Chap. 57.] THE INVE^^TOES OF VARIOUS THOGS. 219 



see, or hear, or how to touch ? And then, of what use is it, 

 or what can it avail, if it has not these faculties ? AVhero, 

 too, is its residence, and what vast multitudes of these souls 

 and spirits" must there be after the lapse of so many ages? 

 Eut all these are the mere figments of childish ravings, and of 

 that mortality which is so anxious never to cease to exist. It 

 is a similar piece of vanity, too, to preserve the dead bodies of 

 men ; just like the promise that he shall come to life again, 

 which was made by Democritus;^ who, however, never has come 

 to life again himself. Out upon it ! "What downright mad- 

 ness is it to suppose that life is to recommence after death ! or 

 indeed, what repose are we ever to enjoy when we have been 

 once born, if the soul is to retain its consciousness in heaven, 

 and the shades of the dead in the infernal regions? This 

 pleasing delusion, and this credulity, quite cancel that chief 

 good of human nature, death, and, as it were, double the 

 misery of him who is about to die, by anxiety as to what is 

 to happen to him after it. And, indeed, if life really is a 

 good, to whom can it be so to have once lived ? 



How much more easy, then, and how much more devoid of 

 all doubts, is it for each of us to put his trust in himself, and 

 guided by our knowledge of what our state has been before 

 birth, to assume that that after death will be the same. 



CHAP. 57. (56.) — THE INVENTOES OF VAEIOUS THTNGS. 



Before we quit the consideration of the nature of man, it 

 appears only proper to point out those persons who have been 

 the authors of different inventions. Father Liber" was the first 

 to establish the practice of buying and selling ; he also invented 



*i Hardouin remarks, that the ancients made a distinction between the 

 souls of the dead, and their spirits or shades, "umbrae." The former were 

 supposed to remain on the earth, while the latter were removed either to 

 Elysium or to Tartarus, according to the character or actions of the de- 

 ceased. — B. 



*2 According to Varro, Democritus directs, that the body shall not be 

 burnt after death, but preserved in honey; on which Varro remarks, how 

 greatly such a practice would tend to raise the price of that article. — B. 



^ It has been conjectured, that Bacchus derived his name from the 

 Greek word BticrKw, on account of his numerous journies into different 

 parts of the world ; it was during these that he conveyed to the various 

 nations which he visited the arts of civilized life. — B. 



