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 JOHN HENRY NASH LIBRARY 
 
 <8> SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 PRESENTED TO THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 ROBERT GORDON SPRQUL, PRESIDENT. 
 
 BY" 
 
 MR.ANDMRS.MILTON S. RAY- 
 CECILY, VIRGINIA ANDROSALYN RAY 
 
 RAY OIL BURNEROOMPANY 
 
Splendid 
 
 "HYDRIOTAPHIA" 
 
 LOVERS of the rare quality of the work of Sir 
 Thomas Browne are under the greatest obliga- 
 tion to Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., for the 
 splendid edition of " Hydriotaphia or Urne- 
 Buriall ' ' which they have issued. This essay is 
 one of Browne's most characteristic and delight- 
 ful ones. One need only remark that it contains 
 such passages as those beginning "The iniquity 
 of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy ;" "What 
 song the Syrens sang or what name Achilles as- 
 sumed when he hid himself among women;" 
 and " Man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes. ' ' 
 The new edition is a small quarto of sixty pages, 
 on unbleached, handmade paper, with reference 
 notes in the broad margins, as in the original edi- 
 tion which, in many respects, this one resem- 
 bles. The title-page has a border engraved on 
 wood by M. Lament Brown, and the binding is 
 sumptuous crimson leather stamped in gold. The 
 edition consists of 385 numbered copies. 
 
 " TIMES," N.Y. 
 
 January 25, 1908. 
 
 RIVERSIDE PRESS EDITION. No. 42 
 
 Price, $7.50 net; postpaid 
 Published by HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & Co. 
 
 4 Park St. , 
 Boston 
 
 85 Fifth Ave., 
 New York 
 

 
OR 
 
 A Dtfcourfe of the Sejiulchrall Urnes 
 lately found in Norfolk 
 
 By SIR THOMAS BROWNE, D. of Phyfick 
 
 CAMBRIDGE 
 
 THE RIVERSIDE PRESS EDITION 
 
Urne-Buriall 
 
 SIR THOMAS BROWNE'S Hydriotaphia, or Urne- 
 Buriall, is now offered to lovers of choice books in a 
 'Riverside ^Press Edition of especial appropriateness 
 and beauty. 
 
 Though perhaps less well known than his ^eligio (^fedici, 
 Browne's Urne-Buriall has long been regarded by the best 
 critics as his finest and most individual work and the one 
 most sure to hold its place among the enduring masterpieces 
 of classic English prose. "That wonderful book," Walter 
 Pater called it; and it drew from Charles Lamb this charac- 
 teristic appreciation : 
 
 "I wonder and admire his entireness in every subject jhat 
 is before him. He follows it, he never wanders from it, and 
 he has no occasion to wander; for whatever happens to be 
 the subject, he metamorphoses all nature into it. In the 
 treatise on some urns dug up in Norfolk, how earthy, how 
 redolent of graves and sepulchres is every line ! You have 
 now dark mould, now a thigh-bone, now a skull, then a bit 
 of mouldered coffin, a fragment of an old tombstone with 
 moss in its 'Hie Jacet, 5 a ghost, or a winding-sheet, or the 
 echo of a funeral psalm wafted on a November wind ; and 
 the gayest thing you shall meet with shall be a silver nail 
 or a gilt < Anno Domini/ from a perished coffin-top." 
 
Urne-Buriall 3 
 
 The text of the rare first edition will be reproduced with 
 a few deviations in the direction of a uniformity of spelling 
 and punctuation, thus correcting a number of errors which 
 have crept into later issues. 
 
 The format has been subtly contrived to suggest at once 
 the look of its XVIIth Century original and something of 
 the peculiar flavor of its contents. In size the volume is a 
 small quarto of about sixty pages, set in Brimmer type with 
 reference notes in the margins, as in the original edition. It 
 is printed on unbleached, hand-made paper with the usual 
 care given to the press- work of the Riverside Press Editions. 
 The title is within a border engraved on wood by M. La- 
 mont Brown, after a beautiful and interesting old English 
 design. It is emblematic of the subject and contains the 
 Author's arms. 
 
 In binding a departure has been made from the Publish- 
 ers' custom of issuing these books in unpretentious covers. 
 In this instance an attractive crimson leather has been se- 
 lected to carry a reproduction of a beautiful and elaborate 
 English binding of the early XlXth Century, appropriate 
 in its details to the contents of the volume. Stamped in gold 
 on both covers, the effect is remarkably rich and pleasing. 
 
 The edition consists of three hundred and eighty-five 
 numbered copies, of which three hundred and fifty are 
 offered for sale, the price being $7.50 net a copy ; prepaid. 
 A sample page of the text is shown herewith. 
 
 HOUGHTON, MlFFLIN AND COMPANY. 
 
