Religio Medici, Hydriotaphia, and the Letter to a Friend

thin walls of clay, outworn all the strong and specious buildings above it; and quietly rested under the drums and

oni versus in o

hath an art to make dust of all things

ies, and to retain a stronger propension unto them; whereas they weariedly left a languishing corpse and with faint desires of re-union. If they fell by long and aged decay, yet wrapt up in the bundle of time, they fall into indistinction, and make but one blot with infants. If we begin to die when we live, and long life be but a prolongation of death, our life is a sa

ty brought a nearer conformity into

, lib. ii

ancient arithmetick

the right hand cont

Pierius in H

too early old, and before the date of age. Adversity stretcheth our days, misery makes Alcmena's nights,* and time hath no wings unto it. But the most tedious being is that which can unwish itself, content to be nothing, or never to have been,

who were the proprietaries of these bones, or what bodies these ashes made up, were a question above antiquarism; not to be resolved by man, nor easily perhaps by spirits, except we consult the provincial guardians, or tutelary observators. Had they made as good provision for their names, as they have

ht as lon

stions of Tiberius

Donatus i

dampt with the necessity of oblivion. Even old ambi- tions had the advantage of ours, in the attempts of their vain-glories, who acting early, and before the probable meridian of time, have by this time found great accomplishment of their designs, whereby the ancient heroes h

s holds no proportion unto the other. 'Tis too late to be ambitious. The great mutations of the world are acted, or time may be too short for our designs. To extend our memories by monuments, whose death we daily pray for, and whose duration we cannot hope, without in

may last but si

tlasting above two

famous princ

and cannot excusably decline the considera- tion of that duration,

memories, and sadly tell us how we may be buried in our survivors. Grave- stones tell truth scarce forty years. Generations pass while some trees stand, and old families last not three oaks. To be read by bare inscriptions like many in Gruter, to hop

ho cares to subsist like Hippocrates's patients, or Achilles's horses in Homer, under naked nominations, without deserts and noble acts, which are the balsam of our memories, the entelechia and soul of our su

aracter

esse quod sim n

is s

hath spared the epitaph of Adrian's horse, confounded that of himself. In vain we com- pute our felicities by the advantage of our good names, since bad have equal durations, and Thersites is like to live as long as Agamemnon without the favour of the everlasting regi

hall live. The night of time far surpasseth the day, and who knows when was the equinox? Every hour adds unto that current arithmetick, which scarce stands one moment. And since death must be the Lucina of life, and even Pagans<6> could doubt, whether thus to live were to die; since our longest sun sets at rig

we digest the mixture of our few and evil days, and, our delivered senses not relapsing into cutting remembrances, our sorrows are not kept raw by the edge of repetitions. A great part of antiquity contented their hopes of subsistency with a transmigra- tion of their souls,-a good way to continue their me- mories, while having the advantage of plural successions, they could not but act something remarkable in such variety of beings, and enjoying the fame of their passed selves, make accumulation of glory unto their last dura- tions. Others, rather than be

The various cosmography of that part hath already varied the names of contrived constellations; Nimrod is lost in Orion, and Osyris in the Dog-star. While we look for incorruption in the heavens, we find that they are but like th

suffer even from the power of itself. But the sufficiency of Christian immortality frustrates all earthly glory, and the quality of either state after death, makes a folly of posthumous memory. God who can only destroy our souls, and hath assured our resurrection, either of our bodies or names hath directly promised no duration. Wherei

while men vainly affected precious pyres, and to burn like Sardanapalus; but the wisdom of funeral laws found the folly of prodigal blazes a

n their long and living memory, in strict account being still on this side death, and having a late part yet to act upon this stage of earth. If in the decretory term of the world we shall not all die but be changed, according to re- ceived translation, the last day will make but few graves; at least quick resurrections will anticipate lasting sep

river turned to hide his bones at the bottom. Even Sylla, that thought himself safe in his urn, could not prevent revenging tongues, and stones thrown at his monument. Happy are they whom privacy makes in

magnanimous resolution rests in the Christian religion, which trampleth upon pride and sits on the neck of ambition, humbly purs

d night of their fore-beings. And if any have been so happy as truly to understand Christian annihilation, ecstasies, exolution, liquefaction, transformation, the kiss of the spouse, gu

old expectations, and made one part of their Elysiums. But all this is nothing in the metaphysicks of true belief. To live indeed, is to be agai

