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ΝΕΚΡΟΚΗΔΕΙΑ; Or, the Art of Embalming;: Wherein Is Shewn the Right of Burial, and Funeral Ceremonies, Especially That of Preserving Bodies After the Egyptian Method. Together With an Account of the Egyptian Mummies, Pyramids, Subterranean Vaults and Lamps, and Their Opinion of the Metempsychosis, the Cause of Their Embalming. As Also a Geographical Description of Egypt, the Rise and Course of the Nile, the Temper, Constitution and Physic of the Inhabitants, Their Inventions, Arts, Sciences, StupGreenhill, Thomas

Philosophy

ΝΕΚΡΟΚΗΔΕΙΑ; Or, the Art of Embalming;: Wherein Is Shewn the Right of Burial, and Funeral Ceremonies, Especially That of Preserving Bodies After the Egyptian Method. Together With an Account of the Egyptian Mummies, Pyramids, Subterranean Vaults and Lamps, and Their Opinion of the Metempsychosis, the Cause of Their Embalming. As Also a Geographical Description of Egypt, the Rise and Course of the Nile, the Temper, Constitution and Physic of the Inhabitants, Their Inventions, Arts, Sciences, Stup

Greenhill, Thomas

Burial -- Early works to 1800; Embalming -- Early works to 1800; Funeral rites and ceremonies -- Early works to 1800; Mummies -- Early works to 1800

It may farther be ask’d, Why _Plato_, _Aristotle_, and other
Philosophers, famous for Learning and Piety, despis’d the Rites and
Ceremonies of Sepulture? To which I answer, They did not really Despise
them, nor durst they say they were not to be at all: They said only, if
by chance they were neglected, it could do no hurt. Nor lastly did
_Lucretius_ contemn Sepulture, he only laughed at those who procur’d it
for this Reason, because they thought there still remain’d a Sense in
the Dead, as you will perceive by these Lines of his, _Lib._ 3.

           _Proin’ cum videas, Hominem indignarier ipsum,
           Post Mortem fore, ut aut putrescat Corpore posto;
           Aut Flammis interfiat, Malisve Ferarum_, &c.

        Now when you hear a Man complain and moan,
        And mourn his Fate, because when Life is gone
        His Limbs must waste, or rot i’th’ Earth, or feast
        The greedy Flames, or some devouring Beast;
        All is not well; He, by strong Fancy led,
        Imagines Sense remains amongst the Dead;
        Nor can I think, tho’ He Himself denies,
        And openly declares the whole Man Dies;
        But that from strong Conceits he still believes,
        Fond Fool, that He Himself, Himself survives:
        For now e’en whilst He breaths, e’en whilst He lives,
        And thinks He must be Torn or Burnt, He grieves;
        Thinks still the Carcass must be He, and thence
        His wanton Fears infer there must be Sense.
        And hence He grieves that He was Born to Die,
        Subject to treacherous Mortality:
        But never thinks, fond Fool, that when kind Death
        Shall close His Eyes in Night, and stop His Breath;
        Then nothing of this thinking Thing remains
        To mourn His Fate, and feel sharp Grief and Pains.
                                                      _Creech._

Hereby ’tis plain _Lucretius_ only blames and chides those who are of a
doubtful and wavering Mind, and that openly confess there can be no
future Sense remaining after Death, yet privately hope within themselves
that some Parts will remain, and therefore mightily dread the want of
Burial, nay, violently abhor being a Prey to wild Beasts and Birds. This
I take to be a natural hint of the Resurrection of the Body and
Immortality of the Soul, tho’ outwardly these _Pagans_ disown’d both:

     _Eripe me his invicte Malis; aut tu mihi Terram
     Injice, sic saltem placidis in Morte quiescam
     Sedibus_, &c. as _Palinurus_’s Ghost said to _Æneas_, Æne. 6.

         From lasting Miseries my wandring Soul relieve,
         That she in pleasant Shades and perfect Rest may live.

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