Religio Medici, Hydriotaphia, and the Letter to a Friend

f Potosi,* and regions toward the centre. Nature hath furnished one part of the earth, and man another. The treasures of time lie high, in urns, coins, and monuments, scarce below the

for thousands of years, and a large part

t challenge a restitution, yet few have returned their bones far lower

h mountai

as hope to rise again, would not be content with central interment, or so desperately to place their relicks as to lie beyond discovery; and in no way to

n forty days swallowed almost mankind, and the living creation; fishes not wholly escap

en have been most phantastical in the singular contrivances of their corporal dissolutio

tween Satan and the archangel about discovering the body of Moses. But the practice of burning was also of great antiquity, and of no slender extent. For (not to derive the same from Hercules) noble descriptions there are hereof in the Grecian funerals of Homer, in the formal obsequies of Patroclus and Achilles; and somewhat elder in the Theban war, and solemn combustion of Meneceus, and Archemorus, cont

haginians and Americans. Of greater antiquity among the Romans than most opinion, or Pliny seems to allow: for (besides the old table laws+ of burning or burying within the city, of making the funeral fire with planed

ferently, not frequently used before; from that time spread, and became the prevalent practice. Not totally pursued in th

of Chionia, a co

rt i., de jure sac

sepelito

bdita flamma rogo,"

, 8

ginal of all things, thought it most equal<1> to submit unto the principle of putrefaction, and conclude in a moist relentment.<2> Others conceived it most natural to end in fire, as due unto the master principle in the composition, ac

all things; or that this element at last must be too hard for all the rest; might conceive most naturally of the fiery dissolution. Others pretending no natural grounds, politickly declined the malice of enemies upon their b

hmans seemed too great friends unto fire, who burnt themselves alive and thought it the noblest way to end their days in fire; according to the

t their bones, exposed their flesh to the prey of birds and dogs. And the Persees now in India, which expose their bodies unto vultures, and endure not so much as feretra or biers of wood, the pro

herefore by precious embalmments, depositure in dry earths, or handsome inclosure in glasses, contrived the notablest ways of integral conservation.

and the Ichthyophagi, or fish-eating nations about Egypt, affected the sea for their grave; thereby declining visible corruption, and restoring the debt of their bodies. Whereas

tion on his tomb was made a

h* the total destruction in this kind o

urns, and laid heaps of wood upon them. And the Chinese without cremation or urnal interment of their bodies, make use of trees and much burning, while they plant a pine-tree by th

bsumption, and properly submitting unto the sentence of God, to return not unto ashes but unto dust again, and conformable unto the practice of the patriarchs, the interment of our Saviour

y hold a present trial from their black and white angels in the grave;

ntertained the old way of inhuma

us reads [Gr

alis th

m, deducible from the expressions concerning Jehoram, Zedechias, and the sumptuous pyre of Asa. And were so little averse from Pagan burning, that the Jews lamenting the death of Caesar their friend, and revenger on Pompey, frequented the place where his body was burnt for

n, or a bone should not be broken; which we believe was also pro- videntially prevented, from the soldier's spear and nails that passed by the little bones both in his hands and feet; not of ordinary

os v

ficent sepulchral

Macc.<

itted], whe

ody until Josephus' da

b.

oken the subject of so entire a resur- rection, nor fully answered the types of Enoch, Elijah, or Jonah, which yet to prevent or restore, was of equal facility unto that rising power

s at the grave, their music, and weeping mourners; how they closed the eyes of their friends, how they washed, anointed, and kissed the dead; may easily conclude these were not mere Pagan civilities.

till to credit the story of the Phoenix, may say something for animal burning. More serious conjectures find some examples of sepulture in elephants,