was first created in his perfect ftate, without any prejudice of infancy or education, he had as much knowledge as was defigned for that order of creatures in the univerfe; the notions of all things were clearly reprefented, and good and evil appeared naked, and in their proper fhapes: Thefe notions have been delivered down to us, and from thefe once made plain, the mind neceffarily infers fuch practical rules, as are called the law of nature: And this explication will give an account of the diverfity of manners and opinions among t men, and of the various interchanges of barbarity and civility throughout the world. immortal, it is impoffible it fhould be otherwise; fo that this can be no argument for the Epicureans, which, admit the contrary fuppofition, can be fo eafily explained: And here we must conceive the mind as the chief part of man, a judging fubftance, but free from all anticipations and ideas; a plain "rafa tabula," but fit for any impreffions from external objects, and capable to make deductions from them: in order to this, fhe is put into a body curiously contrived, fitted with nerves and veins, and all neceffary inflruments for animal motion; upon thefe organs external objects act by preffure, and fo the motion is continued to the feat of this foul, where the judges according to Ver. 809. But grant the foul to be mortal, that the first impulfe, and that judgment is called it was once burn, and that a time will come when either pain or pleafure; fo that the action of the it must die, what advantage is this to us? Lucrefoul is fill uniform and the fame; and the vari- tius anfwers in thefe eleven verfes. We, who are ous paffions arife only from the variety of the ob- wholly mortal, need no longer be in dread of jects the contemplates: but now because he has death, nor of the punishments after death, at memory, and from thefe notices once received can which the generality of mankind are so dismayed: make deductions, fhe is capable of all those af- For as the battles, tumults, and Carthaginian fections which are properly called paffions, as wars did not moleft us, who were not born in grief, joy, &c. All which are acts of reafon, thofe days; fo too, fince the foul is mortal, as and are compatible to brutes too, according well as the body, no wars, no tumults, nor any to their degree of perception: and befides, other cares, or afflictions will vex us after death. fince the mind makes ufe of the body in her mot Epicurus, in Laertius, lib. 10. fays, Zuvedie di intellectual actions, as is evident from that weari- σεαυτὸν ἐν τῷ νομίζειν μηδὲν πρὸς ἡμᾶς εἶναι τον θάνατον, nels that is confequent to the mon abftraded fpe- ἐπεὶ τὰν ἀγαθὸν, καὶ κακὸν ἐν τῇ αἰσθήσει, σέρησις δὲ ἐοὶν culations; the difturbance the receives, proceeds | αἰσθήσεις ὁ θάνα]ος, ὅθεν γνῶσις ἔφθῆ μηδὲν εἶναι πρὸς ἡfrom the unfi nefs of the organs but the works uãs Tov dúvajov. Accuitom thyfelf to confider that as rationally in a madman as in a fober, in a death is nothing to us, becaufe all good and ill are fool as in the most wife; because the acts accord-difcerned by fenfe: but death is a privation of all ing to the utmost perfection her inftruments will Fermit. But because this notion of a " rafa tabula" will not agree with thofe who are fond of fome, 1 know not what, innate, fpeculative, and practical ideas, it will be necefiary to confider the instances they produce. The first is that of many geometrical figures; for inftance a chiliagon, of which we can make perfect demonftrations, which prefuppofe an idea of the fubject, though we can have no image or reprefentation of it from our fancy but in propofing this inftance they do not attend, that thefe properties belong to a chiliagon, becaufe it contains fo many triangles, which is a figure obvious enough to fenfe: The fecond is that of a deity, upon which Cartes's whole philofophy depends; and here he grants this to be imperfect, e. really none at all, becaufe not agrecable to the object, whofe idea it pretends to be: yet this is enough to guide us in our religion, because the higheft our minds can reach : but even this we have from fenfe; from the confideration of the imperfections of all things, with which we are converfant, we