on consume. Egypt. Ready to be anything, in the ecstasy of being e

sne cadav

refert."-LU

um or sepulchral pi

w standeth the ca

R TO A

THE DEATH OF HI

tentiona

TO A

you "ad portam rigidos calces extendit," that he is dead and buried, and by this time no puny among the mighty nations of the dead; for though he left this world not very many days past,

we have a sufficient excuse for our ignorance in such particulars, and must rest content with the common road, and Ap- pian way of knowledge by information. Though the uncertainty of the end of this world hath confounded all human predictions; yet they who shall live to see the sun and moon darkened, and the stars to fall from heaven, will hardly be deceived in the advent of the last day; and therefore strange it is, that the common fallacy of consumptive persons who feel n

ned by Hippocrates, that is, to lose his own face, and look like some of his near relations; for he maintained not his proper countenance, but looked like his uncle, the lines of whose face lay deep and invisible in his healthful visage before: for as from our begin- ning we r

mble a daw's claw. He is happily seated who lives in places whose air, earth, and water, promote not the infirmities of his weaker parts, or is early removed into regions that correct them. He that is tabidly<2> inclined, were unwise to pass his days in Portugal: cholical persons will find little comfort in Austria or Vienna: he that is weak- legged must not be in love with Rome, nor an infirm head with Venice or Paris. D

end not unlike his beginning, when the salient point scarce affords a sensible motion, and his departure so like unto sleep, tha

it, in medio Tibu

sts they set the fig

that are to

onius de

: yet if it could be made out, that such who have easy nativities have commonly hard deaths, and contrarily; his departure wa

iour, though some may be contained in that large expression, that he went about Galilee healing all manner of sickness and all manner of diseases.+ Amulets, spells, sigils, and incantations, practised in other diseases, are seldom pretended in this; and we find no sigil in the Archidoxis of Paracelsus to cure an extreme consumption or marasmus, which, if other diseases fail, will put a peri

stars unto any concern of his deat

nt in medicina."

there happen some

t. iv

ght, when Nox might be most apprehen- sibly said to be the daughter of Chaos, the mother of sleep and death, according to old genealogy; and so went out of this world about that hour when our blessed Saviour entered it, and about what time many conceive he will return again unto it. Cardan<3> hath a peculiar and no hard observation from a man's hand to know whether he was born in the day or night, which I con- fess holdeth in my own. And Scaliger<4> to that purpose hath another from the tip of

irare affirmat; observatum id multum in Gallico Ocean

st auribus; non enim iis qui noctu sunt, sed qui interdiu,

an end; which was a kind of dying upon the day of its nativity. Now the disease prevailing and swiftly advancing about the time of his nativity, some were of opinion that he would leave the world on the day he entered into it; but this being a lingering disease, and creeping softly on, nothing critical was found or expected, and he died not before fifteen days after. Nothing is more common with infants than to die on the day of their nativity, to behold the worldly hours, and but the fractions thereof; and even to perish before their nativity in the h

ve condition and

o the Egyptia

f a good skeleton weigh little more than twenty pounds, his inwards and flesh remaining could make no bouffage,<8> but a light bit for the grave. I never more lively beheld the starved characters of Dante+ in any living face; an aruspex might have read a lecture upon him wi

thumb; some are so curious as to observe the depth of the throat-pit, how the pro- portion varieth of the small of the legs unto the calf, or the compass of the neck unto the circumference of the head; but all these, with many more, were so

ish hi

et Dante's

by six p

deity of de

s are drawn with r

ians call it, to be dra

faces, and unto what an unknow

gdom, and have but a short life; but hairs make fallible predictions, and many temples early grey have outlived the psalmist's period.+ Hairs which have most amused me have not been in the face or head, but on the back, and not in men but children, as I long ago observed in that endemial distemper of children in Languedoc, called the mor- gellons,# wherein they critically break out with harsh hairs on their backs, which takes off the unquiet symp- toms of the disease, a

