be instructed rather to seek after virtue than to accumulate riches that if my Sons when they are grown up be troublesome to them in the same matters wherein I have disquieted and offended them they would severely punish them chiefly if they seem to take more care either of riches or the like transitory thing than of virtues they seem to be something when they are nothing I would have ye reprehend and convince them as I have reprehended you if they neglect things necessary to be solicitous about things unnecessary and pretend to be what they are not sharply reprove them Which if ye shall do both I and my Sons shal obtain from you a just and lawful benefit But 't is now time to depart I to my death ye to life and whether of the two is better I think is known only to God The End of Socrates his Apology AXIOMS MORAL Collected out of Socrates his Apology 1. A Judge is to consider not the Elegancy but Truth of what is said before him 2. The good Education of Youth is of very great Importance to the Common-wealth 3. Humane wisdom is not to be much valued because God alone is truly wise and among men he only deserves to be reputed wise who conscious of his own ignorance professeth to know nothing certainly but that he knows nothing 4. The Station and Office that God hath assigned to us in this Life we are to defend and maintain tho we thereby incur the greatest incommodities and dangers and we ought to have no consideration either of death or any other terror when Shame and Dishonour is to be avoided Nor are those things to be feared which we do not certainly know to be Evil but only those which we do certainly know to be Evil namely not to obey the Commands of God and to do unjustly 5. To be conversant in Affairs of State * A precept delivered also by Epicurus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non ad rem publicam accessurum Sapientem and inculcated even by Cicero himself Omnia suâ causâ facere sapientes Remp. capessere hominem non oportere c. Orat. pro Sext. is full of danger 6. It is both indecent and unjust for Judges to be moved and seduced by the Charms of Eloquence or Tears for they ought to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no respecters of persons and without passion and so to give judgment not from their own affections but from the merit of the Cause and according to Law 7. An honorable Death is alwaies to be preferred to a dishonorable Life 8. Since God takes care of human Affairs and chiefly of Good men no Evil can come to Good men neither living nor dead 9. We are not to be immoderately angry with our Enemies nor to hate them although guilty of Crimes against us and certainly to suffer the punishments reserved for them A DIALOGUE Concerning the Immortality of Mans Rational Soul AND Admirable Constancy of SOCRATES at his Death The ARGUMENT Out of SERRANVS PLATO here introduceth Phedo recounting to Echecrates the Philosophical Discourses delivered by Socrates the very day wherein he suffered death by a draught of poyson wherein he shewed both his invincible magnanimity in embracing death with perfect tranquility of mind and his most certain perswasion of the immortality of the Rational Soul By this eminent Example then and from the mouth of that true Hero at that time encountring that Gyant of Terrors death when the judgment and sayings of men much inferior to Socrates in point of wisdom are commonly reputed Oraculous Plato proves the Humane Soul to be immortal and declares his opinion concerning the state and condition thereof after its separation from the body The Thesis therefore or capital design of this Dialogue seems to be two-fold first to evince that death ought to be contemned and then that the Soul is by the prerogative of its nature exempt from the power of death And from the latter as the more noble and august part the whole Dialogue borrows its Title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Animo of the Soul The Contents thereof are partly moral in that it teaches the contempt of death and constant adherence to virtue partly Metaphysical or Theological for that it treats of the excellency of the Soul and of God To these are added also Ornamental parts viz. a decent Introduction and accurate Narration of the remarkable manner and circumstances of Socrates his death Of these so various parts the Oeconomy or Order is concisely this Some Philosophers Friends to Socrates visiting him in the prison the last day of his life and talking familiarly together the clue of their conference oon leads them to this useful question Whether a wise man ought to fear death Of this Socrates first disputing with less cogent Reasons and transiently determining that other doubt Whether it be lawful for a man to kill himself opportunely and after his grave way of arguing resumes proceeds in the former enquiry about despising death Concerning which the summe of his reasoning is this Since the principal duty of a Philosopher is daily to meditate upon Death i. e. to withdraw and divide his Mind or Soul from his body and the exorbitant desires thereof and death is defined to be only a separation of the Soul from the Body and that after this frail and mortal life is at an end there remains a full and solid felicity to be enjoyed by those who have here truly and sincerly embraced the study of Wisdom there is no reason why he should fear death but good cause rather why he should wish and long for it because being thereby freed and secured from all importune and insatiable lusts of the body wherewith the Soul is here intangled and fettered he should instantly pass to a second and better life and therein attain to a full and perfect knowledg of Wisdom Which he now remonstrates he most assuredly expected to enjoy immediatly after his death and so his body being dissolved to become consummately happy So from the consequence of this conclusion there naturally ariseth a new dispute about the Souls surviving the Body For if the Soul exist not after death all dissertation concerning future felicity or infelicity must be vain and absurd Of this most important conference about the immortality of the Soul there are three parts One positively asserts the Soul to be essentially immortal the Second refutes the contrary opinions the Third teaches the use and advantages of the belief of the Souls immortality The FIRST part then of this excellent Doctrine of Plato and of Socrates too from whom he seems to have learned it concerning the Souls immortality is Apodictical or Demonstrative And yet he so prudently and circumspectly manages his forces as to begin the combat with a Forlorn of lighter Reasons and then bring up as it were a phalanx of stronger and more pressing arguments to assure the Victory which indeed is his
is not contrary to the number Three It is not truly Therefore not only contrary Species admit not the accession of one to another mutually but some other contraries also abhor and are incapable to suffer that mutual accession You speak with great probability saith Cebes Will you then saith he that if we be able we define of what quality these things are With all my heart saith he Will they not be such Cebes which so conform whatsoever they possess as not only to force it to retain its own Species of form but also suffer it not to admit and put on the Species or form of any Contrary whatsoever How say you to this saith Cebes As we said a little before for you know it to be necessary that that which contains the Species of Three is not only Three but also Odd. Right For this reason we said that the Species contrary to that form which makes this can never be induced By no means Hath the Species of Odd perfected that form Certainly And is the Species of Even contrary to the Species of Odd. It is Therefore the species of Even shall never force it self upon Three Never Are Three then free from she ration of Even Free Therefore tste number Three is odd Certainly What therefore I undertook to define I have now defined namely * He repeateth what he had above distinctly applicated viz. that contrary qualities cannot be together in the same subject but one of necessity expelleth the other But the subjects themselves admit contraries successively that of what sort those things are which being contrary to none yet admit not a Contrary as now the number Three is not at all contrary to Even and yet is nevertheless incapable thereof For the number Two alwaies infers a contrary to Odd and Fire a Contrary to Cold and the like of very many others But consider whether you agree that the matter ought to be defined thus That a Contrary doth not only not receive its contrary but that also which may adfer any contrary to that to which it self may come namely that which adfers it doth never admit a form contrary to the form of that which is adferred But again rub up your memory for 't is no incommodity to hear the same again The number Five never admits the ration of Even nor the number of Ten the duple of five the ration of Odd. This therfore being it self contrary to another will yet never admit the ration of Odd. Nor will that number and half that number or half a number admit the ration of the whole nor a third part c. at least if you comprehend my meaning and assent unto me I both understand your sense saith he and assent without the least doubt or scruple * Here recomodating his precedent Suppositions and treating of second Causes he first evinceth this that we are to seek not remote but proxime causes not as his Interpreters speak Accidentary but substantial ones as he teaches by the Examples alleged But tell me again reflecting upon our precedent positions yet I would not have you answer to the questions I ask expresly and in the same prints of words as before For besides that certain way of answering of which I have treated before I find another naturally arising from the things said by us just now and this certain and firm for example if you ask me what that is which if it be in a body the body will be hot I will not give that gross and ignorant answer that it is Heat but a more elegant and polite one from our last conclusions namely that it is fire Nor if you ask what that is which if it invade the body the body will be sick will I answer that it is a disease but more precisely that it is a Feaver and if you ask me what is that which if it intervene to a number the number will be Odd I will not say it is imparity or Oddness but Vnity and of others in the same manner But look if you sufficiently understand me Very clearly saith he Answer me then what is that which if it be in the body * First Theorem the Soul is the proxim cause of life in man the body will be alive The Soul saith he And is not that alwaies so Why not saith he The Soul therefore alwaies brings life to the Body it embraceth whatsoever the Body be It doth alwaies bring life saith he Is any thing contrary to Life or not Yes saith he * Second Theorem death is contrary to life and therefore contrary to the Soul which is the cause of life and conclusion therefore the Soul admits not death from the conceded supposition that one Contrary never admits of another What Death The Soul therefore shall never receive the contrary to that which it self alwaies induceth as hath been granted from our late conclusions True saith Cebes What then That which admits not the Species or ration of Even by what name do we now call it Odd saith he And what do we call that which admits not Justice or Music That we call Vnjust this Immusical * Consummation of that Conclusion from adjuncts the Soul receives not death therefore it is immortal What do we call that which is incapable of Death Immortal saith he Is not the Soul capable of Death No. Therefore the Soul is a thing immortal It is immortal Well then saith he shall we acknowledg this to be thus demonstrated or what think you of it Demonstrated perfectly Socrates saith he * Another Theorem of the same Conclusion If what is Immortal be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exempt from destruction then certainly the Soul is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exempt from destruction because proved to be Immortal What therefore saith he if it were necessary that Odd be free and exempt from all destruction would not Three also be free and exempt from all destruction Why not Therefore if it were necessary that that which is wholly void of Heat be likewise free and exempt from all destruction when a man should induce Hot upon Snow would the Snow go out safe and unmelted for it would not then perish when it had once admitted and received heat You say true quoth he In the same manner I opine if that which is void of Cold were free from all destruction when any cold thing should be brought to fire it would not be destroyed or perish but go away safe and intire Of necessity saith he We are therefore by necessity obliged to conclude the same of an Immortal For if what is immortal be free and exempt from all destruction 't is impossible the Soul should perish when death comes to it For from our late Positions it will not suffer or undergo death and so not dye as a Ternary will never as we have said be Even nor will Odd be by any means Even nor Fire be Cold nor the Heat which is in
