A Than weaker birds the living men before: Ver. 1178. Thucydides fays only that they came not near the dead bodies, but gives not the reafon of it; that is to fay, whether it happened out of any natural instinct, which is often obferved in brutes; or whether any of their fenfes gave them notice of the danger. But Lucretius takes away this difficulty, and fays, that the wary birds and beafts of prey were admonished by their smell to keep away from the dead carcases, “ut arcem," fays he, "exirent odorem." Now, of all the feathered kind, the vulture is faid to have the most exquifite smell, or even to know beforehand where he shall find his prey. This is confirmed beyond all difpute, if we may credit Horus Ægyptius, a very ancient author, who fays, that in time of war, vultures repair, feven days before, to a place where a battle will be fought; and even that they haunt chiefly about that part of the army where the greatest flaughter will be made. But, allowing this to be true, it cannot be afcribed to their fmell, or any other of their fenfes, but rather to a prefaging inftinct that nature has conferred upon them: a credulity, which Plautus long ago derided, when he said, Quafi vulturi, triduò priùs divinabant, quo die efituri fient. And, indeed, who but a fuperftitious augur can give credit to fo extravagant a notion, or believe that vultures, by their smell, can distinguish between bodies that are to die in a few days, or to live a longer time. The truth is, that they generally keep with armies, because they feed on the garbage and offals of beafts, a great number of which are daily flain for the fubfifence of fuch a multitude of men. Ver. 1181. Lucretius fays, Nec tamen omninò temerè illis folibus ulla Comparebat avis :— | amongst us. But from this paffage of our author, we make two obfervations: First, That a plague is common to all animals, and propagated from beafts into men. Secondly, That a peftilential vemen into beafts; and, on the contrary, from the dead body, though it be not fo virulent by nom does not end with the life, but remains in reafon of the want of heat: But when the putrilaginous heat has fucceeded in the place of the natural, it emits a pernicious and fatal infection, as may be proved by many experiments. This is indeed controverted by fome, but to no purpofe; for their main argument is, the example they bring of venomous animals, which, nevertheless, they fay, retain no poison after they are killed; but common obfervation abundantly evinces the contrary. Ver. 1185. It is generally teftified by all au thors, that dogs have been first infected with, and before any other animals, have felt the first fury of a coming plague. Thus Homer, in Iliad. H. expofes, xúvas àgyous, the white dogs firit to the infection. And And the reason why dogs feel the first attacks of a peftilential contagious disease, according to Euftathius, is, because of their exquifite fenfe of fmell. ing; of which lian likewife approves. Others blame the peftilent exhalations of the earth, to which, fay they, the dogs, by reason of their proximity to it, are moft obnoxious. But the opinion of Thucydides, which we mentioned before, feems the most plaufible. 'O. xús, fays he, μᾶλλον αἴσθησιν παρείχον τῇ ἀποβαίνοντος διὰ τὸ ξυνδιαι järta, which Hobbes thus renders. But by the dogs, because they are familiar with men, this event was feen much clearer. For fo Hobbes has rendered it: But why may not the διὰ τὸ συνδια Todas, be rather interpreted, " ob convictum," because of their eating of the fame fort of food? For it not only indicates the contagion, which is the most potent propagator of plagues, even into men, but a certain, I know not what, fickly pre This too is confirmed by Thucydides, in thefe words: Tixung dì (viz. modò dicta vera effe) τῶν μὲν τοιάτων ὀρνίθων ἐπίπειψις σαφὴς ἐγένε]ο, καὶ ἐκ ἑωρῶν]ο ἔτε ἄλλως, ἔτε περὶ τοιέτων ἐδέν· i. e. An argument that what I faid, touching the birds, isparative, or analogy, as they call it, proceeding true, was the manifeft defect of fuch fowl, which were not then feen, neither about the carcafes nor any where else. Ver. 1182. Lucretius, to augment the horror, adds this circumftance, of which Thucydides is filent, that even the wild beasts hid themselves in their dens, where, nevertheless, they died at length of the infection: a moft certain argument that the disease overcame