ANIMALS. 117 



CHAPTER VIII. 



OF MUMMIES, WAX-WORKS, &C. 



"' MAN * is not content with the usual term of life, 

 but he is willing to lengthen out his existence by 

 art; .and although he cannot prevent death, he 

 tries to obviate his .dissolution. It is natural to 

 attempt to preserve even the most trifling relics 

 of what has long given us pleasure ; nor does the 

 mind separate from the body without a wish, that 

 even the wretched heap of dust it leaves behind 

 may yet be remembered. The embalming prac- 

 tised in various nations, probably had its rise in 

 this fond desire : an urn filled with ashes, among 

 the Romans, served as a pledge of continuing 

 affection ; and even the grassy graves in our own 

 church-yards are raised above the surface, with 

 the desire that the body below should not be 

 wholly forgotten. The soul, ardent after eter- 

 nity for itself, is willing to procure, even for the 

 body, a prolonged duration." 



But of all nations the Egyptians carried this 

 art to the highest perfection : as it was a principle 

 of their religion to suppose the soul continued 

 only coeval to the duration of the body, they 

 tried every art to extend the life of the one, by 

 preventing the dissolution of the other. In this 

 practice they were exercised from the earliest 

 ages ; and the mummies they have embalmed in 



* This chapter I have, in a great measure, translated from M. Dauben- 

 ton. Whatever is added from others, is marked with inverted commas. 