not from heat of blood nor from excess of Choler but from strength and resolution of Mind and that a good Philosopher may make an excellent Captain Had you seen him in another Expedition returning a Conquerour from Potidaea and transferring all the honours and rewards due to so signal a victory upon his beloved Alcibiades reserving to himself no other place in the Triumph but among the followers of his Friend You might have sworn he had fought so bravely rather for Conscience than for either Glory or Spoyl and that he desired no greater name than that of a good Patriot and sincere Friend When you reflect upon his fearless refusal to execute the Command he had received from the supreme Council of Athens to fetch Leo Salaminius from Salamine to be put to death according to the Sentence given against him by the Usurper Critias and his Adherents you will I presume acknowledge that he fear'd nothing but to do ill that he disdain'd to assert any power that was not just that Athens it self might with more ease have been removed to Salamine than he brought to relinquish Right and Equity and that he was more ready to accompany the oppressed in their Sufferings under Tyranny than to be a sharer in the administration of it Had some Roman been a witness of this virtuous obstinacy he would have cried out perhaps that the Capitol itself was not more immoveable than the integrity of Socrates and envied Greece the glory of so rare an Example What then would he have said my Lord had he been present at the dispute betwixt the same Socrates and his most faithful Scholar Crito wherein he being with no weak arguments urged to evade the execution of that most unjust Sentence lately pass'd upon him and deliver himself from violent death by an escape plotted and prepared to his hand nevertheless not only rejected that affectionate advice but by demonstration convinced the Author of it that the auctority of Law and Decrees of Courts of Judicature are things in their sanction so venerable and sacred as to oblige men to submission even when they are manifestly unjust and brought him at length to acquiesce in this Conclusion nefas sibi esse è carcere egredi injussu Magistratus contra legum autoritatem Herein whether Socrates were in the right or not let our Civilians determin I for my part verily believe he thought he was and this is most evident that he could never be either overcome by terrors or won by allurements to recede so much as a hairs bredth from what he had once defined to be just This very Monosyllable doubtless was his whole Decalogue equivalent to the Laws of the twelve Tables among the Romans the basis of his Religion the Centre of his Counsels and rule to his actions nor can I be easily persuaded that Astrea left to dwell among men untill after his death Of his obedience to the Laws and constitutions of his City he gave this further testimony that when the Athenian Republic to repair their people much exhausted by warre and pestilence had made an Edict that every man of fit years should be obliged to espouse one woman as principal wife and have liberty to take another for procreation he notwithstanding he had his hands full of unquiet Xantippe whose peevishness and morosity was grown to be the daily exercise of his patience at home and his reproch abroad yet in conformity to the Edict fear'd not to receive into his little house and narrow bed another Consort also one Myrto daughter of that Aristides surnamed the Just but equaly poor with himself This certainly could not but be somwhat harsh and disagreeable to a man already entered into the confines of old age and understanding the pleasures of serenity and repose and yet I must not imagin it to have been at all difficult to the wisedom of our Socrates whose tranquillity appears to have been elevated like the head of mount Athos above the tempest of feminin contentions jealousies and impertinences and his Mind incapable of peâ—turbations However he put not private cares into the balance against a duty to the Public but chose to be a good Citisen by increasing Posterity though he were sure thereby to multiply his own domestic incommodities Acting by this infallible principle of Justice which is as Plato calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest of human goods and Mother of all other virtues and fully persuaded of the divinity and immortality of the Soul which is the fundament of all Religion and of future rewards and punishments the wonder is the less that this admirable man was able both to trample upon all the splendid and precious things of this momentany life and to bid defiance to all the terrible for secure in his own innocence and confident of happiness to come 't was less difficult to him either to contemn dangers or resist temptations Nay to do him right neither could this Temperance nor that Fortitude be at all difficult to him who by long use and continual practice had exalted them from Virtues into Habits In the first he appear'd to be so perfect that tho as a man he could not but feel the motions and sollicitations of Corporeal Appetites yet none of them dared to rebell against the Soveraignty of Reason by whose power he alwaies both ruled and bounded them nor could even a good Soul separated from its body and delivered from all encumbrances of Matter have acted more sedately or been less incommodated with Passions In a word in his whole life he seem'd not only unconcern'd in but insensible of the vain appearance of human things Being thus impenetrable to Cupidities it may be worth our labour to enquire also how strong he was against Fear That we may therefore take the true hight of his Courage let us if it please Your Lordship observe his deportment at the bar in the prison and at his death At the Tribunal we hear his Constancy no less than his Innocency triumphing over the power and malice of his combined Accusers the greatest hurt they can do to me saith he is to think it possible to hurt me since God takes care of Good men and they therefore can never be violated by wicked men To a friend whispering in his ear that his Judges had before resolved to doom him to death he answers softly and with a smile but such a smile as retain'd an aire of Gravity and Dignity and hath not Nature passed the same doom upon them Retiring after his condemnation Adieu my friends saith he I am now going to suffer death ye to enjoy life God alone knows which of the two is better In the Prison we find him despoil'd of whatever Fortune could take from him his body covered with raggs and loaden with chains his leggs galled and cramp'd with fetters his eyes entertain'd with no objects but a wife and Infant weeping and yet for all this we hear no complaints no lamentations
be valued at all Being then of this temper of mind I to this very day enquire strictly every where and according to the words of that Divine Oracle seek both among my Fellow-Citizens and Strangers if I can find a man worthy to be reputed wise but when I discern any not to be really wise truly out of Conformity to God I clearly demonstrate him to be not wise And being wholly Devoted to this good Work I have no leisure allowed me neither to Transact any public affair of moment nor to regulate my own Domestic concerns but am cast into the streights of profound poverty by reason of that my obedience to God Besides this Another cause of the vulgar Odium cast upon him viz. that many Noble youths were delighted with his convincing discourses and imitated him in reproving others who taking Offence thereat reflected upon him as the corruptor of Youth some Youths born of most Wealthy Families and having leisure enough following me of their own Free-will are highly deighted when they hear men reproved and convicted by me and they also in imitation of me do themselves often endeavour to refute others nor is it to be doubted but they find a very great multitude of such who believe themselves to understand and know many things when yet in truth they know few or none at all Hereupon these who are refuted grow angry not with them but me and say there is one Socrates a man of most impure and dangerous manners who corrupteth young men and if any ask them whether it be by teaching or doing any thing unjustifiable that I corrupt youth they can alledg nothing in particular because indeed they know not wherein to instance nevertheless that they may not seem to be at a loss they charge me with those imputations that are laid upon almost all Philosophers and in every mans mouth that forsooth I am excessively curious in searching into the nature of things both sublime and under the earth that I think there are no Gods and that I can by my Sophistical arguments turn an ill Speech into a good one They will not I believe declare the Truth because they manifestly appear to pretend to know things whereof notwithstanding they are altogether ignorant For they who traduce me being men ambitious and vehement many in number and furnished with Harangues artificially composed to gain belief they have filled your Ear both heretofore and now with a charge designed against me Among these Melitus Anytus and Lycon have assaulted me Melitus on behalf of Poets Anytus in the name of Artificers and Politicians Lycon as Champion of Orators enraged against me I should wonder then as I said in the beginning if I should be able in so short a time to dissolve such a charge which made up of so great calumnies is grown inveterate and hard These are truths Athenians so that I have concealed nothing from you nor detracted or evaded any the least point though I well knew I should incur their hatred Which is an Argument that I speak Truths and that that is my Crimination and those the causes of it and whether now or hereafter you inquire into these things you shall certainly find them to be as I have represented them to you Thus far then let this be taken for a full answer before you against the Crimes charged upon me by my first Accusers To Melitus a good man and as he saith himself a lover of his City Having answered the Articles of his first charge he now converts to the Second which he Recites and to my last Adversaries I will endevour to Answer anon Mean-while let us resume the Libel of Accusation plotted against me and ratified by an Oath mutually given and taken by all of the Combination for some Accusers there are distinct from the former which speaks thus Socrates contrary to Right and Equity doth corrupt Touth the Gods which the City judgeth to be Gods he thinks to be no Gods and introduceth new Powers Divine This is my Accusation the Heads whereof let us examine singly He saith first that I do contrary to Right and Equity in that I corrupt Youth The first Article thereof which he dissolves demonstrating it to be objected to him by Miletus meerly out of malice not of respect to the virtuous Education of Youth which Melitus neither understood nor studied and I affirm that Miletus himself dotth contrary to Right and Equity in that he Jesteth in a serious mattter while he brings another into peril of losing his life pretending himself to be highly solicitous and to labour exceedingly about these matters which have never been any part of his care perhaps never unless upon this occasion in his thoughts and that this is so I will trie to demonstrate to you Come hither O Melitus and tell me dost thou take care of nothing else but that young men may become virtuous to the highest degree Very well Now tell these who may make these yong men better for this thou must needs know since thou hast so long and deeply considered the matter For me thou hast as thou saist taken already corrupting them and upon that account now violently bringest me by a studied and formal Accusation to be judged by these Tell us then who may instruct and improve youth in Virtue inform us and shew these men who it is Thou seest Melitus thou art silent and hast not a word to reply Nor doth it seem to misbecome thee and so is a just Argument thou never troubledst thy Head with this care yet tell me in good earnest who may make these better The Laws Of that I enquire not but what man who first hath known also this very thing namely the Laws These Judges Socrates How sayest thou Melitus can these teach young men and refine them yes Can all these or some of them do that work and others not All. Thou sayest well by Juno and dost commemorate good store of those who are able to help But what can these Auditors also reform men They can And the Senators too The Senators also Well then Melitus we must now see whether they who make Speeches to the people corrupt young men or reform them And these too It seems then Athenians that all render young men good and honest except my self who alone debauch them Saist thou so I again and again affirm it Thou imprintest upon me a brand of great infelicity indeed but answer me hast thou the same Opinion of Horses also do all men make them better one only excepted who corrupts them or the contrary to this is there any one who can do it or few skilful in Horsemanship but on the contrary many who while they dress manage and use Horses wholly spoil them is it not so of both Horses and all other Animals Certainly it is whether thou and Anytus affirm or deny it Since young men would attain to a certain very high felicity if there were only one to