 85 Fifth Avenue, New York. 
 
H- "I 
 r.3 
 
 */ the Psalme of 
 Moses. 
 
 \Accor ding to the 
 ancient Arithmetick 
 of the hand wherein 
 the little finger of 
 the right hand 
 contracted, signified 
 an hundred. 
 
 Pierus in 
 Hieroglyph. 
 
 J One night as long as 
 three. 
 
 uzzling ques- 
 tions of Tiberius unto 
 Grammarians Marcel. 
 Donatus in Suet. 
 
 ||KXvra Wvta 
 
 Hydriotaphia 
 
 composition ; we live with death, and die not in a moment. 
 How many pulses made up the life of <>JMethuselah, were 
 work for (^Archimedes : Common Counters sum up the life 
 his name.* Our dayes become considerable like 
 
 o 
 
 petty sums by minute accumulations ; where numerous frac- 
 tions make up but small round numbers ; and our dayes of 
 a span long make not one little finger.-f 
 
 If the nearnesse of our last necessity, brought a nearer 
 conformity unto ,it, there were a happinesse in hoary hairs, 
 and no calamity in half senses. But the long habit of living 
 indisposeth us for dying, when Avarice makes us the sport 
 of death, when 'David grew politickly cruel, and Solomon 
 could hardly be said to be the wisest of men. But many are 
 too early old, and before the date of age. Adversity stretch- 
 eth our dayes, misery makes ^Alcmena's nights, J and time 
 hath no wings unto it. But the most tedious being is that 
 which can unwish it self, content to be nothing, or never 
 to have been, which was beyond the mal-content of Job, 
 who cursed not the day of his life, but his nativity, content 
 to have so far been, as to have a title to future being, 
 although he had lived here but in an hidden state of life, 
 and as it were an abortion. 
 
 What Song the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles as- 
 sumed when he hid himself among women, though puzzling 
 questions, are not beyond all conjecture. What time the 
 persons of these Ossuaries entered the famous Nations of 
 the dead, 1 1 and slept with Princes and Counsellors, might 
 admit a wide solution. But who were the proprietaries of 
 
HYDRIOTAPHIA 
 
 OR 
 
 URNE-BURIALL 
 
HYDRIOTAPHIA 
 
 Burtall 
 
 mrne 
 
 cour 
 Sepulchrall Urnes 
 
 lately found 
 
 Norfolk 
 
 THOMAS BROWNE 
 yf Thyjick 
 
NOTE / 
 
 This edition of the Hydriotaphia repro- 
 duces the text ofthejirst edition printed in 
 1658. Several errors which have crept into 
 later issues have thus been rectified. The 
 archaic spelling ofthejirst edition has been 
 retained savejbr a Jew deviations toward 
 uniformity. The erratic punctuation of 
 the original issue has been slightly modi- 
 Jied, though due regard has been paid to 
 Browne 9 s peculiar use of the semicolon. 
 
TO MY 
 
 Worthy and Honoured Friend 
 
 THOMAS LE 
 
 of CROSTWICK, Esquire 
 
 WHEN the Funeral pyre was out, and the last 
 valediction over, men took a lasting adieu of their 
 interred Friends, little expecting the curiosity of 
 future ages should comment upon their ashes, and having no 
 old experience of the duration of their Reliques, held no opinion 
 of such after-considerations. 
 
 But who knows the fate of his bones, or how often he is to 
 be buried? who hath the Oracle of his ashes, or whether they 
 are to be scattered? The Reliques of many lie like the mines of 
 Pompey's,* in all parts of the earth ; and when they arrive at *Pompeiosjuvenes 
 
 , , i i r i Asia, atque Europa, 
 
 your hands, these may seem to have wandered jarre, who in a sedipsum terra tezit 
 direct^- and Meridian Travell, have but few miles of known 
 
 Earth between your selfe and the Pole. ^Little directly, but 
 
 That the bones of Theseus should be seen again J in Athens, Sea *"**" ho "" 
 
 J t JT and Greenland. 
 
 was not beyond conjecture, and hopeful expectation ; but that 
 
 .. \BroughtbackbyCi- 
 
 these should anse so opportunely to serve your self, was an hit mon ^ p/ ufarc h. 
 of fate and honour beyond prediction. 
 
 We cannot but wish these Urnes might have the effect of 
 
Vlll 
 
 Dedication 
 
 *The great Ur ties in 
 the Hippodrome at 
 Rome conceived to re- 
 sound the voices of peo- 
 ple at their shows. 
 
 j- Worthily possessed by 
 that true Gentleman 
 Sir Horatio Townshend 
 my honoured Friend. 
 
 \Abiit adplures. 
 
