Plinics Natural! Hiftone. 



A bee SepitUm iths-t is bcftowed or buried any way jit makes no matter how : but hurmim pi;opef« 

 ly^who is enterred onelyjor committed to the earth. 



Chap, iv, 



'^OftheghoBsor^iritsofmendepmedi^ 



A Peer men are buriedjgreat diverfitie thereis in opinion^what is become of their ibiils and 

 ghoftsjwandcringfomethisway, and others that. But this is generally held, that in what 

 eltate they were before men were borne^in the fame they remain when they arc dead. For 

 neither body nor fouie hath any more fence after our dying day, than they had before the day of 

 B our nativitie. Butfuch is thefollie and vanitieof men^that it extendeth ftilleven to the future 

 timejyea^and in the very time of death flattereth it felfe with fond imaginations, and dreaming 

 of I wot not what life after this.For fome attribute immortalitic to the fouIe : others devife a cer- 

 taine transfiguration thereof,And there be againe who fuppofe,that the ghofts fequefk^from 

 the bodie^have fence : whereupon they do them honour and worfliip^making a god of nim that 

 is not fo much as a man. As it the manner of mens breathing differed from that in other living 

 creatures: or as if there were not to bee found many other things in the world, that live much 

 longerthanmeHjandyetnoman judgeth in them the like immortalitie. But fhewmee what is 

 the fubfiancc and . bodie as it were of the foule by it felfe ? what kind of matter is it apart from 

 the bodie ? where lieth her cogitation that fhe hath ? how is her feeingjhow is her hearing perfor- 

 C med ? what toueheth fhe ? nay, what doth fhe at all ? How is fhe emploied ? or if there beein her 

 none of all this,what goodneffe can there be without the fame ? But I would know where fhe fet- 

 leth and hath her abiding place after her departure from the bodie ? and what an infinite multi- 

 tude of foules like jTiaddowes would there be,in fo many ages,as wellpafl as to comePnow furc- 

 iy thefe be but f3ntaflicall,foolifli,and childifli toies:devifed by men that would fain live alwaiesj 

 and never make an cnd.The likefoolerie there is in preferving the bodies of dead men. And the 

 vanitie of D emocritm is no lefle,who promifed a reflirredion thereof jand yet himfelfc could ne- 

 ver rife againe .And what a follie is this of all follies to thinke(in a mifcheefe) that death fhould 

 bee the way to a fecondlife ? whatrepofe and refl fhould ever men have that are borne of awo- 

 maujif their foules fhbuld remaine in heaven above with fence, while their fhaddowes tarried be- 

 B :neathamongtheinfernallwights?Certes, thefe fweet inducements and pleafingperfuafions, 

 this foolifh credulitie and light-beleefe, marreth the benefite of the beft gift of Nature, to wit. 

 Death: itdoublethbefidesthepafseofaman that is to die,if he happen to thinkeandconfkler 

 whatfhall betide him the time to come. Forif itbeefweetandpleafanttolive, whatpleafure 

 andcontemmentcan one have,thathath once lived, and now doth not. But how much more 

 cafe and greater fecuritie were it for each man to beleeve himlelfe in this point, to gather rea= 

 fons, and to ground his refolutionandaflurance upon the experience that hee had before bee 

 was borne ? 



Chap, lvi. 



B ^ ^^fi^fi mventersof diver fe thhgs» 



BEforc wee depart from this difcourfe of mens nature,me thinkes it were meet and^onvett- 

 ent to fliew their fundrie inventions, and what each man hath devifed in this world. In the 

 firfl plaee,prince Bacchm brought up b uying and fellin g : he if was alfo that devifed t'fie di- 

 ademe that roiall enfigne and ornament,and the manner of triumph. Dam.e C eres was the firfl 

 that fhewed the way of fowing corne,whereas beforetime men lived of mafl. Shee taught alfo, 

 how to grind corne,to knead dough, and make bread thereof, in the land of Attica,Italie, and 

 Sicilie : for which benefite to mankind, reputed fliee wasa goddeffe. Shee it was that began 

 to make lawes, howfoevcr others have thoiight, that was the firft law-giver. As 



V for letters, lam of opinion, thatthey were in Affyria from thebeginning,timeoutof mind t 

 but fome thinkejan^nam.elyGf////^',that they were devifed by (J^^^r^mV in yEgypt,but others 

 fay they came firft from Syria.True it is, that Cadmm brought with him into Greece from Phoe- 

 niceto the number of fixteene, unto which, Pdmedes in the time of iheTrojane warre added 

 fouremorein thefe characters followin|j©.s. $.x* And ^ktiUvaSimomdesMelkmc^m^Wih, 



othcE 



