropophagi sumus.] Ut embryones in utero matris; nam mater ex proprio corpore nutrimentum illis præbet: nutriuntur etiam postea ex utero matris egressi lacte fœminino. "Sed et nos ipsos devorare soliti.] Nam mæsti et invidi proprium cor comedere dicuntur.-Ed. 6 I cannot believe, &c.] The metempsychosis may perhaps be supposed to have arisen out of the belief which the early philosophers adopted of the immortality of the soul. It has been said that Pythagoras not only believed in the doctrine of the transmigration of souls literally; but even went so far as to assert his recollection of the various bodies which his own soul had inhabited; attributing his remembrance to the special grace of Mercury. "The opinion of the metempsychosis spread in almost every region of the earth; and it continues, even to the present time, in all its force amongst those nations who have not yet embraced christianity. The people of Arracan, Peru, Siam, Camboya, Tonquin, Cochin-China, Japan, Java, and Ceylon, still entertain that fancy, which also forms the chief article of the Chinese religion. The Druids believed in transmigration. The bardic triads of the Welsh are full of this belief: and a Welsh antiquary insists that by an emigration which formerly took place, it was conveyed to the Bramins of India from Wales! It is on this system of transmigration that Taliessin the Welsh bard, who wrote in the sixth century, gives a recital of his pretended transmigrations. He tells how he had been a serpent, a wild ass, a buck, or a crane, &c.; and this kind of reminiscence of his former state, this recovery of memory, was a proof the mortal's advances to the happier circle. For to forget what we have been, was one of the curses of the circle of evil. According to the authentic Clavigero, in his history of Mexico, we find the Pythagorean transmigration carried on in the west, and not less fancifully than in the countries of the east. The people of Tlascala believe that the souls of persons of rank went after their death to inhabit the bodies of beautiful and sweet singing birds, and those of the nobler quadrupeds; while the souls of inferior persons were supposed to pass into weazels, beetles, and such other meaner animals." D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, vol. ii, p. 49–52.—Ed. With respect to the real opinions of Pythagoras, on this subject, see Bulstrode's Essay on Transmigration; Dr. Stackhouse's preface to the Chinese Tales; and Taylor's translation of Jamblichus's Life of Pythagoras. On the Jewish notions respecting the doctrine of transmigration, see Stehelin's Rabbinical Literature, vol. i, p. 277-338.—E. H. B. those apparitions and ghosts of departed persons are not the wandering souls of men, but the unquiet walks of devils, prompting and suggesting us unto mischief, blood and villainy; instilling and stealing into our hearts that the blessed spirits are not at rest in their graves, but wander, solicitous of the af fairs of the world. But that those phantasms appear often, and do frequent cemeteries, charnel-houses, and churches, it is because those are the dormitories of the dead, where the devil, like an insolent champion, beholds with pride the spoils and trophies of his victory in Adam.R SECT. XXXVIII. This is that dismal conquest we all deplore, that makes us so often cry, O Adam, quid fecisti? I thank God I have not those strait ligaments, or narrow obligations to the world, as to dote on life, or be convulsed and tremble at the name of death. Not that I am insensible of the dread and horror thereof; or, by raking into the bowels of the deceased, continual sight of anatomies, skeletons, or cadaverous relicks, like vespilloes, or grave-makers, I am become stupid, or have forgot the apprehension of mortality; but that, marshaling all the horrours, and contemplating the extremities thereof, I find not any thing therein able to daunt the courage of a man, much less a well-resolved christian; and therefore am not angry at the errour of our first parents, or unwilling to bear a part of this common fate, and, like the best of them to die; that is, to cease to breathe, to take a farewell of the elements; to be a kind of nothing for a moment; to be within one instant of a spirit.9 When I take a full view and circle of 7 beholds] So all the MSS.; Edts. 1642 read, holds.-Ed. dered; for murderers are apt to bury their victims in a slight and hasty manner. Their salts, exhaled in vapour by means of their fermentation, have arranged themselves on the surface of the earth, and formed those phantoms, which at night have often terrified the passing 8 that those apparitions and ghosts of departed persons, &c.] Vide Chrysostomum, in Homil. 29 in Matthæum; Augustin. De Cura pro mortuis, c. 10, 16, et seqq.-M. See Sir K. Digby's criticism on this spectator, as authentic history witnesses. passage. Modern philosophers of the school of Schott, Gaffarel, &c. have a ready solution, in their Palingenesis, for the apparitions of animals as well as plants. "Thus the dead naturally revive; and a corpse may give out its shadowy reanimation, when not too deeply buried in the earth. Bodies corrupted in their graves have risen, particularly the mur They have opened the graves of the phantom, and discovered the bleeding corpse beneath: hence it is astonishing how many ghosts may be seen at night, after a recent battle, standing over their corpses!" D'Israeli's Second Series of Curiosities of Literature, vol. iii, p. 17.