 Which makes the 
 war Id so many years old. 
 
 theatrical vessels, and great Hippodrome Urnes * in Rome ; 
 to resound the acclamations and honour due unto you. But 
 these are sad and sepulchral Pitchers, which have no joyful 
 voices ; silently expressing old mortality, the ruines of forgotten 
 times, and can only speak with life, how long in this corrupti- 
 ble frame, some parts may be uncorrupted ; yet able to out-last 
 bones long unborn, and noblest pyle^ among us. 
 
 We present not these as any strange sight or spectacle un- 
 known to your eyes, who have beheld the best of Urnes, and 
 noblest variety of Ashes ; who are your self no slender master 
 of Antiquities, and can daily command the view of so many 
 Imperial faces ; which raiseth your thoughts unto old things, 
 and consideration of times before you, when even living men 
 were Antiquities ; when the living might exceed the dead, and 
 to depart this world, could not be properly said to go unto the 
 greater number.^ And so run up your thoughts upon the ancient 
 of dayes, the Antiquaries truest object, unto whom the eldest 
 parcels are young, and earth it self an Infant ; and without 
 ^Egyptian account makes but small noise in thousands. 
 
 We were hinted by the occasion, not catched the opportunity 
 to write of old things, or intrude upon the Antiquary. We are 
 coldly drawn unto discourses of Antiquities, who have scarce 
 time before us to comprehend new things, or make out learned 
 Novelties. But seeing they arose as they lay, almost in silence 
 among us, at least in short account suddenly passed over, we 
 were very unwilling they should die again, and be buried twice 
 among us. 
 
 Beside, to preserve the living, and make the dead to live, to 
 
Dedication 
 
 IX 
 
 keep men out of their Urnes, and discourse of humane fragments 
 in them, is not impertinent unto our profession ; whose study is 
 life and death, who daily behold examples of mortality, and 
 of all men least need artificial mementos, or coffins by our bed 
 side, to minde us of our graves. 
 
 'Tis time to observe Occurrences, and let nothing remark- 
 able escape us ; The Supinity of elder dayes hath left so much 
 in silence, or time hath so martyred the Records, that the most 
 industrious * heads dojinde no easie work to erect a new Bri- 
 tannia. 
 
 'Tis opportune to look back upon old times, and contemplate 
 our Fore-fathers. Great examples grow thin, and to be fetched 
 from the passed world. Simplicity flies away, and iniquity 
 comes at long strides upon us. We have enough to do to make 
 up our selves from present and passed times, and the whole stage 
 of things scarce serveth for our instruction. A compleat peece 
 of vertue must be made up from the Centos of all ages, as all 
 the beauties of Greece could make but one handsome Venus. 
 
 When the hones of King Arthur were digged up,*\ the old 
 Race might think they beheld therein some Originals of them- 
 selves ; unto these of our Urnes none here can pretend relation, 
 and can only behold the Reliques of those persons, who in their 
 life giving the Laws unto their predecessors, after long obscur- 
 ity, now lye at their mercies. But remembering the early civil- 
 ity they brought upon these Countreys, and forgetting long 
 passed mischiefs, we mercifully preserve their bones, and pisse 
 not upon their ashes. 
 
 In the offer of these Antiquities we drive not at ancient 
 
 *WhereinM. Dugdale 
 hath excellently well en- 
 deavoured, and worthy 
 to be countenanced by 
 ingenious and noble per- 
 sons. 
 
 \In the time of Henry 
 the second. Camden. 
 
Dedication 
 
 Families, so long out-lasted by them ; We are farre from erect- 
 ing y our worth upon the pillars of your Fore-fathers, whose 
 merits you illustrate. We honour your old Virtues, conformable 
 unto times before you, which are the Noblest Armoury. And 
 having long experience of your friendly conversation, void of 
 empty Formality, full of freedome, constant and Generous Hon- 
 *Adamas de rupe ve- esty, I look upon you as a Gemme of the Old Rock,* and must 
 
 teriprastantissimu*. p ro j esse my se lf even to Ume and Ashes, 
 
 Tour ever faithful Friend, 
 
 and Servant, 
 
 THOMAS BROWNE. 
 NORWICH, May 1. 
 
URNE-BURIALL 
 
Urne-Buriall 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 IN the deep discovery of the Subterranean world, a shal- 
 low part would satisfie some enquirers, who, if two or 
 three yards were open about the surface, would not 
 care to wrack the bowels of Totosi,* and regions towards *The rich mountain of 
 the Centre. Nature hath furnished one part of the Earth, Peru ' 
 and man another. The treasures of time lie high, in Urnes, 
 Coynes, and Monuments, scarce below the roots of some 
 vegetables. Time hath endlesse rarities, and showes of all 
 varieties ; which reveals old things in heaven, makes new 
 discoveries in earth, and even earth it self a discovery. That 
 great antiquity (^America lay buried for a thousand years ; 
 and a large part of the earth is still in the Urne unto us. 
 