+ The life of man is threescore and te

yrrhus,* who had b

ed, from their figure and conformation; but sharp and corroding rheums had so early mouldered these rocks and hardest parts of his fabric, that a man might well conceive that his years were never like to double or twice tell over his teeth.+ Corruption had dealt more

ervation. Whether the children of the English plantations be subject unto the same infirmity, may be worth the observing. Whether lameness and halting do still increase among the inhabitants of Rovigno in Istria, I know not; yet scarce twenty years ago Monsieur du Lo

solid, and without d

s teeth, never live

ients gave that disease* very good words, yet now that bell+ m

age. Polydore Virgil delivereth that pleurisies were rare in England, who lived but in the days of Henry the Eighth. Some will allow no diseases to be new, others think that many old ones are ceased: and that such which are esteemed new, will have but their time: however, the mercy of God hath scattered the great heap of diseases, and not loaded any one country with all: some ma

led lungs, and a withered pericardium in this exsuccous corpse: but some seemed too much t

d], securissima

ippo

uartana raro

in the bladder. Aristotle makes a query, why some animals cough, as man; some not, as oxen. If coughing be taken as it consisteth of a natural and voluntary motion, including expectoration and spitting out, it may be as proper unto man as bleeding at the nose; otherwise we find that Vegetius and rural writers have not left so many medicines in vain against the coughs of cattle; and men who perish by coughs die the death of shee

cients erected an art of divination, wherein while they too widely ex- patiated in loos

ncomium Podagrae

i>, that they are deli

d stone in

de In

advise alteration of diet, exercise, sweating, bathing, and vomiting; and also so religious as to order prayers and supplications unto respecti

our nourishment. And Cardan, who dreamed that he discoursed with his dead father in the moon, made thereof no mortal in- terpretation; and even to dream that we are dead, was having a signification of liberty, vacuity from cares, exemption and freedom from troubles unknown unto the dead. Some dreams I confess may admit of easy and femi- nine exposition; he who dreamed that he could not see his right shoulder, might easily fear to lose the sight of his right eye; he that before a journey dreamed that his feet were cut off, had a plain warning not to under- take his intended journey. But why to dream of lettuce should presage some ensuing disease, why to eat figs should signify foolish talk, why to eat eggs great trouble, and to dream of blindness should be so highly com- mended, according to the oneirocritical verses of As- trampsychus and Nicephorus, I shall leave unto your divination. He was willing to quit the world alone and a

ingunt ab anno deci

um.-Hi

cut out of the b

primum deferimus

et u

rations; which happen but contingently in mere pecuniary matches or marriages made by the candle, wherein notwithstanding there is littl

poetry of his epitaph unto others; either unwilling to commend himself, or to be judged by a distich, and perhaps considering how unhappy great poets have been in versifying their own epitaphs; whe

the mortal symptoms of their last disease; that is, to become more narrow-minded, miser- able, and tenacious, unready to part with anything, when they are ready to part with all, and afraid to want when they have no time to spen

i quod fuit.-Joseph. S

the sober departure of their friends; and though they behold such mad covetous pas

ceed abilities, theori- cal beneficency may be more than a dream. They build not castles in the air who would build churches on earth; and though they leave no such structures here, may lay good foundations in heaven. In brief, his life and death were such, that I could not blame them who wished the li

tempt of the world wrought no Democratism or Cynicism, no laugh- ing or snarling at it, as well understanding there are not felicities in this world to satisfy a serious mind; and therefore, to soften the stream of our lives, we are fain to take in the reputed contentations of this world, to unite with

y. He conceived his thread long, in no long course of years, and when he had scarce outlived the second life of Lazarus;+

advantage of those resolved Christians, who looking on death not only as the sting, but the period and end of sin, the horizon and isthmus between this

troy themselves,# who being afraid to live run blindly upon their own de

- Baronius. # In the speech of Vulteius in Lucan, animating his soldiers in a great struggle to kill one another.-"Decernite lethum, et metu

hat which is not to be avoided, and wish what might be feared; and so made evils

were afraid to be their own executioners; and therefore thought it more wisdom to crucify their

is to come. To live at the rate of the old world, when some could scarce remember themselves young, may afford no better digested death than a more moderate period. Many would have thought it an happiness to have had their lot of life in some notable conjunctures of ages past; but the uncertainty of future times have tempted few to make a part in ages to come. And surely, he that hath taken the true altitude of things, and rightly calculated the d

which abate the comfort of those we now live; if we reckon up only those days which God hath accepted of our lives, a life of good years will hardly be a span long: the son in this sense may outlive the father, and none be climacterically old. He that early arriveth unto the parts and pru- dence of age, is happily old without the uncomfortable attendants of it; and 'tis superfluous to li

of weaker constitutions. Cau- telous chastity and crafty sobriety were far from him; those jewels were paragon

om, ca

closer vices, nor simply to enjoy health, by all of which you may leaven good actions, and render virtues disputable, but, in one word, that you may truly serve God, which every sickness will tell you you cannot well do without health. The sick man's sacrifice is but a lame oblation. Pious treasures, laid up in healthful days, excuse the

ad of uncertainties; whether thou hast yet entered the narrow gate, got up the hill and asperous way which leadeth unto the house of sanity

