Now, the evils hitherto enumerated lodge in particular parts; but the last calamity, both in this discourse, as well as in old people, is that the whole body is afflicted. The very course of the blood is interrupted; hence wretched man is seized with difficulty of breathing, apoplexies or lethargies. The heart also, the principle and fountain of life, sinks thro’ want of its usual force, _and the broken chariot falls into the pit_. The ancients indeed did not know of the circulation of the blood; but they could not be ignorant, that it was moved thro’ the body, that it cherished the viscera and members by its heat, and lastly, that it concreted and grew cold in death. But nothing in this whole discourse is so much worthy of our serious attention as these words, with which he closes it. _The dust returns to the earth, such as it had been; and the spirit returns to God, who gave it._ For by these words his intention seems plainly to have been, to refute the ignorant notions of those, who thought that the soul perished with the body, and to assert its immortality. CHAPTER VII. _The disease of king Nebuchadnezzar._ Those things, which are related of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, appear so surprizing and contrary to nature, that some interpreters have imagined that he was really transformed into a beast. For “being driven from the company of men for seven years, his dwelling was with the beasts of the field, he fed on grass as oxen; his body was wetted with the dew of heaven; his hair and nails were grown like those of birds. At length at the end of that space of time, his understanding was restored to him, and he was established in his kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto him. Now his crime was pride and the contempt of God[83].” [83] _See Daniel, Chap. iv. and v._ All these circumstances agree so perfectly well with hypochondriacal madness, that to me it appears evident, that Nebuchadnezzar was seized with this distemper, and under its influence ran wild into the fields: and that, fancying himself transformed into an ox, he fed on grass in the manner of cattle. For every sort of madness is, as I shall specify more particularly hereafter[84], a disease of a disturbed imagination; which this unhappy man laboured under full seven years. And thro’ neglect of taking proper care of himself, his hair and nails grew to an excessive length; whereby the latter growing thicker and crooked, resembled the claws of birds. Now, the ancients called persons affected with this species of madness λυκανθρώποι or κυνανθρώποι; because they went abroad in the night, imitating wolves or dogs; particularly intent upon opening the sepulchres of the dead, and had their legs much ulcerated either by frequent falls, or the bites of[85] dogs. In like manner are the daughters of Proetus related to have been mad, who, as Virgil says, --_Implerunt falsis mugitibus agros._[86] --With mimick’d mooings fill’d the fields.