the ftrength of all mortal animals; and that too not only of the body but of the mind: infomuch that its rage and cruelty far furmounted all expreffion of words, as Thucydides obferves, and made it appear to be a kind of fickness which exceeded human nature in the fierceness with which it handled every one; and likewife to be none of thofe difcafes that are bred Nar from a common food with particular men. dius relates, that he knew a certain prince, who was taken with a violent vomiting of blood, that was occafioned by an external caufe: this prince was extremely fond of one of his greyhounds; who, not long after, of his own accord, and without having received the leaft hurt, vomited blood likewife; till at length he died, wafted with a long disease, and swelled with a dropfy; all which accidents had likewife happened to his master: and, what is yet more ftrange, the bowels of both of them were observed to be tainted with a like corruption. Ver. 1187. Here the poet defcribes the neglect of funeral rites during the time of the piague : However, it is most notorious, how much cast by which mankind is deprived of all the tend refentments and benefits of commiferating hun nity. -Funera deerant Mortibus, & lacrima: feffos defecerat ignis; and ceremony the ancients, and more particularly the fuperftitious Athenians, were wont to bestow on the funerals of their dead: Of which we fhall have occafion to speak more at large on ver. 1246. Mean while what Lucretius here intimates is. That no folemn pomp or rites were obferved; that no friends or relations attended the dead bodies to their funeral piles; but either fuffered them to lie abroad unburied, or caft them carelessly on the piles that had been prepared for others. This tumultuous disorder of their fune. rals, is finely defcribed by the Bishop of Ro-flaughtered Latines, for they had yet wood a chester. Mountains of bones and carcaffes Ver. 1188. Tears and bewailing the dead were no small part of funeral exequies; whence Servius on Virgil. Æn. 11. fays, "Sine fletu non eft fepultra:" the want of tears being accounted as great a misfortune, as even the deprivation of funeral itself. Therefore Virgil, in Æn. 11. joins them as alike calamitous: Nos, animæ viles, inhumata, inflataque turba: And Ovid, in Metamorph. 11. introduces the drowned Ceyx appearing, and speaking thus to Halcyone : Surge, age, da lacrymas, lugubriaque indue, nec me Indeploratum fub inania Tartara mitte. Which Sandys thus renders; Rife, weep, and put on black; nor undeplor'd, For the ancients believed the dead to be com- LACRIMAS POSUIT. LACRIMIS ET OPOBALSOMO UDUM CONDIDIT. TUMULUM LACRIMIS PLENUM DE- and the like; of which Gutherius, de Jure Ma- These, therefore, were a fadder kind of fuser. than that which Virgil. Æneid. 11. gives to the burn them, Cætera confufæque ingentem cædis acervum Upon which laft words Gutherius obferves; "N- Quod muliebre corpus juvabat ardentes va non caloris erat, fed pinguis carnis, & olen lis." Vide Macrobium, Saturn. lib. vii. cap Ver. 1190. In these fix verses, the poet rh that all the remedies of phyfic were appli vain: for the medicaments that fome found gu by, were fatal, and brought death to others? like manner too Thucydides. 'Evi ἴαμα, ὡς ἐπᾶν ὅτι χρῆν προσφέροντας αφελώς από τῷ ξυνενεγκὸν ἄλλον τότε ἔβλασε, σώματί είναι ἄν ἐδὲν διεφάνη πρὸς αὐτὸ ἰσχύος περὶ ἡ μόνη ἀλλὰ πάνια ξυνήρει, καὶ τὰ πάσῃ διαίτη θερατική Nor was there any, to fay certain medion applied, must have helped them. For, ft good to one, it did hurt to another: difference of body for ftrength or weaknd, was able to refift it; but it carried all away, phyfic foever was administered. Thus Thucyd And upon this paffage of that hiftorian, the Bay of Rochester ingeniously paraphrafes: Phyficians now could nonght prevail; first. So tyrants, when they would confirm their pekt Should first rebel, and others learn from them way. No aid of herbs, or juices pow'r; nd Afculapius to the fick did come, Plague of Athens, Stanza 15. er 1192. From what Lucretius, after l'hucys, fays in this and the three following verfes, may gather this obfervation, that in ea h ue there is not one only manner of corrup but that it differs very much, according to the various difpofitions of the bodies and humours; even though it derives its origin from one and the fame caufe. Ver. 1196 In hefe fix verfes the poet