. Think not that you are sailing from Lima to Manilla,* <16> wherein thou mayest tie up

ck Sea with a consta

level of virtues, but endeavour to make them heroical. Offer not only peace-offerings but holocausts unto God. To serve

irtue until those years when Cato could lend out his wife, and impotent satyrs write satires against lust, but be chaste in thy flaming day

d think it is not enough to be liberal but munificent. Though a cup of cold water from some hand may not be without its reward, yet stick not

ear unto its servitude. A slave unto Mammon makes no servant unto God. Covetousness cracks the sinews of faith, numbs the apprehension of anything above sens

to have cast

to them- selves, brings formal sadness, scen

fruition of things bless the possession of them, and take no satisfaction in dying but living rich. For since thy good works, not thy goods will follow thee; since riches a

uneasy and even monstrous unto thee; let iterated good acts and long confirmed habits make virtue natural or a second nature in thee; and since few or none prove eminently virtuous but from some advantageous foundations in their temper and natural inclinations, study thyself betimes, and early find what nature bids thee to be or tells

the law will make good. Narrow not the law of charity, equity, mercy. Join gospel righteousness with legal r

nd credit, which attend the reputation of just and true dealing: for such rewards, though unsought for, plain virtue will bring with her, whom all men honour, though they

hee into desperate enormities in opinions, manners, or actions. If thou hast dipped thy foot in the river, yet venture not over Rubicon; run not into extremities f

of will, and impatiency, when men live but by intervals of reason, under the sovereignty of humour and passion, when it is in the power of every one to trans- fo

uror bre

they perceived they spit their m

passion which no circumstance can make good. A displacency at the good of others, because they enjoy it although we do not want it, is an absurd depravity sticking fast u

s true gen- tleman.* Trust not with some that the Epistle of St James is apocryphal, and so read with less fear that stabbing truth that in company with this vice, "thy religion is in vain." Moses broke the tables without breaking the law, but where charity is broke the law itself is shattered, which cannot be whole without love that is "the fulfilling of it." Look

's Ethics, chap

, holy

of night upon injuries, shut them up in the tower of oblivion,+ and let them be as though they had n

ne thou must be contented with under it. Spread not into boundless expansions either to designs or desires. Think not that mankind liveth but for a few; and that the rest are born but to serve the ambition of those who make but flies of men, and wildernesses of whole nations. Swell not into vehement actions, which embroil and confound the earth, but be one of those violent ones that f

the days a

tower of oblivion,

he name of a tower

er was put therein

s death for any

Mat

confusions, tragedies, and acts, denyi

unruly legion of thy breast; behold thy trophies within thee, not wit

e rock of nature, and make this a great part of the militia of thy life. The politic nature of vice must be opposed by policy, and therefore wiser honesties project and plot against sin; wherein notwithstanding we are not to rest in generals,

, and will scarce complain of the shortness of his days. Time past is gone like a shadow; make times to come present; con- ceive that near which may be far off. Approximate thy latter times by pr