rife to the knowledge of an allperfect; fo that all the attributes we can conceive, are juft in oppofition to what we difcover here; and therefore according to the different apprehenfins that men have entertained of fuch things, fo various have been their notions of the Deiry, as is evident from the heathen world: And this makes way to difcover, how we got all thofe particular noons which we call the law of nature, and are faid to be written in our hearts: For when man TRANS. II. fenfe, whence we truly know that death is nothing to us. This opinion Cicero, lib. 1. Tufcul. Quæft. has included in thefe words: "Natura vero fic fe habet, ut quomodo initium nobis rerum omnium ortus nofter offerat, fic exitum mors; quæ ut nihil pertinuit ad nos ante ortum, fic nihil poft mortem pertinebit. In quo quid poteft effe mali; cum mors nec ad vivos pertineat, nec ad mortuos? alteri nulli funt, alteros non attingit." Such is the nature of man, that as our birth was to us a beginning of all things, fo death will put an end to ail. And as death was nothing to us before we were born, fo neither will it be any thing to us when we are dead. What ill then can there be in death, fince it belongs neither to the living, nor the dead. The living feel it not, dead are effe nihil; is plane perfpiciet, inter Hippocentau- | Has come betwixt, where memory lies dead, rum, qui nunquam fuerit, et regem Agamemno- And all the wand'ring motions from the sense are nem, qui fuit, nihil intereffe: Nec pluris nunc fled. facere M. Camillum hoc civile bellum, quam illo vivo ego fecerim Romam captam." He who fees what is clearer than the light, that if foul and body both perish, if the whole animal die and be deftroyed, that which was an animal is become nothing; he too will clearly perceive, that there is no difference between a Centaur, that never was, and king Agamemnon, who once was: And that M. Camillus is no more concerned at this civil war, than when he was alive, I was concerned that Rome was taken. M. Tull. lib. i. Tufcul. Quæft. Ver. 820. In thefe twenty-one verfes the poet continues and fays; fuppofe the foul could feel, when the is feparated from the body, yet what would that be to us, who are not foul only, but fomething made up of foul and body? Nay, let us farther fuppofe, that we shall return to life again, and be the fame we now are, that is to fay, that after a certain revolution of time, the fame atoms will by chance meet again, and, joining together, compofe the fame body we now wear; yet all this mighty bustle will be nothing to us who now are, or to us who fhall be hereafter. In like manner, as while we are now living, we take no thought for the other ourselves that we formerly were, nor for the other ourfelves that we fhall be in time to come: for when we shall fuffer death, an interrupting, pause, a gaping space comes between what we are, and what we shall be; after which no remembrance will remain of the ftate in which we have been; as we now feel not before hand the smarts and forrows we shall then endure. Dryden has given another turn to this paffage, and renders it thus: Nay, ev'n fuppofe, when we have fuffer'd fate, And matter leap into the former dance; We, who are dead and gone fhall bear no part Ver. 828. The meaning of these three verses is; we are not folicitous concerning those, who for. merly were the very and individual beings we now are; nor are we folicitous neither for them, nor do we hear any part in their affliction, who hereafter shall be moulded out of the fame mat. ter, which now compofes this frame of ours. Let us fuppofe, for inttance, that another, yet the fame poet Lucretius had lived before this of ours, certainly this Lucretius was nothing troubled concerning him; and suppose farther, that there has been fince, or will be hereafter, a third Lucretius; certainly our Lucretius was not in the leaft concerned for him neither: fo that neither they who have been, nor they who will be, even though they have been, or fhall be other ourselves, neither have contributed, or will contribute, to our grief or joy. Ver. 841. In thefe nine verfes he explains the fame argument more at large; he who hereafter fhall live in misfortunes, muft be, when those