 Though if osfdam were made out of an extract of the 
 earth, all parts might challenge a restitution, yet few have 
 returned their bones far lower than they might receive 
 them, not affecting the graves of Giants under hilly and 
 heavy coverings, but content with lesse then their own 
 depth, have wished their bones might lie soft, and the earth 
 be light upon them. Even such as hope to rise again, would 
 
Hydriotajihia 
 
 not be content with central interment, or so desperately to 
 place their reliques as to lie beyond discovery, and in no 
 way to be seen again ; which happy contrivance hath made 
 communication with our fore-fathers, and left unto our view 
 some parts, which they never beheld themselves. 
 
 Though earth hath engrossed the name yet water hath 
 proved the smartest grave; which in fourty dayes swal- 
 lowed almost mankinde, and the living creation ; fishes not 
 wholly escaping, except the salt Ocean were handsomely 
 contempered by a mixture of the fresh Element. 
 
 Many have taken voluminous pains to determine the 
 state of the soul upon disunion ; but men have been most 
 phantastical in the singular contrivances of their corporal 
 dissolution: whilest the soberest Nations have rested in 
 two wayes, of simple inhumation and burning. 
 
 That carnal interment or burying was of the elder date, 
 the old examples o^^Alraham and the Patriarches are suf- 
 ficient to illustrate, and were without competition, if it could 
 be made out, that ^Adam was buried near to 'Damascus, or 
 Mount Calvary, according to some Tradition, God himself 
 that buried but one, was pleased to make choice of this way, 
 collectible from Scripture-expression, and the hot contest 
 between Satan and the Arch- Angel, about discovering the 
 body of <*j7l4oses. But the practice of burning was also of great 
 Antiquity, and of no slender extent. For (not to derive the 
 fame from Hercules} noble descriptions there are hereof in 
 the Qredan Funeral of Homer, in the formal Obsequies of 
 'Patroclus, and <Achilles ; and somewhat elder in the Theban 
 
Urne-Buriall 
 
 war, and solemn combustion of (J/Weneceus, and 
 morus, contemporary unto Jair the Eighth Judge of Israel. 
 Confirmable also among the Trojans, from the Funeral Pyre 
 of Hector, burnt before the gates of Troy* and the burning 
 of Tenthesilea the ^Amazonian Queen, and long continu- 
 ance of that practice in the inward Countries ofo^fsia; while 
 as low as the Reign of Julian, we finde that the King ofChio- 
 nia~\- burnt the body of his Son, and interred the ashes in a 
 silver Urne. 
 
 The same practice extended also far West, J and besides 
 Herulians, 0-etes, and Thracians, was in use with most of the 
 Celta, Sarmatians, Qermans, 0-auls, 'Danes, Swedes, 'Norwe- 
 gians ; not to omit some use thereof among Carthaginians 
 and (Americans : of greater antiquity among the Romanes 
 then most opinion, or Tliny seems to allow. For (beside the 
 old Table Laws of burning or burying within the City, of 
 making the Funeral fire with plained wood, or quenching 
 the fire with wine) (^Manlius the Consul burnt the body of 
 his son ; f ]^uma by special clause of his will, was not burnt 
 but buried ; And < T$emus was solemnly buried, according to 
 the description of Ovid.\\ 
 
 Cornelius Sylla was not the first whose body was burned 
 in <r Rome, but of the Cornelian Family, which being indiffer- 
 ently, not frequently used before, from that time spread 
 and became the prevalent practice. Not totally pursued in 
 the highest run of Cremation ; For when even crows were 
 funerally burnt, Toppaa the wife of ^l^ero found a peculiar 
 grave interment. Now as all customs were founded upon 
 
 *4>. Calaber, lib. I . 
 
 \Ammianus Marcel- 
 linus, Gumbrates King 
 of Chionia a Countrey 
 near Persia. 
 
 Arnold. Montan. not- 
 in C<es. Commentar. 
 L. L. Gyraldus. Kirk- 
 mannus. 
 
 12 Tabul.part. I, de 
 jure sacro. Hominem 
 mortuum in urbe ne 
 sepelito, neve urito, torn. 
 2, Rogumasciane 
 polito. to. 4. Item 
 Vigeneri Annotat. in 
 Livium, & Alex, cum 
 Tiraquello. Roscinus 
 cum Dempstero. 
 
 1 1 Ultima prolato subdita 
 Jlamma rogo. De Fast, 
 lib. 4 cum Car. Neapol. 
 Anaptyxi. 
 