tty and minor k

dereth the purposes of this life, will never be far from the next, and is in s

THE RELIG

erb, "Ubi tres m

ord meaning a ta

was held in 1619 to d

ended by co

on this passage, says-

who would have asked

roselyte-the right of

supplying whatever w

, vol. i

he Six Articles (31 Hen

antiation, communion

f widowhood, private

re part of the

en the Jesuits were exp

to excommunicate th

, which was ultimately

of Fr

y of OEdipus solving th

hy

was changed by Diana

d under the sea from E

cuse.-Ov. Met.<

d the immortality of th

with the body. Orig

said to have succeede

. 5. sec. 16.) Pope

pte

from the Greek

The

ce, from the Latin

a Sir T. Browne often e

terance of

from Latin

from the Latin

en's gr

o made a wooden eagle

rg, flew to meet him

an iron fly that, w

om under his hand, an

as, 6me jour

om the Greek [

ry term for

he Ar

ctice of dr

n acc

Il. VI

hose strong embrace holds heaven, and ear

one proposition is acc

k [Greek omit

cond triumvirate-that

f it, "Respublica conv

st a monk, then a docto

in 1547 he came to

mation. He was afte

inians claim him as

ruel. His adventures are

s of Hampton, a metri

ir Bevys with the s

Reliquiae Antiq

ctions betwe

ris, Pantagruel visited

the works he found t

Tartaret was a Fren

s works were republi

of Thessaly at the ti

the advice of the orac

ng behind them the

ones of the earth.-See

b.

tine (De Civ.

Matt. xxvii. 5) means d

"abiens laque

he Caliph Omar, A.D. 64

he city for fuel instea

med by Adam the world

rs, one of stone to w

tand the fire, and in

.-See Josephus,

counsellor to the Inqu

n Spain to make a cat

religion. His "index

published at

ng, gunpow

ms and the va

ahometans, Je

, and deat

ld 141

of Salzburg, having as

shop of Metz declared

d him to

ount Calvary for the

was uncertain which

plied to the body of

to life was determined

ical time in

to have ceased when Ch

he subject be

eus divos Deus

et tristemque r

nc tacitus disc

rote "De Rebus Indicis

and Jo

lar superstition that in

and others left

e lived without meat,

ae rationali

De Civ. Dei, lib.

udes everything is

n of the parts

stine-"Homil

te a dialogue between

orld into which

efine

n another form

computation f

volves once i

of Denmark, who rei

of Jason. By bathing in

magic spells, he bec

its ingredients, Met

binical tradition that

ted to Elias, and c

the founder o

ssage in Suetonius, V

mortis genus subitam si

In h

ltima p

tuenda

moon is in conjunction

the judge

t man for our ideal, an

us. See Seneca,

ms to have made vario

ers to it in his "Curi

Sir T. Browne, with

ceipt for

ek philosopher who tau

and various other as

ay Anaxarchus

s "Paradise Los

its own place

en of hell, a h

so Luc

stultorum denique

did they all, as Lact

aid to have been guil

inency, and of unfaith

ande

Agrigentum, who, when

riminals, placed him in

eir ma

iquis putat id

t quod se nil

., in his declaration

umise comme l'epous

acquis l'empire par

he Doge and Senate w

the water, claimed th

s, who threw a large q

undo divitias ne p

cal term in fe

ch, a quick

our Lost,

configuration of the w

mantle (

s were a Puritanical sec

olas, a Dutchman. The

was an allegory, and

erfection.-See Neal's H

salm St Augustine co

also Lyra in

panish "Dorado

of chiromancy, or the a

ands, in his "Vulgar Er

Gyps

that here this wo

judicium vocalium," th

complains that T has depri

with [Greek S

ovis or

man grammarian. A pro

mar was "Breaking

Nevius cut a whetstone

that was supposed to

banef

nce, so that th

s, 6me j

nides (Ti

k omi

a person say, "When

replied, "Yes, while

t. Ne

ry of the Italian, who,

a poniard to his he

not blaspheme God;

d him at once, that h

time to

ier or sm

eferred to was the on

sh fleet, near Lepant

he capture of the town

ace til

that Aristotle died of

n for the ebb and flow

there is such a

or cup. In an old wi

of silver gilt to hav

marg

s out, and the bo

your brot

contrary quality, by whi

s heig

e was created

s Atlas supported the

n says that this is t

is

o be a cure

tched g

capping verses, in wh

aid before, he

-

O HYDRI

es when fused and mixed with lead to pass off, and retains only gold and silver. 4. This substance known to French chemists by the name "adipo-cire," wa

-

LETTER TO

survive unti

Was

hysician, lecturer in t

a most voluminou

nd scholar who passed

nd practising me

was born 24th

was taken prisoner at

ary,

Protestant generals of

at Zar

r swelling, from t

He was defeated by Sol

ll from his horse,

The

ney-se

f Hercules' oxen, and

y traces being discove

like walki

l writer. This [Greek om

ole human life with its

ically re

Pict

the Spanish Treasure s

ecommen

senex vici

ptae sava inter

et dare,"-Juv.

made by one planet in