misfortunes fall upon him: But the dead have ceafed to be, and will never return from the grave. "Veftigia nulla retrorfum." Therefore the dead can in no wife be miferable. For whofoe'er fhall in misfortunes live, Muft be, when those misfortunes shall arrive; And fince the man who is not, feels not woe, For death exempts him, and wards off the blow, Which we, the living only, feel and bear, What is there left for us in death to fear? When once that pause of life has come between, 'Tis juft the fame, as we had never been. Dryd. Ver. 850. In these twenty-fix verses he blames those who are too folicitous concerning their fepulture, and fays, that anxiety proceeds from the belief of the immortality of the foul: For why, by fhould a man, who believes he fhall feel nothing after death, trouble himself about what shall become of his dead body? And therefore, if a man bemoan his lot, Dryd. But the poet feems in this place to allude to that trite ftory of Diogenes, who being asked what he would have done with his carcafe after he was From thence t' infer, that feeds of things have dead, answered, He would have it thrown away been In the fame order as they now are seen : unburied and being put in mind that the beats, and birds of prey would then devour him, he bid them put a flick in his hand, that he might drive them away: To which it being replied, That ha would not be able to do fo; because he would be deprived of motion as well as of fenfe: How? faid he, fhall I be deprived of fense? What matter then what becomes of my body? Ver. 851. Epicurus accufed Democritus of believing, that there is fenfe in the body after death. This we learn from Tully, in his first book of the Tufcul. Queft. and no doubt but Lucretius in this place meant to chastise that philofopher. Ver. 870. The poet hints at the three different ways of fepulture, that were used by the ancients: Some were burnt, fome buried in the earth, and some were put into ftone coffins, filled up with honey; of all which you may confult Salmafius to Solinus, p. 850. But perhaps Lucretius intended to give a flight chaftement to Heraclides of Pontus, and to Democritus of whom Varro "wigi raps; Quare Heraclides Ponticus plus fapit, qui præcepit, ut comburerent, quam Democritus, qui ut in melle fervarent: quem fi vulgus fecutus effet, periam fi centum denariis calicem Mulfi emere poffimus." Heraclides, who advised to burn dead bodies, was wiser than Democritus, who would have them be kept in honey; for if his advice had been generally followed, a cup of metheglin would be worth a great deal of money. For fo fcrupulous a concern for their fepulture was mean, and wholly unbecoming of philofophers. Even Petronius was braver and more wife than this comes to. "Attamen flu&tibus obruto non contingit fepultura: tanquam interfit periturum corpus, quæ ratio confumat, ignis, an fluctus, an mora: quicquid feceris hæc omnia codem ventura funt: feræ tamen corpus lacera. bunt; tanquam melius ignis accipiat.' But a man, whose dead body is rolled up and down in the waves, is deprived of fepulture: As if it were of any moment, by what means the body, that muft perish, is confumed; whether by fire, by water, or with length of time: whatever thou doft with it, it will be the fame at long run: but wild beafts will tear it to pieces? as if fire would not hurt it as much. Lucretius, therefore, juftly blames this too great concern, this over-care for a fenfelefs lump of clay, at beft but the very leav. ings of a foul and says, " If, while he live, this thought moleft his head, Ver. 874. This was rather the ancients way of embalming than of burying their dead; as we may gather from the above-cited paffage of Varro, and from Xenophon, lib. v. 