come to pass that the draught of poyson must be repeated twice or thrice Wish him good health saith Socrates let him take care only of what belongs to his own duty and provide enough as if he were to give the dose twice and if need be thrice This I knew before answers Crito but the Fellow hath been troublesom to me a good while suffer him saith he But I will render an account to ye my Judges by what right I became possessed of that my opinion that he who truly and seriously addicts himself to Philosophy or the love of wisdom doth die with undaunted courage and stedfast resolution furnished with that noble hope that immediatly after his death he shall certainly attain unto the greatest Goods or supreme felicity How this is Simmias and Cebes I will endeavour to explain to ye They who have rightly embraced the study of Philosophy First argument the great duty and business of a Philosopher is continually to meditate upon death therefore he ought not to dread it when it comes seem to excel in this one thing that living in obscurity and retirement from vulgar conversation they intirely and with all possible contentation of mind devote themselves to the meditation of death If this be true it will be absurd to addict our study and devoirs to the consideration of this one thing all our life long and at last when death it self comes to be offended and preturbed at it after so long and familiar a converse therewith in our thoughts * The popular scoff against Philosophers that they have death alwaies in their thoughts because they are conscious to themselves they deserve to die in respect of their nesarious lives urged to Socrates Here Simmias smiling Socrates saith he by Jove you have forced me to smile who was nothing inclined to such gayety of humor for the vulgar if they had heard this would I believe be of opinion that it is extremely suitable to Philosophers and the greatest part of our men would consequently assent that all Philosophers ought in good earnest to die and that themselves are not ignorant they very well deserve to die * Whereunto he gravely replies that it is no wonder if the ignorant vulgar give a rash and importune judgement of what they understand not This replies Socrates they might say Simmias and truly too this one thing excepted that they themselves are not ignorant how far those who are truly Philosophers both meditate upon death and are worthy of it for the vulgar are really ignorant thereof and cannot judge of what they understand not Wherefore securely pretermitting those vulgar Scoffers let us seriously pursue our discourse A Second and indeed an artificial argument drawn from the nature of death it self which he defines to be a deliverance of the Soul from the Body and puts that for the first proposition of a Syllogysm Do ye think that death is any thing Yes answers Simmias Do ye think death to be any thing else but a freeing of the Soul from the body and that to die is this when the Body being freed from the Soul remains by it self and the Soul likewise freed from the Body hath existence apart by it self or is death any other thing besides this Nothing but that answers Simmias Consider then I beseech ye whether your judgment be not the same with mine for thence I conceive light will be derived to the argument now under our consideration * Assumption but the main care of a Philosopher is to alienate and divorce his Soul from his Body and the cupidities thereof Do ye take them to be Philosophers who imploy themselves in pursuit of those pleasures as they call them of the body as of eating and drinking and other the like sensual delights By no means Socrates saith Simmias What then in Venerial pleasures Neither Hath a Philosopher any care or value for other things that appertain to the delicacy and ornament of the body as of rich cloaths fine shooes and other gaudy ornaments doth he desire to be furnished with store of these toyes Whether do ye think he esteems or contemns those things unless so far as there may be great necessity of using them My opinion is a true Philosopher contemns them all Then your opinion is that the whole study care and labour of such a Philosopher is not in pampering and adorning his body but in with-drawing as much as he can his thoughts from his body and converting them intirely upon his mind I confess it Doth it not then evidently follow from thence that the Office of a Philosopher doth chiefly appear in this that he renders his Mind free and absolute from community of his body It doth so But yet Simmias most men think that he who takes no pleasure from those sensual things deserves not the use of this life but comes nearer to death being insensible and careless of those delights that belong to the body You are in the right The first circumstance of his probation from the effects of the corporeal senses that they being not sufficiently pure and perfect cause the Soul by contagion and sympathy to be dull and pore-blind in the disquisition and discernment of truth What then when wisdom it self is to be acquired will the body prove an impediment if a man take it along as a companion in that disquisition for example the sight it self or hearing have they any truth in men or do Poets speak truth when they say that we neither see nor hear any thing clearly and intirely and if these senses of the body be not perfect or sufficiently quick and perspicuous certainly the others which are all weaker and duller than the sight and hearing must needs be less perfect and sincere Do you not think so I do saith he When then doth the Soul attain truth for when it endeavours to discern any thing clearly and distinctly by the help of the body 't is apparent that then it is seduced and circumvented by the body it self You are in the right Doth not the Soul by reasoning or some other way of discerning comprehend this perspicuously Certainly it doth And then it reasoneth best when no sense of the body offends it whether hearing or seeing or pain or pleasure but it converseth intirely undisturbdly with it self alone contemning and repudiating the body and as much as lies in its power retiring from all community and commerce therewith with certain premeditation and counsel desires things and pursues them No doubt on 't Doth not therefore the Soul of a Philosopher even in this also highly contemn the body and retreat from it and by its self inquire into the nature of things satisfied only with its own conversation So it seems Now this Operation or work of the Soul Another proof from the proper and peculiar operation of the Soul wherein withdrawing it self from commerce with the Senses it is exercised in pure and abstracted Reasoning shall
we say 't is just or not Just without doubt Is it fair and good Why not But have you ever beheld with your eyes any thing of those None saith he Have you with any other of your corporal senses attained to these things I speak of all as of magnitude health strength and in a word the like which are of such a nature as they have all a real being is their most true and certain nature considered and fully discovered by the body Or is it thus that he who is most fitly and exquisitely comparated or disposed to comprehend by cogitation the nature of that very thing in the disquisition whereof he is versed shall come nearest to the knowledge and understanding of the nature thereof No doubt of it He then will perform this most purely and clearly who by that edge of his Wit by that accuteness of Spirit pierceth into everything neither making use of his sight while he thinks nor drawing any other sense into counsel together with his reasoning but imploying only his pure and simple faculty of reasoning endeavours thereby to investigate and discover the naked and true nature of the things themselves free and separated from his ears and eyes and in a word from his whole body as that which may perturb the Soul it self and hinder it from acquiring to it self verity and wisdom when it is imployed in conversation and commerce therewith Will this man think you if any other doth attain to understand the true nature of things you speak truth Socrates over and over saith Simmias Is it not then consequently necessary that to those who are truly Philosophers there be a constant and established Opinion that they may confer among themselves about these things there seems to be a plain way as it were paved to our hands which leads us with reason to the consideration of things but while we carry about this body and our Soul is immersed in so dark and incommodious a sink of evil we shall never attain to what we desire This we affirm to be truth For this body creates to us an infinity of businesses troubles and disquiets meerly for the nourishment and necessary supplies of it Besides if diseases chance to invade us they likewise hinder us from the investigation of various things and that fills us with loves desires fears various imaginations and Chimera's and many foolish whimsies so that it is a very true saying that the body will never permit us to be wise For nothing but the body raiseth wars seditions combats and the like mischiefs by its inordinate lusts and we are forced to provide monies for maintenance of the body being slaves and drudges to the necessary services of it Now while we are thus imployed in these meaner Offices we have no leisure to apply our selves to the study and search of wisdom And what is the greatest of all incommodities if we do by chance get any thing of leisure and vacancy from the cares of the body and address our minds to the serious consideration of any thing presently the body intrudes and while we are busied in that inquiry raiseth commotions and tumult and so disturbs and confounds the mind that it cannot possibly discern truth But we have already demonstrated The former assumption repeated and illustrated by a Dilemma Whence flows a certain conclusion since the grand design of a Philosopher is to discern truth his duty is to separate his Soul from his Body and so as it were to anticipate death in this life that if we desire to perceive any thing purely and clearly we must withdraw from the body and imploy only our mind which alone is capable to discern the nature and properties of Objects in the contemplation thereof for then at length as appears we shall attain to the fruition of what we desire and with love and diligence seek after namely wisdom when we have passed through the refinement of death as our precedent discourse intimates but not whilst we remain in this life For if it be impossible for us to perceive any thing pure and intire in conjunction with the body one of these two propositions must of necessity follow either we shall never attain to sapience or