teaches, That the greateft calamity of all was; that as foon as they perceived themfelves feized with the difeafe, they fell into a defpair of recovery, and neglected to take care of themselves; a neglect that fometimes is more fatal than the force of the dif eafe. Thus too the hiftorian: Aewóralov di wajas ἦν ἢ τὸ ἀθυμία, ὁπότε τίς αἴσθαι]ο κάμνων, πρὸς γὰρ τὸ ἀνέλπισον εὐθὺς τραπόμενοι τῇ γνώμη πολλῷ μᾶλλον gilo opas aùrùs, xaì ùn áviên Thucyd. That is to fay But the greatest mitery of all was the dejection of mind, in fuch as found themselves beginning to fall fick for they prefently fell into despair and gave themselves over without making any refiftance. Now this confternation and dejection of mind was prejudicial to them on a double account: For, befides that it very much impaired their strength, it brought with it this additional mifchief, that, defpairing of recovery, they thought it to no purpose to take care of themselves. And thus the difeafe raged uncontrouled, and foon was fatal to fuch as neglected the mean of their own fafety, and gave themfelves over for loft. And here we might take occafion to inquire narrowly into a question, which fome have started, viz. Whether an abfent perfon can catch the plague by the ftrength of imagination? The affirmative has many fticklers for it, as may be feen in Fab Paulinus, lib. I and the negative is no lefs ftrenuously afferted by others: Imagination may indeed operate on our own bodies, by reafon of the mutual confent and sympathy that each part has to the other. But what ftrength can it have to work on the bodies of others? Whoever yet heard of a pick-pocket who, by the intensenefs of his fancy only, could get the money out of another's purfe? Or, of a hungerftarved wretch, who, by the ftrength of his imagination, could get into his own clutches the bread he faw lying at a diftance on a baker's ftall? Befides in this cafe of the Athenian plague, both the hiftorian and our poet exprefsly fay, That the difeafe preceded the dread and apprehenfion of it. Ver. 1198 This verse our tranflator has added to his author. Ver. 1202. Here the poet, in these thirteen verfes teaches farther, that fome, though they came not to vifit their friends and relations, or had negle&ed to tend them, caught nevertheless the contagion, and died like infected fheep or cattle: and, because they had neglected to take care of their friends, they too, in their turn, were neglected by them Thus too Thucydides, "Egos ἀφ' ἑτέρῳ θεραπείας ἀναπιμπλάμενο ὥσπερ τὰ πόρβαλα ἔθνησκον καὶ τὸν πλάσον φθόρον τῶν ἐνεποίει είτε γὰρ μὴ θέλοιεν δεδιότες ἀλλήλοις προσιέναι, ἀπώλλυν]ο έρημοι, καὶ οικίαι πολλαὶ ἐκενώθησαν ἀπορί τῇ θεραπεύσαντες. They died, fays he, Ike theep, being infected by mutual vification: And if men, for fear, forbore to vifit them, then they died forlorn: fo that many fanulies became empty, for want of fuch as hould have taken care of them. Thus Thueydi des: And were there no other teftimony for contagion to be found, than this of that hiftorian and our poet, it would be abundantly fufficient, evidently to convince their peremptoriness, who obftinately hold, that it was unknown to the ancients and them too, who as pofitively affert, that the air only is the caufe of epidemical difcales; and will not admit of contagion, except only when fubftituted in the place of the air. But how much they are miftaken will manifeftly appear by the following animadverfion. OF CONTAGION, THE CHIEF CAUSE OF A PLAGUE. For, ufelefs to the currier were their hides; gore, Or touch the web: but, if the veft they wear, The ancients therefore knew what contagion i though, perhaps, they were not fully aware of its great power, nor of the many ways of its impart ing, and fpreading itfelf abroad: and this is the reafon, that this chief begetter of a plague was then fearce held to be a propagator of it. But in the laft age, its power was fo manifeftly difcover. As the ancients were not ignorant of, fo they always apprehended, contagions; whatever fome modern authors have believed to the contrary. Lucretius, who copies after Thucydides, freely confeffes in this place, That the effects of contagion are felt from far and to him. fubfcribe feve-ed, as to make the modern physicians believe, that ral of the ancients, as Livy, lib. iii cap. 25. Diodorus Siculus, lib. 14. Dionyfius Halicarnaffus, lib 10. and