'Eλänvix☎v, where hé relates, that Agefipolis king of the Lacedemonians, being feized with a violent distemper, of which he died the feventh day after he was taken, was put into honey, and brought to Lacedemon, where, fays he, he was buried in a royal fepulchre, xai ixevos μiv iv médih rebèis, nai хомθες οἴκαδε, ἔτυχε τῆς βασιλικῆς ταφῆς. Ver. 876. Because it is commonly esteemed a great misfortune to be deprived by death of the bleflings we enjoy in life, and because men are apt to bewail themselves that they muft die, and leave all thofe joys behind them! Lucretius, in thefe twenty verses, derides that vain anxiety, and tells the fell-tormentor, But to be fnatch'd from all thy household joys, From thy chaite wife, and thy dear prattling boys, Whofe little arms about thy legs are caft; Infpiring fecret pleasure through thy breaft; And all the brittle bleffings of my life: For thou shalt flec, and never wake again; The worst that can befal thee, meafur'd right, Dryd Socrates, in the dialogue of Plato, infcribed Axiochus, fays to the fame purpose: "Hova di ποτὲ τὸ τῇ Προδίκω λέγον]ος, ὅτι ὁ θάναρος & περὶ τὰς ζῶας ἴσιν, ἢ περὶ τὰς με ηλαχότας· ὅτι περὶ μὲν τὰς ζῶν]ας ἐκ ἔσιν, οι δὲ ἀποθανόν]ες ἐκ εισιν, ὅτι ἐ περὶ σὲ νῦν ἔστιν (3 γὰρ τέθνικας) ἔτε, ἔτι πάθοις ἔςται περὶ σὲ σὺ γὰρ ἐκ ἔση. Μάταιος ἐν ἡ λύπη περὶ τῇ μὴ ὄντος μήτε ἐσμένες περὶ ̓Αξίοχον, Αξίοχον ὀδύρεσθαι, καὶ ὅμοιον, ὡς εἰ περὶ τῆς Σκύλλης, ἡ τὸ Κενταύρω τὶς ὀδύροι», τῶν μήτε ὄνων, μήτε ὕστερον περὶ τὴν τελευτὴν ἐσομένων. Τὸ γὰρ φοβερὸν τοῖς ἔσιν ἐστιν, τοῖς δὲ ἐκ ἔσε wäs äv än; Ver. 895. For as death is esteemed a perpetual fleep, fo is fleep a temporary death, or at least an image of death. Stulte, quid eft fomnus gelidæ nifi mortis imago? And the general, who killed one of his foldiers, whom he found fleeping upon duty, faid pleafantly enough; "Talem reliqui, qualem inveni :" f left him as I found him. Ev'n in their fleep, the body rapt in ease, Were that found fleep eternal, it were death; Dryd. Ibid. It was the cuftom of the ancients, as well Greeks as Latins, at their feafts and entertainments, not only to ftrew their rooms with flowers; but themselves, the guests, and even the waiters wore garlands of flowers on their heads; and this they did, fays Pliny, to ditpel, by the frag rancy of the flowers, the vapours and heaviness that proceeded from too much drinking. "Crapulam et gravedines capitis, impofitis coronis, olfactione difcutiunt," lib. 21. Nat. Hift. cap. 19. Nay, even the very goblets were crowned likewife with garlands. Crateras magnos ftatuunt, et vina coronant. And Virgil. Tom pater Anchifes magnum cratera coronâ Induit, implevitque mero, &c. Which cannot be interpreted as fome do the - Κρατήρας ἐπις έψαντο ποιοιο. of Homer. They crowned bowls with drink; and bowls, fay they, may then be faid to be crowned with drink, when they are filled fo full that the liquor rifes above the brims of the bowl; and this we call a bumper, from the wine's fwelling higher than the brims of the glass. But Homer may as well be conftrued, they crowned bowls of drink, as bowls with drink. It is evident too, from fewife in great ufe among the Jews at their feafts, veral places in fcripture, that garlands were likeespecially their nuptials, Ifa. Ixi. 10. The Latin reads, like a bridegroom crowned with garlands, Wild. ii. 8. Ezek. xii. 16. Lam. v. 25. Ecclef, xxxii. I. &c. Ver. 899. We find something to the fame purpofe in Petronius, where he defcribes the banquet of Trimalchio, who, when a fervant, had brought in a filver skeleton, and fet it on the table, cried out, Heu, heu nos miferos! quam totus homuncio nihil eft : Sic erimus cuncti, poftquam nos auferet orcus : Ergo vivamus, dum licet effe benè. And the old Epicurean epigram gives the fame advice; Cum te mortalem noris, præfentibus exple Crown me with rofes whilft I live; But St. Jerome, writing against Jovinianus, blames thefe inconfiderate revellers in these words: "Manduca, et bibe; et fi tibi placet, cum Ifraele lude confurgens, et canito; Manducemus et bibamus, cras enim moriemur. Monducet et bibat, qui poft cibos expectat interitum; qui cum Epicuro dicit: Poft mortem nihil eft, et mora ipfa nihil eft." Ver. 916. That his disputation against the fear of death may be the more efficacious, the poet, in thefe twenty-nine verfes, introduces nature speaking and thus ftrengthens his arguments by the authority of the perfon that fpeaks. If thou haft met with croffes and afflictions, if thy whole lite has been one continued courfe and series of adverfities, lay down thy burden, wretch, and learn st laft to fuffer cafe. If thou haft been profperous, and led a life of joy and pleasure, go away con tent with the bountcous blefings I have given