not until we have passed out of this life For then will the Soul be intirely divorced and separate from the Body but not before While we live here we approach indeed never to sapience if we have as little commerce and conversation with the body and be as little infected with the lusts thereof as the condition and necessities of our frail nature will permit but preserve our selves pure from the contagion of the same until God himself shall discharge and free us wholly from it And being once thus delivered and pure from the madness and seducements of the body as is reasonable to believe we shall both be associated to the like pure beings and by our selves know all purity and integrity which perhaps is truth it self For it is not possible for him who is himself impure to touch what is pure These things Simmias I conceive it necessary for all who are possessed with a right desire of understanding things both to hold and to discourse of among themselves Are not you also of the same opinion Altogether Socrates If then these be true proceeds Socrates there is truly great hope The second conclusion from the premises viz. if we then only live well i. e. exercise our faculty of reasoning when we abdicate our senses it necessarily follows that we shall then be happy and perceive truth plainly when we shall be wholly separated from the body i. e. after death that who shall arrive at the place whither I am now going will there if any where abundantly attain to the enjoyment of that for which we have in the whole course of our life past been seeking with extreme labour and study This peregrination therefore now appointed to me is finished with good hope and so it will to any other who shall have once perswaded himself to prepare his mind by rendring it pure and clean No doubt of it saith Simmias Is therefore what we said even now to be held a purification and purging of the Mind viz. as much as is possible to divorce it from the Body and to accustom it to be by it self congregated and retired from the same and to dwell as it were by it self both in this and in the future life single by it self and freed as from the chains of the body Yea certainly saith Simmias Is death then rightly called a solution and separation of the Soul from the Body It is so saith he And do they only who study Philosophy rightly most endeavour to divorce their Souls from their Bodies as we have said is not this the constant meditation of Philosophers It seems to be so What therefore we said in the beginning A third conclusion Since the principal design of a Philosopher is to attain unto truth and
that he cannot attain unto it until after death it is inconsistent for him to fear death So the whole question is determined that to a wise man death is not only not formidable but also desirable would it not be ridiculous if a man who hath all his life long made it his constant study and principal care to anticipate death by rendring his life as nearly like to it as is possible should yet when death really comes be afraid of and troubled at it Why not In truth then saith he they who Philosophize seriously and rightly meditate most upon death and to them of all men living death is least formidable which is evident from this argument Funera non metuit sapiens suprema nec illi Qui contemplando toties super astra levavit Carnoso abstractam penitus de carcere mentem Corporis atque Animi faciens divortia tanta Quanta homini licuit mors formidanda venire Aut ignota potest Nam mors divortia tantum Plena haec quae sapiens toties optasse videtur Et toties tentasse facit Superosque petenti Libertatem animae claustris concedit apertis Majus noster in Supplemento Lucani lib. 4. For if at all times they contemn and vilifie the Body and strive to have their Soul apart by it self and when the hour of their real and final separation comes fear and be disquieted what could be more alien or remote from reason unless they willingly and freely come thither where there is hope they shall at their arrival obtain whatever they in this life desired and they desired Wisdom and to be delivered from all commerce of the body with which they are offended Have many been willing out of ardent affection to their Friends Wives and Children deceased to descend to the shades below led by this hope that there they should see and converse with those whom they loved and shall he who is really in love with Wisdom and hath conceived a strong and certain hope that he shall no where obtain and enjoy it but in the other world as is decent and consentaneous when he is at the instant of death be vexed and grieved and not rather voluntarily and freely meet and embrace it for so we are to hold that a genuine Philosopher will conceive that he shall never meet with true wisdom but only apud inferos among the dead Which if true how inconsistent with reason were it for such a man to fear death Highly inconsistent saith he by Jove 'T is then a fit argument that he whom you shal see dying with reluctancy and fear is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of Wisdom but a lover of his Body not a lover of verity but of Riches and the Pleasures of this life It is just so as you say To those therefore who are in this manner disposed and inclined A new Theorem resulting from the precedents that those who neglecting the study of phylosophy pursue not truth as politicians and the vulgar have not true Virtue but only the shadow and resemblance of it is not that Virtue which is named Fortitude most agreeable and proper It is saith he Is not Temperance which many define to be this not to be disquieted or afflicted With lusts but to despise them and to regulate ones life by moderation does not this properly and peculiarly belong to those who both contemn the Body and continually exercise themselves in the study of Philosophy Of necessity For saith he if you consider the Fortitude and Temperance of other men you will discover them to be nothing but an importune and absurd ostentation of Virtue How so Socrates You know saith he that all other men account death to be one of the greatest Evils They do so indeed replies he Do then men of courage and fortitude endure death bravely for fear of greater Evils They do answers he Then are all except Philosophers said to be Valiant only from fear though it be truly somewhat absurd and a kind of contradiction to call any man valiant upon the account of fear and cowardise I grant it to be so What as for those of the vulgar who are reputed to be Temperate are not they so out of some intemperance Tho we have declared that to be impossible yet the like affection falls upon them in that their senseless and foolish temperance for while they fear to be deprived of some pleasures and still coveting them abstain from others they are carried away by those they covet without restraint Now they call it Intemperance to be governed by the tyranny of pleasures and 't is their case to be overcome by some pleasures whilst they conquer others So that what we said even now of vulgar Fortitude holds true also of these men that they are Temperate from some Intemperance But my Simmias That the firmament of true Virtue is wisdom without which the politic virtues are vizards and disguizes So that to Plato true Virtue is wisdom Wisdom truth and Truth Expurgation this is not the right way to Virtue to exchange pleasures for pleasures pains for pains one fear for another greater for less as we do money That is at last the true money for which all things else are to be exchanged Wisdom for the sake whereof and for which alone all things are to be sold and bought that fortitude and temperance and in summe every true and genuine Virtue may exist with wisdom while pleasures and fears and all of the same Tribe come and go But if they be separated from prudence and exchanged one for another by turns such Virtue will not amount to the shadow of Virtue but be meerly servile and base it will have nothing of true nothing of sound and solid in it Now Truth it self is the expurgation and refinement of all these not temperance nor justice nor fortitude no nor Wisdom it self can be the expurgation And indeed those who first ordain'd our Ceremonies seem not to have been silly and vile men but to have prudently designed that wrapt up in the veyls of words when they said that he who should descend to those below not being initiated and expiated according to the use of Sacrifices Hence that of Virgil Aeneid lib 6 ea prima piacula sunto Sic demum lucos stygios regna invia vivis aspicies c. Concerning which Expiation derived from the antient Egyptians consult Servius Honoratus upon the place should be rowl'd in mudd but he who descended to the shades being first ritely expiated and admitted to the Sacrifices should have his habitation with the Gods For in the Ceremonies themselves as they say you may see * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Multos Thyrsigeros paucos est cernere Bacchos an old Greek a dage many that bear Lances covered with leaves but few Bacchuses * The importance of all the precedent Arguments accomodated by Socrates to his own justification for that rejecting the
counsel and aid of his Friends who strove to perswade him to avoid death as Plato hath left upon Record in a precedent Dialogue intitled Crito he still remained fixed in his judgement that he sought rather to embrace it These are in my opinion no other but they who study Philosophy rightly From which institute I for my part have never in my whole life departed but have with all possible contention of mind laboured to be one of them But if we have done our devoirs rightly and profited any thing in that study when we come thither we shall certainly understand if God be so pleased a little after as I think These then Simmias and Cebes are the reasons I bring for my defense that I leave you and these Lords who are here not only upon just motives but without trouble or regret being fully perswaded within my self that I shall there find as good Lords and Friends as here The things I have said are indeed of that abstruse nature that they may be by very many esteemed incredible but if I shall appear to you to have made now a more pertinent decent defense to engage your assent than I did before those Athenians who were my Judges 't is very well When Socrates had said this A new disputation of the Immortality of the Soul but the basis of the former For if the Soul survive not the body all dispute concerning future felicity or infelicity must be vain and idle Cebes taking up the discourse some things saith he seem indeed to be excellently well said by you but what you have delivered concerning mans Mind or Soul seems wholly abhorrent from Humane belief nay they believe rather * To make way for this dispute first is proposed the contrary opinion of those who held that the Soul dies with the Body but so proposed that in the words of this opinion lie conceled the seeds as it were of more solid Arguments For things compounded are said to be dissipated He therefore being about to demonstrate the Soul to be a things not compound but most simple makes it most evident that a Soul is uncapable of destruction by dissipation as will appear from the dispute it self that the Soul so soon as it goes out of the Body doth no longer exist but in the very day wherein a man dies utterly perish more plainly that departing from the Body as a breath or smoke it is dispersed and flies away nothing of it afterwards remaining Now if it continued intire and had a being apart by it self delivered and freed from the evils you recounted then I confess there would be a noble hope beyond death if the things you have said Socrates be true But this wants no little probation of Arguments to prevail upon belief * The state of the Question Whether after the d ssolution of the Body the Soul be likewise dissolved and hath no longer a being namely that the Soul existeth after a man is dead and what faculty it hath of perceiving and understanding You are in the right Cebes replies Socrates But what do we Will you that we discourse further of this matter whether it be reasonable or not I would gladly hear saith Cebes your opinion concerning these abstruse things Nor do I think saith Socrates again there is any man living though he be a Comedian when he shall hear me disputing about them will say I trifle and speak of things impertinent and undecent If you please therefore