BOOK VII. Lv. 189-LV1. 192 



of the souls or shadows in all these ages ? These are 

 fictions of cliildish absurdity, and belong to a mor- 

 tality greedy for hfe unceasing. Similar also is the 

 vanity about preserving men's bodies, and about 

 Democritus's promise of our coming to Hfe again — 

 who did not come to Ufe again himself! Plague 

 take it, wliat is this mad idea that hfe is renewcd by 

 death ? what repose are the generations ever to have 

 if the soul retains permanent sensation in the upper 

 world and the ghost in the lowcr? Assuredly this 

 sweet but credulous fancy ruins nature's chief 

 blessing, death, and doubles the sorrow of one about 

 to die by the thought of sorrow to come hereafter 

 also ; for if to hve is sweet, who can find it sweet to 

 have done Uving ? But how much easier and safer 

 for each to trust in himself, and for us to derive our 

 idea of future tranquilUty from our experience of it 

 before birth ! 



LVI. Before we quit the subject of man's nature it Aruand 

 seenis suitable to point out the various discoveries of wl^and 

 dilferent persons. Father Liber instituted buying *y «^>'om 

 and selUng," and also invented the emblem of 

 royalty, the crown, and the triumphal procession, 

 Ceres discovered corn, men having hitherto Uved on 

 acoms ; she also invented grinding corn and making 

 flour in Attica (or, as others say, in Sicily), and 

 for this was deeraed a goddess. Also she first gave 

 laws, though others have thought this was done by 

 Rhadamanthus. 



I am of opinion that the Assyrians have always had 

 writing, but others, e.g. Gellius, hold that it was 

 invented in Egypt by Mercury, while others think it 



" The text should probably be filled out to give ' Mercury 

 inatituted buying and ecUing, and Falhcr Liber the vintage.' 



635 