thee. Expect no new. There is a viciffitude of all things, as well as of times and feafons; the fame always fucceed the fame. If age has not yet weakened and impaired thy ftrength and vi gour, yet thou haft enjoyed all the good things that I can give thee. And if thou art worn out with years, why doft thou dread and delay to die? Let us fuppofe, fays Lucretius, -Great Nature's voice fhould call Thou mortal thing, thus idly to complain, If indigested joys pafs'd through and would not tay, Why dost thou wish for more to fquander ftill? And I would all thy cares and labours end; But run the round again, the round I ran before. Dry. Ver. 925. Horace has imitated this paffage, Sat. 1. lib. i. Unde fit ut raro, qui fe vixiffe beatum Ver. 939. Menippus in Lucian afks Chiron the reafon why he chofe to die, when he might have been immortal? Chiron anfwered, Because in life there was nothing new, but the fame things over and over again; which continual viciffitude had cloyed me, and created in my mind a fatiety, and even a lothing of life. Thus though thou art not broken yet with years, Dryd. Ver. 945. Hitherto nature has only gently reprimanded these who are never weary of living. She now, in these thirty two verfes, more fharply rebukes thofe who are immeafurably greedy of life, even though it be grown a burden to them; efpecially the aged, who are become incapable of enjoying the pleasures of this world. As in a theatre, fo in this life, each man has his part to play; and the old have no more right to live, than a player has to tarry on the ftage, after he, has acted his part. Be gone, fays fhe, decrepid fot, thou who haft ourlived content and pleafure, and art grown covetous of pain. Thon haft nothing more to do here; therefore, die as foon as thou ft, And thofe joys, unfuiting to thy age, e thee. have times to rife and rot; And from each other' ruin are begot : For life is not confin'd to him or thee, is giv'n to all for ufe, to none for property. Dryd. What doft thou fear? Ip the fables of the poets there is not one fyllable of truth; but the living fuffer those torments which they dread in futurity. For all the difmal tales that poets tell, Ver. 957. That is, be content to leave thofe delights of which thou haft enjoyed thy share, and art no longer able to tafte. To this purpose fays, Horace, Vivere fi rectè nefcis, decede peritis: Lib. ii. Ep. 2. Ver. 977. Here the poet, that he may entirely deliver the minds of men from the fear of death, endeavours to perfuade, that there are no punishments after this life. And to this end he employs the following forty-eight verfes to explain the fables of the poets: that of Tantalus in five verses, of Tityus in eleven verfes, of Sifyphus in ten verfes, of the daughters of Danaus in ten verses, of the Furies, Cerberus, &c. in twelve verses. for Tantalus is the fuperftitious man; Tityus, he For thofe fables, fays he, are meant of the living; who is a flave to his lufts or inordinate defires; Sifyphus reprefents him, who in vain aims at fovereignty, and never attains his wifh; the daughters of Danaus are the avaricious, whofe thirst of riches is never fatisfied; as for Cerberus, the Furies, &c. we are to deem them to be the executioners that inflict the punishments on malefactors, or rather the confcience of the guilty, which is the greatest of all tormentors. Ver. 979. In these five verses, he explains the fable of Tantalus, king of Phrygia, the fon of Jupiter, by the nymph Plote, and grandfather of Agamemnon and Menelaus. He, when he treated fome of the gods, to make trial of their divinity, ferved up his own fon Pelops to the table; but all the gods, except Ceres, who eat a fhoulder, abstained from tafting of the difh; and to puifa the father for his flagitious cruelty, threw him into hell, to be tormented with cternal hunger and thirst. For he is feigned to be fet up to the chin in the river Eridanus, and to have apples hanging about his head; but not to be admitted either to drink of the water, or eat of the apples. The mythologifts generally interpret this fable of the avaricious, who have not the foul to make ufe even of their parental eftates. Thus Horat. lib. i. Serm. Sat. I. Tantalus à labris fatiens fugientia captat |