that this matter be fully debated among us let us consider it in this manner namely whether the Souls of men deceased be in the infernal habitations or not * The first reason drawn from the Pythagorean opinion of the transmigration of souls For if souls go from bodies into another life and return thence hither to animate other bodies it follows both that they do and will exist hereafter because they are supposed 〈◊〉 pass through many bodies For this is a very antient Tradition which we here commemorate that the Souls of the dead go from hence thither and return from thence hither and are made of the dead Now if it be so that the living are made out of the dead our Souls truly can be no where but there for if they were not men could not be made again of them And this would be a strong Argumeâ—t that the thing is so in case it were manifest that the living are not otherwise animated than by the Souls of the dead But if this be not evident and certain other reasons are to be sought for that may be more convincing They are so saith Cebes * Proof of this Pythagorean Hypothesis that this circulation is performed not only in the bodies of men so that the living are made out of the dead but in all other creatures namely that contraries are made out of their contraries as he teacheth by various examples Do not then saith he consider this in men only if you would easily understand it but in Animals and Plants also in summe in all that have being by Generation that we may enquire whether they be all produced from no other original than as contraries from contraries whatsoever have their contraries as Beautiful or Honorable is contrary to ugly or shameful just to unjust and infinite others in the same manner Let us see therefore if it be necessary that any contrary can have no being in nature unless from its contrary for example that when a greater thing is made it be necessary it should be made of a less first and then greater Let us examine this If a less thing be made out of that which was greater before will it afterward be made less Yes saith he And of a stronger a weaker oâ— a slower a swifter It will so What if any thing worse be made is it out of a better if any thing more just is it out of what is more unjust Why not This then is clear saith he that all things are thus made contraries out of contraries 'T is so What more Is there any medium betwixt two contraries so that where there are two contraries there must be also two generations or originals of being produced first from one to the other and then from that to this again for betwixt a less thing and a greater there is augmentation and diminution of which one we call to increase the other to decrease Right Therefore to separate and compound to grow cold and to grow hot and all in the same manner though we use not names sometimes yet in reality it is necessary that some things be made out of others and that there be a mutual generation and beginning of some to others I grant it saith he Is any thing contrary to life as sleep is contrary to waking Yes What Death saith he Are these then made mutually each out of other seeing they are contraries and their generations made by some thing intermediate betwixt two contraries Why not One
therefore of the two pairs I just now mentioned to you I will explain and their generations do you shew me the other To sleep and to awake for out of sleep comes waking and out of waking sleep The origins or generatipns of these are of sleep to be in a deep sleep of waking to be raised up from sleep Is this sufficiently explained or not Sufficiently * That death is contrary to life and life to death whence is collected that the dead are out of the living and the living out of the dead and therefore the souls thus passing from body to body still are in Being for otherwise they could not transmigrate Do you then tell me with equal plainess of life and death whether is life contrary to death It is so And are some things generated out of others They are What then is made out of one living A dead one saith he and what out of a dead A living I must confess Of the dead therefore Cebes are made the living Clearly so saith he Are then our Souls in the Mansions below It seems so Of the two generations or orgins therefore which we have demonstrated to be in these things is not one at least perspicuous For to die is manifest to all is it not yes saith he * The same conclusion further explicated thus tho this new life appear not to us yet since no man can doubt of death which is known to all from the nature of contraries that cannot be understood one without the other it is necessary that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or reviving or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 second generation to life be What then shall we do shall we compose some other contrary to this or will this nature rather be maimed and imperfect or shall we determine that some other generation is to be rendred contrary to death yes saith he What shall that be Even to revive that is a new life If then there be a new life will that be a certain generation out of the dead to the living Doubtless That therefore shall be confessed and established betwixt us that the living have existence out of the dead no less than the dead out of the living Which being so is a convenient argument that it is plainly necessary the Souls of the dead be somewhere from whence they may again exist This indeed Socrates seems to me to be proved from Propositions granted and given Observe this also Cebes that we have not confessed that without good cause * Another Argument ab incommodo if contraries were not thus produced out of contraries all Generations would inevitably cease which being absurd he thence collects and evinces that out of the living are made the dead and out of the dead the living Which is the first conclusion For unless those things that are made were composed some of others by turns so as they come round again as in a circle but there were only a generation in a right line from one to its opposite not reflecting again to the first nor making a return or regress assure your self it would come to pass that at length all things would have the same figure be in the same manner affected and consequently would cease to be made How 's that saith he 'T is not difficult answers Socrates to comprehend what I say For Example if this very thing to sleep if I may so speak that is sleep were existent but to awake were not on the reverse composed of the man sleeping we were obliged to conclude that all would at length represent the Fable of Endymion and appear no where because the same would happen to all that hapned to that Endymion namely to sleep And if all things were mixed and compounded into one without discretion or distinction then that of the Anaxagoreans would come to pass all things would be at once In the same manner my Cebes if all things that now participate of life should die and then remain dead in that figure nor revive again is it not clearly necessary that at length all must die and nothing be left alive for if the living have existence out of others and the living should die how could it be possible but all would be consumed by death By no meanes Socrates quoth he for all you say appears to me to be true 'T is even so Cebes saith he Nor do we seem to confess things as being imposed upon and circumvented by error but this is really demonstrated by us that there is a return and restauration of a certain new life that the living are made out of the dead that the Souls of the dead exist and that good Souls are in a better condition and wicked ones in a worse Here Cebes answering A second Reason to prove the Immortality of the Soul drawn from that Hypothesis that to learn is only to remember For if in this body the Soul remember the things it knew before it came into it it hath had a Being before it was married to the same Socrates saith he what you now said ariseth from the reason of that opinion which you frequently have in your mouth if at least it be true that to learn is only to remember And from this opinion indeed it seems to be necessarily concluded that we some time heretofore learned what we now recal into our memory But this could not be unless our Soul were in being before it came into this human form So by this reason also the Soul seems to be a thing immortal But Cebes saith Simmias taking up the Discourse pray recal to our memory those your demonstrations for I do not well remember them at present The thing may be demonstrated by one and that a remarkable Reason * A proof of that Platonic Hypothesis that science is Reminiscense from the effects themselves viz. that men being asked rightly answer fitly of things otherwise than by reminiscense unknown to them yea and of such as are indeed obscure and abstruse as in Mathematics This Plato more copiously explicates in his Dialogue called Menon here touching it only en passant namely because men being asked they deliver the whole matter as it is but this certainly they could not do if there were not Science and right reason in them Again if a man bring a matter to Geometrical Figures or Diagrams or the like evidences this most manifestly proves and demonstrates the same to be true But if by this way saith Socrates that be not proved to you consider well whether when you by this reason seriously examine the matter it seem to you so clear as that you ought to assent thereunto Do you not believe how that which is called to learn is really nothing but to remember I do not indeed refuse to believe it but desire to have recalled into my memory that of which we began to discourse and from those reasons Cebes hath endevoured to alledge I almost remember and believe it already Nevertheless
pleasantness and moderation treated his Body to the time of his death For when the dead Body is fallen and enbalmed â—â—s they who are enbalmed in Egypt it continues almost intire for a very long and indeterminable time and though some members thereof shall have suffered corruption yet the bones nerves and all of the more compact sort endure if I may so say for ever Do they not Certainly * Here he explains the Emigration of the Soul out of the Body at the instant of death subjoyning that Souls after death go thither whither the similitudes of their cogitations affectâ—ons and habits leâ—d them But here the Soul â—n invisible thing goes away into another place a place noble pure not to be seen by the eyes of Mortals among the infernal shades really to a good and provident God whither indeed if God be so pleased my Soul is presently to go For the Soul it self being in this manner qualified and freed from the Body will it think you presently vanish into air and perish as many men say No Cebes and Simmias it is very far from all possibility of being dissolved But truly in that manner we have explained the matter is rather dispar aged than illustrated for the nature of it is more noble if at least the Soul depart pure carrying along with it nothing from the contagion of the body as that which did whilst it remained in this life willingly and of choice hold no communication with the Body but declined and avoided it and retired into it self imployed all its powers by cogitation to avoid it Which is nothing else but to Philosophize rightly and in good earnest to anticipate death by familiar conversation of thoughts Is not this a meditation of death Wholly * From which principle he infers that a good Soul free from the contâ—gion and delusion of the corporeal senses goes immediatly after death to a certain invisible and most blisful place where it is again conjoyn'd to God to whom it is of â—in and like Doth not therefore Felices posthac Animae quas corpora nullis Faedarunt vitiis nullaque libidine morsas Detinuere olim quae dum sub carne latebant Contemplatrices abstracte a carne volarant Saepius ad Caelos Caelis post fata quibuscum Faedera sanxerunt viventes sacra locantur Eternaque illic Laetantes luce fruuntur the Soul being so comparated go to that Divine Being like unto it self Divine I say and Immortal and Wise To which when it comes it becomes perfectly happy being freed and exempted from error from ignorance from terrors wild Loves and all other Human Evils and as men are accustomed to speak of such as have been by solemn expiations purged and initiated to Sacred Rites living eternally with the Gods Shall we speak thus