Hydriotaphia 
 
 some bottom of Reason, so there wanted not grounds for 
 this, according to several apprehensions of the most rational 
 dissolution. Some being of the opinion of Tholes, that water 
 was the original of all things, thought it most equal to sub- 
 mit unto the principle of putrefaction, and conclude in a 
 moist relentment. Others conceived it most natural to end 
 in fire, as due unto the master principle in the composition, 
 according to the doctrine of Heraclitus. And therefore 
 heaped up large piles, more actively to waft them toward 
 that Element, whereby they also declined a visible degen- 
 eration into worms, and left a lasting parcel of their compo- 
 sition. 
 
 Some apprehended a purifying virtue in fire, refining the 
 grosser commixture, and firing out the Ethereal particles so 
 deeply immersed in it. And such as by tradition or rational 
 conjecture held any hint of the final pyre of all things ; or 
 that this Element at last must be too hard for all the rest ; 
 might conceive most naturally of the fiery dissolution. 
 Others pretending no natural grounds, politickly declined 
 the malice of enemies upon their buried bodies. Which con- 
 sideration led Sylla unto this practice; who having thus 
 served the body of<*JMarius, could not but fear a retaliation 
 upon his own ; entertained after in the Civil wars, and re- 
 vengeful contentions of ^ome. 
 
 But as many Nations embraced, and many left it indiffer- 
 ent, so others too much affected, or strictly declined this 
 practice. The Indian Brachmans seemed too great friends 
 unto fire, who burnt themselves alive, and thought it the 
 
Urne-Buriall 
 
 noblest way to end their dayes in fire ; according to the ex- 
 pression of the Indian, burning himself at (Athens* in his 
 last words upon the pyre unto the amazed spectators, Thus 
 I make myself immortal. 
 
 But the Chaldeans, the great Idolaters of fire, abhorred 
 the burning of their carcasses, as a pollution of that Deity. 
 The ^Persian <tylagi declined it upon the like scruple, and 
 being only solicitous about their bones, exposed their flesh 
 to the prey of Birds and Dogs. And the Tersees now in 
 India, which expose their bodies unto Vultures, and endure 
 not so much as feretra or Biers of Wood, the proper Fuell 
 of fire, are led on with such niceties. But whether the ancient 
 Cj-ermans who buried their dead, held any such fear to 
 pollute their Deity of Herthus, or the earth, we have no 
 Authentick conjecture. 
 
 The ^Egyptians were afraid of fire, not as a Deity, but a 
 devouring Element, mercilesly consuming their bodies, and 
 leaving too little of them ; and therefore by precious Em- 
 balments, depositure in dry earths, or handsome inclosure 
 in glasses, contrived the notablest wayes of integral con- 
 servation. And from such ^Egyptian scruples imbibed by 
 ^Pythagoras, it may be conjectured that e ]^uma and the Py- 
 thagorical Sect first waved the fiery solution. 
 
 The Scythians who swore by winde and sword, that is, 
 by life and death, were so far from burning their bodies, 
 that they declined all interment, and made their graves in 
 the air. And the Ichthyophagi or fish-eating Nations about 
 JEgypt, affected the Sea for their grave : thereby declining 
 
 *And therefore the 
 Inscription of his Tomb 
 was made accordingly. 
 Nif. Damas. 
 
Hydriotaphia 
 
 * Which Magiui reads 
 
 \Diodorus Sifu/us. 
 
 ^Ramusius in Navigat 
 
 
 
 Cyprian. 
 
 visible corruption, and restoring the debt of their bodies. 
 Whereas the old Heroes in Homer dreaded nothing more 
 than water or drowning ; probably upon the old opinion of 
 the fiery substance of the soul, onely extinguishable by that 
 Element ; and therefore the Poet emphatically implieth the 
 total destruction in this kinde of death, which happened to 
 d/4jax O ileus.* 
 
 The old Balearians-\ had a peculiar mode, for they used 
 great Urnes and much wood, but no fire in their burials ; 
 while they bruised the flesh and bones of the dead, crowded 
 them into Urnes, and laid heaps of wood upon them. And 
 the Chinese"^ without cremation or urnal interment of their 
 bodies, make use of trees and much burning, while they 
 plant a Pine-tree by their grave, and burn great numbers of 
 printed draughts of slaves and horses over it, civilly content 
 with their companies in effigie, which barbarous Nations 
 exact unto reality. 
 
 Christians abhorred this way of obsequies, and though 
 they stick not to give their bodies to be burnt in their lives, 
 detested that mode after death ; affecting rather a depositure 
 than absumption, and properly submitting unto the sentence 
 of God, to return not unto ashes but unto dust again, con- 
 formable unto the practice of the Patriarches, the interment 
 of our Saviour, of Teter, Taut, and the ancient Martyrs. And 
 so far at last declining promiscuous interment with Pagans, 
 that some have suffered Ecclesiastical censures, for making 
 is the Bishop, no scruple thereof. 
 
