[288] _Aristoteles nullum animal nisi æstu recedente expirare affirmat: observatum id multum in Gallico Oceano et duntaxat in Homine comertum_, lib. 2. cap. 101. [289] _Auris pars pendula Lobus dicitur, non omnibus ea pars est auribus; non enim iis qui noctu nati sunt, sed qui interdiu, maxima ex parte. Com. in Aristot. de Animal._ lib. 1. That _Charles_ the Vth was crown'd upon the Day of his Nativity, it being in his own Power so to order it, makes no singular Animadversion; but that he should also take King _Francis_ Prisoner upon that Day, was an unexpected Coincidence, which made the same remarkable. _Antipater_ who had an Anniversary Fever every Year upon his Birth-day, needed no Astrological Revolution to know what Day he should dye on. When the fixed Stars have made a Revolution unto the Points from whence they first set out, some of the Ancients thought the World would have an end; which was a kind of dying upon the Day of its Nativity. Now the Disease prevailing and swiftly advancing about the time of his Nativity, some were of Opinion that he would leave the World on the Day he entred into it: but this being a lingring Disease, and creeping softly on, nothing critical was found or expected, and he died not before fifteen Days after. Nothing is more common with Infants than to die on the Day of their Nativity, to behold the worldly Hours, and but the Fractions thereof; and even to perish before their Nativity in the hidden World of the Womb, and before their good Angel is conceived to undertake them. But in Persons who out-live many Years, and when there are no less than three hundred sixty five days to determine their Lives in every Year; that the first day should make the last, that the Tail of the Snake should return into its Mouth precisely at that time, and they should wind up upon the day of their Nativity,[290] is indeed a remarkable Coincidence, which, tho' Astrology hath taken witty Pains to salve, yet hath it been very wary in making Predictions of it. [290] According to the _Egyptian_ Hieroglyphick. In this consumptive Condition and remarkable Extenuation he came to be almost half himself, and left a great Part behind him which he carried not to the Grave. And tho' that Story of Duke _John Ernestus Mansfield_[291] be not so easily swallow'd, that at his Death his Heart was found not to be so big as a Nut; yet if the Bones of a good Skeleton weigh little more than twenty Pounds, his Inwards and Flesh remaining could make no Bouffage, but a light Bit for the Grave. I never more lively beheld the starved Characters of _Dante_[292] in any living Face; an _Aruspex_ might have read a Lecture upon him without Exenteration, his Flesh being so consumed, that he might, in a manner, have discerned his Bowels without opening of him: so that to be carried _sextâ cervice_, to the Grave, was but a civil Unnecessity; and the Complements of the Coffin might out-weigh the Subject of it.