Cebes or otherwise Thus in all points by Jove saith Cebes But if the Soul depart out of the Body polluted and impure as having hitherto conversed wholly with the Body and slavishly served it and being both by its own errors and by the lusts of the Body fascinated esteemed nothing true but what 's corporeal namely that gross matter hat is touched seen drunk and used to Venereal pleasures and on the contrary that which is to the eyes dark and invisible but may by the power of understanding be perceived and by the institutes and discipline of Philosophy be comprehended this I say having been accustomed to hate and abhor and dread can we imagine that a Soul thus disposed and vitiated shall depart pure and intirely collected into it self By no means saith he * From the popular Opinion of Ghosts and Spirits he adds that Souls loaden with gross earthy affections wander in grief about monuments and Sepulchres for a certain time only that is according to the Pythâ—gorean Dream they light upon other Bodies suitable to their former affections inclinations and manners I think we ought rather to decree that such a Soul departs involved in and contaminate with the stains and infection of the corporeal mass which the very conversation and familiarity of the Body because that Soul hath so continually and intirely conversed therewith and with much At tenebrosae animae nimium quae carnibus olim Demerjae jae ueresuis quos tetra libido Atque voluptates solum quas sensus alebat In terris notae posthac de carne solutae Aspectum Caeli cum quo commercia nulla Viventes habuere timent nec luce fruuntur Sed tenebris dilecta nimis prope corpora semper Ferales errant Vmbrae maestaeque Sepulchra Bustaque faedacolunt Hinc noctu spectra videntur Quae terrent homines animae sunt ista malorum Quae quaeniam crassae sunt corporeaque videntur Majus noster in Supplem Lucani lib. 4. care and cogitation imployed it self in pursuit of such things hath as it were ingrafted into it and made a part of its nature Certainly This we are to hold to be with a kind of burden gross heavy terrene visible wherewith when such a Soul is inveloped it is weighed down and carried to a visible place by fear of that invisible one and as it is vulgarly said it wanders about Monuments and Sepulchres where have been seen certain darksom Images of Souls which Apparitions such Souls represent that have not departed pure but yet retain something of that gross and visible matter and are therefore beheld 'T is very probable Socrates Nor is it less probable Cebes that those are not the Souls of good men but of Wicked and Impious that are compelled to hover and flagg about those places suffering the punishment of their former vicious Education and restlesly wandring until by desire of that corporeal following they are again intangled in and bound to a Body And bound they are as is probable to one of such inclinations and manners as they in life had imployed their thoughts upon What are these things you speak Socrates How it is probable that those who have minded gluttony railing wantonness c. nor cautiously abstained from them pâ—â—on the forms of Asses and of other wild Beasts Do not you think it probable You speak with great probability And that they who highly valued and honoured injustice oppression tyranny rapine are turned into the Kindes of Wolves Hawks Kites and other Beasts of Prey or shall we say that their Souls go to some other place Truly saith Cebes to no other We are therefore to hold that all Souls strive to go whither the similitudes of their cogitations and inclinations carry them 'T is very perspicuous truly * A consectary of the former Doctrin that the arme way to that conjunction with God is not by Politic and Theatrical virtues which are but shadows but by the serious study of wisdom and why not Are then they the happiest of men who upon deliberate purpose exercise civil prudence in a popular way of life which they call temperance and justice contracted meerly from conversation and cogitation
without the precepts and discipline of Philosophy and do they go to the best place How can these be most happy Because 't is likely that they come again into some civil and tame kind of Animals as Bees Drones Pismires or return into men and become moderate Very likely But to pass into the kind of Gods is possible to none but who hath duly exercised himself in the study of wisdom for he having been all his life possessed with desire of learning departs out of this world pure and undefiled And 't is upon this account that Cebes and Simmias that good and genuin Philosophers abstain from all pleasures of the Body and constantly and firmly contain themselves not permitting their appetites and passions to carry them away in pursuit of sensual delights nor fearing the subversion of their private Estates and the invasion of poverty as the vulgar and avaricious do nor dreading the ignominy and reproach of mean spirited men as the ambitious and lovers of great Honours do but abstracting and alienating their minds from all such splendid trifles Nor would it be consentaneous to them to do otherwise Socrates saith Cebes No by Jove would it not saith he Therefore Cebes saith he again A lively and remarkable description of that Philosophical life the ground whereof is the contemplation of God and its work to instruct men to renounce all exorbitant affections of the body c. all who take care of their Souls and imploy not their life in pampering and adorning the body neglecting and repudiating all those things they walkt not in the way of those we mentioned before who are wholly ignorant whither they are to go But Philosophers being perswaded they ought to do nothing contrary to the precepts of Philosophy or to the solution and expiation thereof leave the common road of the multitude and proceed in the way that Wisdom hath shewn to them and follow the conduct thereof as of their Leader How Socrates I will tell you saith he Men studious of Discipline know that Philosophy when it undertakes their Soul really bound and glewed to the body which Soul is constrained to contemplate things themselves through the body as through a Bride-well and not single by it self able to contemplate it self and when it wallows in all ignorance and perceives the power and efficacy of that bond which exserts it self even by lusts themselves namely that the Soul thus bound and imprisoned doth imploy all its force and powers to be by lusts and desires more closely enchained I say men studious of Discipline know that Philosophy when it hath found their Mind or Soul so disposed is versed chiefly in this by degrees to mitigate and compose the Soul and to deliver it from those Fetters teaching that that consideration which is performed by the service of the eyes is full of error and that the information of the Ears and all other senses is likewise full of error perswading it to retire from them and not to use them unless when necessity compels and declaring and exhorting it to recollect and congregate it self and to give credit to none but it self seeing that it self alone can by â—â—self understand and comprehend that which existeth by it self and that what it considers by other things because subject to alteration it ought not to account true but only such as the Senses represent it but that what it self clearly perceives is intelligible and unperceivable by Sense * Description of a profane and vicious life Whereof the greatest Evil is that such men are insensible both of their sins and misery When therefore the Soul of a man truly a Philosopher conceives that it ought not to oppose this deliverance and infranchisment comes thus to abstain from pleasures and lusts and as much as it is able from griefs also and errors thus casting up its account When a man is possessed and even transported with great joy or astonished with excessive grief or inraged by the stings of Lusts he doth not by those passions suffer so much of evil as one would by common and vulgar judgment think whether for example that he should pursue those Lusts feel those Diseases and undergo loss of his Estate in vain but what is the highest of all Evils he suffers this that he perceives not nor takes notice that he suffers What mean you Socrates saith Cebes Because every mans Mind is constrained to rejoyce and delight vehemently up-an occasion of some things and to esteem that wherein he suffers that affection to be most manifest and most true though the same be not such Now are these things discernable by the sense or are they not Wholly But in this affection is not the Soul obliged to sympathize with the Body In what manner Because every pleasure and every grief as if armed with a nail affixeth and as it were with a buckle fastneth the Soul to the Body and makes it corporeal thinking all things to be true that the body dictateth For that it is constrained to agree with the Body in opinions and to be delighted at the same time with it as I conceive comes from the conjecture of the one with the other and thence the Soul is carried about by the common force of education and customes so as it cannot go to the shades below i. e. to a second life pure and undefiled but departs polluted with stains and infection derived from the body and then presently falls into another body and as if sowed therein grows to it remaining void of that divine pure and uniform conversation You speak great truths Socrates saith Cebes * Conclusion monitory With what care and circumspection a Philosopher ought to beware lest he be intangled in the snares of Lusts and Corporeal pleasures against which by his profession he proclaims open War By reason of these things Cebes they who are truly studious are modest and valiant but not by reason of those that are in the opinion of the vulgar What think you Not by reason of vulgar things certainly For the Soul of a Philosopher will not hold it self obliged to free it self from the institutes of Philosophy and letting loose the bridle of its precepts give it self up to the desires either of pleasures or pains and permit it self to be again chain'd to the body and so render its work imperfect weaving and unravelling its web like Penelope as they say but will resolve it to be most decent to compose all those desires and follow the conduct and mandates of reason and to be alwaies conversant herein to contemplate things true and divine and such as may not be carryed about by temerity of opinions and being bred up and nourished with them conclude it ought in this manner to live while life lasteth and when death comes to go to a place agreeable and cognate to its nature and be delivered from human evils From this Education it can fear nothing grievous by its own institution studiously labouring in this