 The d^!4usselman believers will never admit this fiery re- 
 
Urne-Buriall 
 
 solution. For they hold a present trial from their black and 
 white Angels in the grave ; which they must have made so 
 hollow, that they may rise upon their knees. 
 
 The Jewish Nation, though they entertained the old 
 way of inhumation, yet sometimes admitted this practice. 
 For the men of Jabesh burnt the body of Saul. And by no 
 prohibited practice to avoid contagion or pollution, in the 
 time of pestilence, burnt the bodies of their friends.* And 
 when they burnt not their dead bodies, yet sometimes used 
 great burnings near and about them, deducible from the 
 expressions concerning Jehoram, Sedechias, and the sump- 
 tuous pyre of ^/tsa: and were so little averse from Pagan 
 burning,-f that the Jews lamenting the death of C<zsar their 
 friend, and revenger on Tompey, frequented the place where 
 his body was burnt for many nights together. And as they 
 raised noble Monuments and Mausolaeums for their own 
 Nation, J so they were not scrupulous in erecting some for 
 others, according to the practice of 'Daniel, who left that 
 lasting sepulchral pyle in Echbatana, for the ^ledian and 
 Persian Kings. 
 
 But even in times of subjection and hottest use, they con- 
 formed not unto the f %omane practice of burning ; whereby 
 the prophecy was secured concerning the body of Christ, 
 that it should not see corruption, or a bone shall not be 
 broken ; which we believe was also providentially prevented, 
 from the Soldiers spear and nailes that past by the little 
 bones both in his hands and feet : Not of ordinary contriv- 
 ance, that it should not corrupt on the crosse, according to 
 
 *Amos VI i o. 
 
 f Sue ton. in vita Jul. 
 C<es. 
 
 \As that magnificent 
 sepulchral Monument 
 erected by Simon. Mace. 
 /. 13. 
 
 Koracr/cevacr/Aa Sau- 
 
 whereof a Jewish 
 Priest had always the 
 custody unto Josephus 
 his dayes. Jos. Antiq. 
 Lib. IO. 
 
8 Hydriot aphid 
 
 the Law of ^Romane Crucifixion, or an hair of his head per- 
 ish, though observable in Jewish customes, to cut the haires 
 of Malefactors. 
 
 Nor in their long co-habitation with the ^Egyptians, crept 
 into a custome of their exact embalming, wherein deeply 
 slashing the muscles, and taking out the braines and entrails, 
 they had broken the subject of so entire a Resurrection, nor 
 fully answered the types of Enoch, Elijah, or Jonah, which 
 yet to prevent or restore, was of equal facility unto that ris- 
 ing power, able to break the fasciations and bands of death, 
 to get clear out of the Cere-cloth, and a hundred pounds of 
 ointment, and out of the Sepulchre before the stone was 
 rolled from it. 
 
 But though they embraced not this practice of burn- 
 ing, yet entertained they many ceremonies agreeable unto 
 (j-reek and < ~Romane obsequies. And he that observeth their 
 Funeral Feasts, their lamentations at the grave, their musick 
 and weeping mourners ; how they closed the eyes of their 
 friends, how they washed, anointed, and kissed the dead ; 
 may easily conclude these were not mere Pagan-Civilities. 
 But whether that mournful burthen, and treble calling out 
 after Absalom, had any reference to the last conclamation, 
 and triple valediction, used by other nations, we hold but a 
 wavering conjecture. 
 
 Civilians make sepulture but of the Law of nations, others 
 do naturally found it and discover it also in animals. They 
 that are so thick skinned as still to credit the story of the 
 'Phoenix, may say something for animal burning. More se- 
 
Urne-Buriall 
 
 rious conjectures finde some examples of sepulture in Ele- 
 phants, Cranes, the Sepulchral Cells of Pismires and practice 
 of Bees ; which civil society carrieth out their dead, and hath 
 exequies, if not interments. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 I 
 
 Solemnities, Ceremonies, Rites of their crema- 
 tion or interment, so solemnly delivered by Au- 
 thours, we shall not disparage our Reader to 
 repeat. Only the last and lasting part of their Urnes, col- 
 lected bones and Ashes, we cannot wholly omit, or decline 
 that Subject, which occasion lately presented, in some dis- 
 covered among us. 
 
 In a Field of old Walsingham, not many months past, 
 were digged up between forty and fifty Urnes, deposited in 
 a dry and sandy soile, not a yard deep, not far from one 
 another : not all strictly of one figure, but most answering 
 these described ; some containing two pounds of bones, dis- 
 tinguishable in skulls, ribs, jawes, thigh-bones, and teeth, 
 with fresh impressions of their combustion. Besides the ex- 
 traneous substances, like pieces of small boxes, or combs 
 handsomely wrought, handles of small brasse instruments, 
 brazen nippers, and in one some kind of Opale.* 
 
 Near the same plot of ground, for about six yards com- 
 passe were digged up coals and incinerated substances, 
 
 */ one sent me by my 
 worthy friend Dr. 
 Thomas Whitherley 
 of Walsingham. 
 