-Ed. 9 one instant of a spirit.] So in MSS. R. & W. 2; Edts. 1642 and MS. W. read, "in one instant a spirit."-Ed. 1 myself without1 this reasonable moderator, and equal piece of justice, death, I do conceive myself the miserablest person extant. Were there not another life that I hope for, all the vanities of this world should not entreat a moment's breath from me. Could the devil work my belief to imagine I could never die, I would not outlive that very thought. I have so abject a conceit of this common way of existence, this retaining to the sun and elements, I cannot think this is to be a man, or to live according to the dignity of humanity. In expectation of a better, I can with patience embrace this life; yet, in my best meditations, do often defy death. [It is a symptom of melancholy to be afraid of death, yet sometimes to desire it; this latter I have often discovered in myself, and think no man ever desired life, as I have sometimes death."] I honour any man that contemns it; nor can I highly love any that is afraid of it: this makes me naturally love a soldier, and honour those tattered and contemptible regiments, that will die at the command of a sergeant. For a pagan there may be some motives to be in love with life; but, for a christian to be amazed at death, I see not how he can escape this dilemma-that he is too sensible of this life, or hopeless" of the life to come.7 8 SECT. XXXIX.-Some divines count Adam thirty years old at his creation, because they suppose him created in the perfect age and stature of man: and surely we are all out of the computation of our age; and every man is some months older than he bethinks him; for, we live, move, have a being, and are subject to the actions of the elements, and the malice of diseases, in that other world, the truest microcosm, the womb of our mother; for besides that general and com 1 without] So in MS. R.; MS. W. and Edts. 1642 read, but with. MS. W. 2 reads, with but.- Ed. 2 conceit] So in MSS. R. & W. 2; Edts. 1642 and MS. W. read, thought.-Ed. 3 humanity.] All the MSS. and Edts. 1642 read, my nature.-Ed. 4 defy] All the MSS. and Edts. 1642 read, desire.-Ed. 5 [It is a symptom, &c.] This passage is inserted from MSS. W. 2 & R.; it is not in any edition.-Ed. 6 hopeless] All the MSS. and Edts. 1642 read, careless.-Ed. 7 I thank God, &c.] "To arm us against the fears of dissolution, volumes upon volumes have been written; but, if we except our hallowed Scriptures, I know not where, in a style so condensed and striking, or on a basis more truly Christian, we can find a better dissuasive, under a confessional form at least, against the inordinate love of life, and the apprehensions of death, than what this passage affords us." Drake's Evenings in Autumn, vol. ii, p. 92.-Ed. 8 Some divines, &c.] Vide Augustin. 1. 6, de Genes. ad liter. c. 13.—M. mon existence we are conceived to hold in our chaos, and whilst we sleep within the bosom of our causes, we enjoy a being and life in three distinct worlds, wherein we receive most manifest gradations. In that obscure world, the womb of our mother, our time is short, computed by the moon; yet longer than the days of many creatures that behold the sun; ourselves being not yet without life, sense, and reason;9 though, for the manifestation of its actions, it awaits the opportunity of objects, and seems to live there but in its root and soul of vegetation. Entering afterwards upon the scene of the world, we rise up and become another creature; performing the reasonable actions of man, and obscurely manifesting that part of divinity in us, but not in complement and perfection, till we have once more cast our secundine, that is this slough of flesh, and are delivered into the last world, that is, that ineffable place of Paul, that proper3 ubi of spirits. The smattering I have of the philosophers' stone (which is something more than the perfect exaltation of gold) hath taught me a great deal of divinity, and instructed my belief, how that immortal spirit and incorruptible substance of my soul may lie obscure, and sleep awhile within this house of flesh. Those strange and mystical transmigrations that I have observed in silkworms turned my philosophy into divinity. There is in these works of nature, which seem to puzzle reason, something divine; and hath more in it than the eye of a common spectator doth discover. SECT. XL.—I am naturally bashful; nor hath conversation, age, or travel, been able to effront or enharden me; yet I have one part of modesty, which I have seldom discovered in another, that is, (to speak truly) I am not so much afraid of death as ashamed thereof; 't is the very disgrace and ignominy of our natures, that in a moment can so disfigure us, that our nearest friends, wife, and children, stand afraid, 9 not without life, sense, and reason;] In perfect consistency with this opinion, Sir Thomas wrote a Dialogue between two twins in the womb, respecting the world into which they were going.-Alas! we have hunted for this morceau in vain!It seems to have perished.-Ed. 1 though, for] Not in Edts. 1642.-Ed. 2 us,] All the MSS. and Edts. 1642 read, use.—Ed. 3 proper] Not in Edts. 1642.-—Ed. 4 something more than] All the MSS. and Edts. 1642 read, "nothing else but."-Ed. 5 exaltation] In the sense of purification.-Ed. 6 awhile] So in MSS. R. & W.2; omitted in MS. W. and Edts. 1642.-Ed. |