a higher or let down to a lower pitch or repugnant to the passions of the instruments of which it is composed but must inevitably obey their dictates and commands not prescribe and give law to them This we have granted saith he why should we not Now then doth not the Soul appear to do quite contrary when it exerciseth Dominion over and dispenseth commands to the various members and organs of the body out of whose combination and system you suppose it to result and when for the most part during life it strives to control all their inclinations and appetites with absolute Soveraignty ruling and moderating them more severely chastising some by the rules of strict Diet and Medicine and more gently and mildly correcting others with menaces and advices composing the lusts anger and fears of the Body as if in man himself there were two distinct natures or as it were persons one speaking to the other as Prince and Subject as Homer also imagined in his Odysses where he saith of Vlisses Knocking his breast to 's Heart he thus did speak Be not thou Heart in these afflictions weak But bear them bravely in thy self secur'd Thou heretofore hast greater ills endur'd Think you that the Poet feigned this out of opinion that the Soul it self was an Harmony and such a frail thing as to be at the will and conduct of the corporeal affections and unable to lead and rule them or rather out of a full perswasion that the Soul was a thing much more noble and divine than a Harmony He seems to me by Jove Socrates to have signified that the Soul is not a Harmony but something incomparably more Noble and more excellent * Conclusion that the opinion of the Souls being Harmony is to be exploded as many waies absurd We cannot therefore believe me hold the Soul to be an Harmony for manifest it is that if we do we shall both dissent from that Divine Poet and contradict even our selves You are in the right saith Simmias Well then saith Socrates we have commodiously I think appeased and silenced the reasons of the Theban Harmony but Cebes how shall we in the next place solve those of the * Both Simmias and Cebes being Thebans it seems that Socrates here facetely alluded to the fable of Cadmus the Thehan of armed men growing out of the earth because Cebes had many times contradicted and opposed him with fresh forces Cadmean You saith Cebes are most likely to find out that for you have admirably and beyond our expectation discoursed against that Harmony which Simmias defended For when I heard him proposing his doubts I thought it strange even to wonder if it were possible for any man living to find a reasonable solution of them and it seemed admirable to me that he was not able to sustain the very first charge of your speech 'T wil therefore be less admirable if the Cadmean opinion proposed by me meet with the same fate Good Cebes saith Socrates speak not those magnific things of me I beseech you lest envy rise up and disturb our following discourse But let God alone with that care also while we encountring as Homer saith hand to hand try the force of what you can allege He first recites and sta e the second contrary opinion Of all your Enquiries this is the grand and capital one You judge it fit to be demonstrated that the Soul of man is free and exempt from destruction and death and this lest a Philosopher when at the near approach of death he is of a resolved and undaunted courage and believes that after death he shall be far happier than in the short race of this life should out of an ignorant and foolish confidence triumph and exsult Now to affirm both that the Soul is a thing firm and divine and that it existeth of it self before we are born this I say hinders not but all your arguments may come short of the main question in hand they may serve to evince indeed not the immortality of the Soul but only the duration of it for that an immense time before its entrance into the Body it hath existed and then both knew and did many things and yet notwithstanding all this we are under no necessity of concluding from thence that it is immortal nay rather on the contrary it seems reasonable that its very entrance into and conjunction with the Body is the beginning of its destruction and a kind of sickness so that it lives a sad and miserable life here tormenting it self with the sense of various calamities and at last perisheth by that end which is called death But you say that as to our security from fear of death it makes no difference whether the Soul come only once into one Body or into many successively For in truth no just cause of fear is given to any unless he be very silly and unable to give a reason why the Soul is immortal And this I take it is the summ of what you said Cebes which I industriously recite and more than once inculcate that nothing may escape us and you may add and detract what you please But I saith Cebes at present demand neither to detract nor to add any thing and you have faithfully recounted what I said Then Socrates after he had a pretty while recollected himself from intent and fixed thoughts the thing you seek saith he is not to be contemned Cebes as being that for the sake whereof it may concern us exquisitely to enquire into the causes of Generation and Corruption I will therefore if you please pursue my discourse declaring what are my sentiments concerning the same Let it be so saith Cebes Attend you then diligently while I explain my thoughts * Accomodating his Answer to the order and method of the opinion he designs to refute he first removes the prejudices upon which it was grounded and then teacheth that the true cause of the Souls immortality is to be sought in God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very form and fountain of life I have saith he even from my Youth been strangely enamour'd and inflamed with the study of that part of Wisdom which they call the History of Nature It seemed a magnific and noble thing to understand the causes of all things why this or that particular was made why it should be again destroyed and by what reason it had existence and I very often turned my self up and down first revolving these things in my mind Why Animals after hot and cold have undergone a certain sort of putrefaction as some say are nourished and whether the Blood be that by which we have the power of Vnderstanding and growing Wise or Aire or Fire or none of all these but rather the Brain which gives us the senses of hearing seeing smelling c. Whether out of these Memory be made and Opinion and from memory and opinion setled by quiet Knowledg be made in the
Purgatory of the antient Heathens described with their Repentance in Hell and three parts thereof Contrition Confession Satisfaction all which they saw to be necessary by the light of Nature i. e. Sorrow These things being thus constituted when Ghosts have arrived whither the tutelar Demon of every one conducts them first they are examined tryed and judged both they who have lived well righteously and justly and they who have lived in vice injustice and impiety they also who have lived in a middle way going on to Acheron and mounting into Waggons prepared for them are therein carried to the Marish where they both remain and suffer punishments appointed for the expiation and expurgation of their sins After they are thus expiated they are absolved and quitted and every one receives rewards for their good deeds according to their merits But if for the greatness of their Crimes they be found incurable having committed either many or great Sacriledges or unjust and unlawful Homicides or such execrable Wickednesses a just lott casteth them into Tartarus from whence they never get out Whereas they who stand convicted of and obnoxious to sins great indeed but not inexpiable as they who have in heat of anger committed any violence against Father or Mother and truly repented of it all their life after or who have been Homicides through immoderate passion upon these is imposed a necessity of falling into Hell But when they have been there a year in Torments the Waves cast them forth Homicides by Cocytus Killers of Father or Mother by the Burning River And when they come to the Acherusiad Marish then with a loud voice they by name call some those whom they have killed others those whom they have wronged and begg and beseech them to be satisfied with their unfeigned penitence and grievous sufferings and to give them leave to depart out of that Marish If they prevail they retire thence and are freed from those miseries if not they are carried back again into Tartarus and so returned to the other rivers not ceasing to suffer their renewed torments untill they have obtained pardon from those to whom they have been injurious for this punishment is appointed for them by the decree of the Judges Now they who have been rightly purged by Philosophy live ever after without bodies and come into other habitations fair and delightful which to describe is too difficult for my understanding and too long for the short remainder of my life Commodious admonitions concluding the description of Hell that we are not obliged to give credit to those Poetic fictions and yet it is useful to reflect upon them that we may be incited to aim at felicity after death and to follow the only path that leads to it viz. Wisdom and Virtue But as for the concernment and importance of what we have here related Simmias we ought to labour with all possible study and care that we may follow the conduct of Virtue and Wisdom in this life For the reward is great and the hope good That the descriptions I have recounted to you of the places and conditions of Souls after death are true becomes not a wise man to affirm But that there are some such or the like as for what concerns the state and condition of our Souls and the places whither they are to go for habitation seeing it is evident that our Souls are immortal this also seems both consentaneous and worthy the danger to believe they are such For the danger is honorable and glorious and we are obliged to inculcate and as it were inchant these things into our minds wherefore I have been the more prolix in commemorating that Fable But yet as to what concerns a mans own Soul he ought to be with full confidence perswaded of these things who while he hath lived hath repudiated corporeal pleasures and outward Ornaments as alien and unnecessary and so hath resolved to addict himself to any thing rather than to lusts of the body and hath made it the grand business of his life to furnish his mind with learning and to render it polite and brave not with strange but it s own proper ornaments namely with Temperance Justice Fortitude Liberty Truth Thus armed let him expect the time when he is to take his Journey ad inferos to the Mansions of Souls departed and let him so prepare and address himself as to set forward redily and chearfully whensoever Fate shall call him And for your parts Simmias and Cebes and the rest that are here ye shall all go this Journey each in his appointed time Fate as the Tragedian saith calls me now But perhaps it is time for me to go and wash my self for I think it more decent to be washed before I drink the poyson that I may give the Women no trouble in washing my Body after death Be it so then saith Crito to him An Historical Narration of the manner of Socrates his death which was perfectly agreeable to his Life and Doctrine But do you Soorates give to those here or to me any command either concerning your Children or about any other matter wherein we may chiefly gatifie you No truly saith he Crito I leave no new command with you besides what I have alwaies told you namely that if ye take due care of your selves you will perform your duty to me and to mine and to your selves also whatever ye do though now ye make no promises nor enter into new engagements but if ye neglect your selves and will not order your life according to the prints as it were of what I now remonstrate to you what I have heretofore enjoyned ye though ye should even with vehement asseveration promise to do many and great things for my sake ye will do I am sure nothing more This saith Crito we will with courage and alacrity of mind endevour to perform But in what manner shall we Bury you Even how ye please saith he at least if ye can catch me and I not fly out of your reach And when he had sweetly smiled and turned his eyes upon us my Friends saith he I cannot perswade Crito here that I am that Socrates who just now disputed and pursued all parts of the discourse in order but he thinks me to be the same whom after a few hours ye shall behold dead and asketh me how I desire to be Buried not remembring that a good while since I made a long discourse to this very purpose that after I have drank the poyson I shall be no longer with you but go away to the Felicities of the Blessed This seems to have been spoken by me in vain while yet I endevoured to consolate both you and my self Do ye therefore undertake for me to Crito in an obligation quite contrary to what he entred into on my behalf before my Judges He was surety for me that I should remain but be ye my sureties to him that I shall not remain after I am