Eubius, lib 7. but, that they affect, when near at hand, is allowed by all: for none deny, that to tend and touch the fick, will fpread abroad the difeafe, and render it epidemical: Hence Virgil in Georg. iii. Ne mala vicini pecoris contagia lædant. And our Lucretius, ver. 1241. of this book, Qui fuerant autem præftò, contagibus ibant. And yet L. Septulius, in lib. 2. de Pefte, cap. 8. too confidently affirm, That the third manner of contagion, which, as we faid before, the physicians call per fomitem, was unknown to the ancients, and never thought of by them. But, among many other teftimonies that might be alleged, this mistake of his is evident from the following verfes, with which Virgil conciudes his third Georgic: Jamque catervatim dat ftragem, atque aggerat ipfis In ftabulis turpi dilapfa cadavera tabo: Donec humo tegere, ac foveis abfcondere difcunt. Nam neque erat coriis ufus; nec vifcera quifquam, Aut undis abolere poteft, aut vincere flamma: Nec tondere quidem morbo, illuvieque perefa Vellera; nec telas poffunt attingere putres: Verùm etiam invifos fi quis tentârat amicus, Ardentes papulæ, atque immundus olentia fudor Membra fequebatur: nec longo deinde moranti Tempore, contactos artus facer ignis edebat. Which is rendered by Dryden, as follows; At length the ftrikes an universal blow: true plagues, or thofe infections at leaft, which they call bubonic are diffeminated by contagion only. In Florida, the feafons of the year, the fruits of the earth, the winds, the rains, all come regularly, and at due and conftant times, nor is there the leaft fufpicion there of infectious damps or exhalations; yet, upon the arrival of an ordinary fellow, who brought thither fome incon derable merchandise from an infected place, the whole country foon caught the contagion, and d fayed the fury of a peftilential difeafe, till then, in those parts, unknown before. Contagious dileafes, unless a timely ftop be put to them, deport late provinces and whole kingdoms, by fweeping away their inhabitants. And this obfervation one of the reafons, that, though but of late d contagion has been held to be the chief insment, in beginning, and propagating a plag The ancients indeed could fcarce be reconciled head of a public and general, or common effect; the fetting a private and particular cause at the but this difficulty would not have startled them, had they reflected, that even that caufe may be faid to be common, by whofe efficacy a difeafe becomes epidemical. Pliny, lib. 16. informs us, that they either banished the lepers, or that them up, and debarred them from all manner of conversation, that they might not infect the found; and if, through negligence, this care was at any time omitted, the whole fociety was in fected with that most filthy difeafe; of which no common cause could be affigned, befides contagion. We read, that, in the laft age, a fecre tary of the Pope's treafury, being returned from Perufa to Rome, brought the itch along with him; which foul difeafe, in a few days, by that means fpread itself through the whole city; and that, when Lautrecchus befieged Naples, a small nuinber of harlots, that were in the camp, gave the venereal difeafe, till then unknown in these parts of the world, to his whole army; from whence it has fince fpread itfelf into Africa, Alia, *** hing, but body, can be touch'd, or touch. Thatever things, therefore, meet, are bodies; naked quality. But, according to Ariftotle, 1. de Generat. et Corrupt. things then touch another, when the extremeft parts of them together, be it done at what distance you Contagion thus is not an empty found, but effes the manner, by which an infection, by means of corpufcles, that exhale from an ind body, communicates itself to one that is d; and, though it not unfrequently touches, t fometimes imparts its virulence through anr medium. here are fome, nevertheless, who will not be nciled to contagion; and pretend to compel a neceffity of owning, whether we will or and against truth and obfervation, that a te fometimes is bred, without any previous gion, otherwife it would be perpetual. To this affertion good, they bring, for inftance, ntry, where a new plague is broken out, and , whether it be just then bred in that counr brought thither from elsewhere? If we the first, then indeed adieu to all contagion: laft, they bid us name the originary place it was