10 
 
 Hydriotafihia 
 
 which begat conjecture that this was the Ustrina or place 
 of burning their bodies, or some sacrificing place unto the 
 Manes, which was properly below the surface of the 
 ground, as the Arae and Altars unto the gods and Heroes 
 above it. 
 
 That these were the Urnes of Romanes from the com- 
 mon custome and place where they were found, is no ob- 
 scure conjecture, not far from a 'Jtynane Garrison, and but 
 five mile from Brancaster, set down by ancient Record 
 under the name of Brannodunum. And where the adjoyning 
 Town, containing seven Parishes, in no very different sound, 
 but Saxon termination, still retaines the Name of Burnham, 
 which being an early station, it is not improbable the neigh- 
 bour parts were filled with habitations, either of Romanes 
 themselves, or Brittains Romanised, which observed the 
 ^Komane customes. 
 
 Nor is it improbable that the Romanes early possessed 
 this Country ; for though we meet not with such strict par- 
 ticulars of these parts, before the new Institution of Con- 
 stantine, and military charge of the Count of the Saxon 
 shore, and that about the Saxon Invasions, the 'Dalmatian 
 Horsemen were in the Garrison of Branchaster, yet in the 
 time of Claudius, Vespasian, and Severus, we finde no lesse 
 then three Legions dispersed through the Province of Brit- 
 tain. And as high as the Reign of Claudius a great over- 
 throw was given unto the Iceni, by the f ^omane Lieutenant 
 Ostorius. Not long after the Country was so molested, that 
 in hope of a better state Trasutagus bequeathed his King- 
 
Urne-Buriall 
 
 11 
 
 dom unto ^(ero and his Daughters ; and Boadicea his Queen 
 fought the last decisive Battle with Taulinus. After which 
 time and Conquest of<i/fgfieola the Lieutenant of Vespasian, 
 probable it is they wholly possessed this Countrey, ordering 
 it into Garrisons or Habitations, best suitable with their se- 
 curities. And so some f %omane habitations not improbable in 
 these parts, as high as the time of Vespasian, where the 
 Saxons after seated, in whose thin-filFd Mappes we yet 
 finde the Name of Walsingham. Now if the Iceni were but 
 Q-ammadims, d/fnconians, or men that lived in an Angle 
 wedge or Elbow of Brittain, according to the Original Ety- 
 mologic, this countrey will challenge the Emphatical appel- 
 lation, as most properly making the Elbow or Iken of 
 Icenia. 
 
 That Brittain was notably populous is undeniable, from 
 that expression of Casar.* That the Romanes themselves 
 were early in no small numbers, Seventy Thousand with 
 their associates slain by Boadicea, affords a sure account. 
 And though many ^omane habitations are now known, yet 
 some by old works, Rampiers, Coynes, and Urnes do testifie 
 their possessions. Some Urnes have been found at Castor, 
 some also about South-creeke and not many years past, no 
 lesse then ten in a field at Buxtone,-^- not nere any recorded 
 Garrison. Nor is it strange to finde c l(omane Coynes of Cop- 
 per and Silver among us ; of Vespasian, Trajan, ^Adrian, 
 Commodus, (^Antoninus, Severus, &c. But the greater num- 
 ber of ^Dioclesian, Constantine, Constans, Valens, with many 
 of Victorinus ^Posthumius, Tetricus, and the thirty Tyrants 
 
 \Hominum infnita 
 multitude est, creberri- 
 maque ; (edifida fere 
 Gallicis consimilia. 
 Cas.de Bella Gal. 7.5. 
 
 \In the ground of my 
 worthy Friend Rob. 
 Jegon Esq. wherein 
 some things contained 
 were preserved by the 
 most worthy Sir Wil- 
 liam Paston St. 
 