abundance Socrates himself only excepted Who said what do ye my Friends truly I sent away the Women for no other reason but lest they should in this kind offend For I have heard that we ought to die with good mens and gratulation But recompose your selves and resume your courage and resolution Hearing this we blush'd with shame and suppressed our tears But when he had walked awhile and told us that his thighs were grown heavy and stupid he lay down upon his back for so he who had given him the poyson had directed him to do Who a little time after returns and feeling him looked upon his leggs and feet then pinching his foot vehemently he asked him if he felt it and when he said no he again pinched his leggs and turning to us told us that now Socrates was stiff with cold and touching him said he would die so soon as the Poyson came up to his heart for the parts about his heart were already grown stiff Then Socrates putting aside the Garment wherewith he was covered we ow saith he a Cock to * Intimating that death was most grateful to him for which and for his deliverance now granted to him he would have a Sacrifice offered to Aesculapius See Erasmus Chiliad 3. cent 3. pag. 1. Aesculapius but do ye pay him and neglect not to do it And these were his last words It shall be done saith Crito but see if you have any other Command for us To whom he gave no answer but soon after fainting he moved himself often as if suffering Convulsions Then the Servant uncovered him and his eyes stood wide open which Crito perceiving he closed both his mouth and his eyes * A most august testimony given by Plato of his Master Socrates to vindicate both his person and Doctrine from the prejudice of an ignominious death This Echecrates was the end of our Friend and Familiar a man as we in truth affirm of all whom we have by use and experience known the Wisest and most Just. Quid dicam de Socrate cujus morti illachrimari soleo Platonem legens Cicero de natura Deor. lib. 3. Quidni ego narrem ultima illa nocte Catonem Platonis librum legentem posito ad caput gladio Duo haec in rebus extremis inst umenta prospexerat alterum ut vellet mori alterum ut posset c. Seneca Epist 24. Sic longa virtute fuit mens sancta Catonis Purgata atque illi vitae immortalis honorem Jam contemplanti divini fata Platonis Phaedonem tradunt Cum laetus talia fatur Salve sancte liber superis demisse Catoni Dirige tu cursum vitaeque extrema meantis Instrue non alium moriturus quaero magistrum Nec restare alias voluerunt Numina curas c. Tho. Maius in Supplemento Lucani lib. 4. Quid Ambraciotes ille Cleombrotus videlicet qui cum Platonis illum Phaedonem perlegasset praecipitem se dedit nullam aliam ob causam nisi quod Platoni credidit Lactantius Certain General AXIOMS Collected out of the Precedent Dialogue concerning the Soul 1. Axioms Moral 1. PAin and Pleasure are of Kin and so linked together that they closely succeed each other by turns 2. No man ought upon what account soever to desert the station wherein God hath placed him but to persist in the duties thereof contemning all opposition 3. Self-murder is a great Crime * Ac donec Deus ille Creator Qui terrena Animam primò statione locavit Evocat haud illa statione excedere fas est 4. A Wise man ought not only not to fear Death but also to desire it with submission to to the Divine Will 5. Philosophy is the perpetual meditation of Death that is to recal and divorce the Soul from commerce with the Senses and alienate it from Corporeal lusts and pleasures Which is an anticipatton of Death that is defined to be a solution and separation of the Soul from the Body 6. The Virtues of Politicians are not true Virtues but only faint resemblances of the true 7. Philosophy is the way to true Felicity and the two grand Duties of it are 1 To contemplate the perfections of God and 2 to alienate the Soul from the allurements of the Senses and from indulgence to the Body 8. Hope of future Felicity is a very great Reward that is the best way of passing through both the Temptations and Adversities of this Life with satisfaction of Mind 9. Decent Burial such as is ordained and prescribed by good Laws of the Country ought not to be neglected by a Wise man nor Funeral Pomp affected * So Epicurus in his last Will and Testament Sepeliunto nos quà videbitur in hortis commodissimum nihilq interim sumptuosiùs quod sivo ad sepulturam sive ad monumentum pertineat agunto Diog. Laert. lib. 80. II. Axioms Natural 1. COntraries are produced out of Contraries but cannot possibly subsist the same in one subject at the same time 2. To learn is to remember what the Soul knew before it came into the Body or there are naturally and congenially in the Soul the seeds of all Sciences which are only cultivated and matured by method of Discipline not implanted or ingraffed at first as Aristotle taught III. Axioms Theological 1. GOd takes care of Men for that they are his own Possession 2. God according to Plato's definition here is not only the Cause of his own Being but gives both Being and Well-being to all things else 3. The Soul of Man is the Off-spring of God in a peculiar manner participant of the Divine Nature incompound without figure or shape Incorruptible immortal as God 4. The Soul in this Life doth indeed use the service of the Body yet is not composed organically of the Senses and other Faculties thereof but simple and existeth apart by it self after separation by Death whereby the Body being compound is dissolved but the Soul goes away untouched and void of all Corruption into another Life and there lasteth Eternally 5. Of our Souls departed there is a Twofold state some are happy others unhappy 6. Seeing that in this Life things are carried on intemperately and in confusion there must be in the next Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain and just Judgement of God the Supreme and Vniversal Judge whereby Good men may be distinguished from Wicked this being an Axiom evident by the very Light of Nature that God will reward every man according to his works in this life * Deus ipse sequendam Proposuit Virtutem praemia debita justis Haec quoniam justos injusta potentia fraudat Saepiùs in terris gens humanu rebellat Solvere post mortem justissimus ipse tenetur 7. Positively and with confidence to describe the places whither the Souls of the Dead go and to define what are the Rewards and Punishments they there receive is the part of a man extremely ignorant and superstitious though it be most
place which they call Philas that is the Female Friends because there Isis was appeased and attoned by the Aegyptians after her displeasure conceived for that she had not found the limbs of her husband Osiris whom his brother Typhon had slain Which being afterward found when she desired to bury them she chose the safest place of a neer Marish whereunto the access was extremely difficult and embarrass'd the Marish being full of Mudd and Papyr-flaggs Beyond this is a short Island inaccessible to men whence it was call'd Abatos and mentioned by Lucan Hinc Abatos quam nostra vocat veneranda vetustas This Mere is named Styx because it raiseth Sadness and Sorrow in all that pass over it and hither on certain daies come such who have been initiated to the sacred Rites and that it had been written that the neighbouring people carry over their dead to the other side of the Lake but if any chance to perish in the difficult passage and his body be not found his Funeral Obsequies are to be deferred untill a hundred years be expired Whence that dream Centum errant annos volitanque haec littora circum Farther well known it is even to yong Students of Homer that his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is divided into Tartarus described at the 13th Iliad v. θ and Elysium described Odyss ♌ v. 563. and both according to the doctrin of the Aegyptians who placed both the Bridewell of the wicked and the Mulberry Gardens of the Just ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a subterraneous place or region ' But where to fix his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath puzzled all his Commentators Strabo Geograph lib. 3. pag. 150. thereby understands the remotest part of Spain and contends for the placing his Elysium there More recent Poets take the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Islands of the Fortunate for the seats of the blessed whereof see Hesychius ad verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where you shall read this also Some say Elysium lyes in Aegypt some in Lesbos others in a place guarded with thunder and lightning and not to be approached by Mortals So that a man would think Eden to be turned into Elysium nor doth it seem to be either more or less than what Diodorus just now related from the Aegyptians that the gates of Cocytus and Lethe were secured by brasen barrs But Plutarch removes this Paradise from the Hollows of the Earth into the globe of the Moon lib. de facie in Luna So various are the conjectures of men so uncertain their imaginations so easie their credulity especialy when they are blinded by superstition What pleasure other◠may find in reading these various Comments upon Fictions I cannot divine but this I will adventure to confess that to me they appear as idle and extravagant as the works of Didymus a Grammarian did to Seneca Who in Epist 88. derides him for writing 4000 Volumes wherein he chiefly enquires about the native Country of Homer the true Mother of Aeneas whether Anacreon were more addicted to wine or women whether Sappho were a common prostitute and other the like ridiculous impertinences which were to be forgotten if you knew them Wherefore leaving these dissenting Expositors let us resume our clue and follow the trace of the Fiction it self Though Homer constituted Rhadamanthus and his brother Minos Judges in the infernal Arches Odyss 4. v. 567. and fetch'd those names from Crete yet the ground or example was derived from Aegypt as appears from this relation of Diodorus Siculus lib. 1. p. 58. Among the Aegyptians saith he when a dead body is to be interred the Kindred of the deceased give notice of the day to the Judges and to the friends and acquaintance of the defunct and proclam that he is at that time to be wafted over the Lake At the day prefix'd more then 40 Judges assembled together seat themselves in a Semicircle or Half-moon on the brink of the Lake and a Boat ready prepared for that use is lanched with a man therein to row it whom they in the Aegyptian language call Charon Then before the body is put aboard it is permitted to every man present to bring in what accusations he thinks just against the party deceased If any prove that he lived an evil life the Judges immediately give sentence upon him according to the nature and quality of his transgressions and the body is forbidden to be buried But a false and malicious accuser is obnoxious to to great penalties When no just impeachment is brought in the kindred laying aside the mourning and laments praise the defunct in their laudatory harangues not mentioning the nobility of his blood and extraction as the the Grecians use to do because they hold that all in Aegypt are equaly nonoble but his good Education in youth and the piety justice continency and other virtues of his maturer age all which they particularly recount and celebrate This funeral Oration ended they address their Oraisons to the infernal Deities beseeching them to receive him into the Society of the Pious with no small devotion making this prayer the form whereof hath been preserved and transmitted down to us by Porphyrius de Abstinentia lib. 4. Sect. 10. O Lord Sun and all ye Gods who give life to men receive me and deliver me a companion to the immortal Gods For while I lived here in this age I piously worshipped the Gods whom my Parents taught me to worship and honour'd those who begat me nor have I killed any man nor defrauded any that trusted me nor committed any inexpiable evil But if at any time of my life I have offended by eating or dtinking any thing forbidden I offended not by my self but by those bowells of mine there pointing to a little Coffin wherein the stomach and gutts are reposed apart Which said the speaker throws the little Coffin into the water as containing the offending parts and the whole assembly with loud and ingeminated applauses recommending the defunct that is him who had performed all the dueties of life as one that shall enjoy the everlasting conversation of pious Souls apud inferos the body is put into the Boat and ferried over the Lake to be inhumed Here reflecting upon this Aegyptian praier or Apology rather made in the name of the dead we may en passant observe both a touch of Pharisaical arrogancy and self-justification and precepts exactly concordant with those given first as the tradition of the Talmudical Rabbines teacheth to the Sons of Noah and afterward by Moses to the Hebrews in the second Table of the Decalogue and from them descended down to us So that that saying of Salomon that nothing is new under the Sun was true many hundred of years before his daies yea and before Moses's too But I have made a digression of a praier and must return into the little remainder of my way From these Aegyptian obsequies it was as the same Diodorus in the same place observes that Orpheus having while