bred; which would oblige us to the conceffion as the former. Therefore, fay contagion will propagate, but not begin, a 4. Though this be not argued amifs, yet it lo conclufive, as to hinder us from believthat the whole earth is at no time free from gue; and that there are certain places, where eds of plagues are preferved, in order to out at a certain time. Ethiopia has an ill on this account; nor are Grand-Cairo and antinople much better fpoken of; nay, alall that vaft extent of land, which the Turks it, in fome part or other of it, ever has had, ver will have, more or lefs, the plague ag them; and this too through their voluntaeglect; for they think it impious to ftruggle ft fate. But the reason, why it does not alrage with the fame fierceness among them, e various difpofition of their bodies, and the rent state of the air. is likewise observable, that every contagious le rages with greatest violence at its first king out; but in length of time grows mild, abates of its first fury. Whoever doubts of let him compare the mischiefs, that heretowere caused by the venereal disease, with the is, that, now-a-days, attend it; let him weigh, es, the devaftation, that in the laft age, the fmall-pox brought upon the Indies, where, at its firft coming, it swept away, in a few days, a hundred myriads of Mexicans. The feeds, therefore, of peftilential difeafes decay, and wear away by degrees; till, having found proper humours to work on, and spirits that make but weak resistance, they break out afresh and with greater violence in other bodies. To this opinion fubfcribes the learned Felix Platerus, who, in his Freatise of the Caufes of Fevers, after having made many obfervations, that well deferve to be known and remembered, argues to the following purpose: It feems more reafonable, fays he, to believe, that, in like manner as other venoms, which, from the beginning of the world, are innate and natural to certain bodies, inhere and refide in them, fo too this peftilent venom may lurk, not only in the bo dies of fuch as are vifited with the plague, but of others likewife, who are not yet taken with a fe. ver; or even in clothes, or any thing of like na. ture; and that it may be imparted and transfer red from body to body; not only by mutual contact, but by the intermediate air intervening, and taking those invenomed feeds from one body, and wafting them into another. Befides, a peftilene venom, if it be attracted by infpiration, chiefly af. fects the heart, and kindles a fever in a moment; or, if it be caught by any other means, and poffeffes any other part of the body, it either makes the same progress to the heart by infpiration, or through fome blind paffages; or elfe it stays for fome time in the part it firft feized on; and even in that cafe, though it be propagated no farther, and though no peftilent fever yet appear, the bo dy nevertheless is rendered infected by that ve nom; which, fooner or later, may affect likewife the bodies of others. And this is the reason, that fuch as fly from infected places into others, that are free from the plague, and ftay there fome time, are often, even after many days, taken first with the plague; or, if they are not taken themfelves, they may nevertheless infect others. In like manner too, experience teaches, that a lewd woman, who lies with a man, tainted with the venereal disease, though fhe be not yet fo infected by him, as to be fick of that difeafe herself, may nevertheless infect others, who afterwards lie with her, with the fame difeafe. This too is attested by Fernelius; and, therefore, we dare confidently affirm, that the feeds of plagues, like other venoms, are always refiding in certain bodies, in fome country of the world or other; and that they are propagated from thence into other places, in the manner above spoken. Even as we know for certain, that the venom of the venereal disease, which is well nigh as contagious and noxious, at least to mankind, came first of all, creeping from body to body, from the Indies even to us; and now fubfifts no where but in bodies, and wanders by contagion out of fome into others. Which venereal disease, manifefting itself in this manner, refides nevertheless, in other places, in other bodies; and, by fome one or other of them, is carried back again into the fame country. Thus too the plague, though it has often ceafed to rage |