Hydriotaphia 
 
 *From Castor to Thet- 
 ford the Romans ac- 
 counted thirty two miles, 
 and from thence ob- 
 served not our common 
 road to London, but 
 passed by Combretonium 
 ad Ansam, Canonium, 
 Ceesaromagus, &c. by 
 Bretenham,Coggeshall, 
 Chelmesford, Burnt- 
 wood, &c. 
 
 fMost at Castor by Tar- 
 mouth, found in a place 
 called East-bloudyburgh 
 Furlong, belonging to 
 Mr. Thomas Wood, a 
 person of civility, indus- 
 try and knowledge in this 
 way, who hath made ob- 
 servation of remarkable 
 things about him, and 
 from whom we have 
 received divers Silver 
 and Copper Coynes. 
 "^Belonging to that No- 
 ble Gentleman, and true 
 example of worth Sir 
 Ralph Hare Baronet, 
 my honoured Friend. 
 A piece of Maud the 
 Empresse said to be 
 found in Buckenham 
 Castle with this in- 
 scription, Elle n' a elle. 
 \\At Thorpe. 
 ^Br amp ton Abbas 
 Journallensis. 
 
 in the Reigne of (jallienus ; and some as high as </[drianus 
 have been found about Thetford, or Sitomagus, mentioned in 
 the itinerary of ^/fntoninus, as the way from Venta or Cas- 
 tor unto London* But the most frequent discovery is made 
 at the two Castors by f l^orwich and Tarmouth^ at Burgh- 
 castle and Brancaster.% 
 
 Besides, the f ]^orman > Saxon and 'Danish pieces of Cuth- 
 red, Canutus, William, <*J7l4atilda 9 and others, some Brittish 
 Coynes of gold have been dispersedly found ; and no small 
 number of silver pieces neer|| f ^orwich with a rude head 
 upon the obverse, and an ill-formed horse on the reverse, 
 with inscriptions Ic. <Duro T. whether implying Iceni, 'Duro- 
 riges, Tascia, or Trinobantes, we leave to higher conjecture. 
 Vulgar Chronology will have e ]^orwich Castle as old as Julius 
 Casar; but his distance from these parts, and its Cj-othick 
 form of structure, abridgeth such Antiquity. The Brittish 
 Coynes afford conjecture of early habitation in these parts, 
 though the city of ^Norwich arose from the ruines of Venta, 
 and though perhaps not without some habitation before, was 
 enlarged, builded, and nominated by the Saxons. In what 
 bulk or populosity it stood in the old East-angle Monarchy, 
 tradition and history are silent. Considerable it was in the 
 'Danish Eruptions, when Sueno burnt Thetford and f l{or- 
 wich,^ and Ulfketel the Governour thereof was able to 
 make some resistance, and after endeavoured to burn the 
 'Danish Navy. 
 
 How the Romanes left so many Coynes in countries of 
 their Conquests, seemes of hard resolution, except we con- 
 
Urne-Buriall 13 
 
 sider how they buried them under ground, when upon bar- 
 barous invasions they were fain to desert their habitations 
 in most part of their Empire, and the strictnesse of their 
 laws forbidding to transfer them to any other uses ; wherein 
 the Spartans* were singular, who to make their copper */>/*/. in V j ta 
 money uselesse, contempered it with vinegar. That the Brit- 
 tains left any, some wonder; since their money was iron, 
 and iron rings before Casar; and those of after-stamp by 
 permission, and but small in bulk and bignesse ; that so few 
 of the Saxons remain, because overcome by succeeding 
 Conquerors upon the place, their coynes by degrees passed 
 into other stamps, and the marks of after ages. 
 
 Than the time of these Urnes deposited, or precise An- 
 tiquity of these Reliques, nothing of more uncertainty. For 
 since the Lieutenant of Claudius seems to have made the first 
 progresse into these parts, since Boadicea was overthrown 
 by the forces of f l{ero, and dAgricola put a full end to these 
 Conquests, it is not probable the Countrey was fully gar- 
 risoned or planted before; and therefore however these 
 Urnes might be of later date, not likely of higher Anti- 
 quity. 
 
 And the succeeding Emperours desisted not from their 
 Conquests in these and other parts ; as testified by history 
 and medal inscription yet extant. The Province of Brittain 
 in so divided a distance from Rome, beholding the faces of 
 many imperial persons, and in large account no fewer then 
 Casar, Claudius, Britannicus, Vespasian, Titus, 
 Severus, Commodus, Cjeta, and Caracalla. 
 
14 
 
 Hydriotafihia 
 
 A great obscurity herein, because no medal or Emper- 
 our's coyne enclosed, which might denote the dates of their 
 interments ; observable in many Urnes, and found in those 
 *Stowis Survey ofLon. of Spittle Fields by London,* which contained the coynes of 
 Claudius, Vespasian, Commodus, ^Antoninus, attended with 
 Lacrymatories, Lamps, Bottles of Liquor, and other appurt- 
 enances of affectionate superstition, which in these rural in- 
 terments were wanting. 
 
 Some uncertainty there is from the period or term of 
 burning, or the cessation of that practice. (JMacrobius af- 
 firmeth it was disused in his dayes. But most agree, though 
 without authentick record, that it ceased with the ^/fntonini. 
 Most safely to be understood after the Reigne of those Em- 
 perours, which assumed the name ofoSfntoninus, extending 
 untoHeliogabalus. Not strictly after <*J7l4arcus; for about fifty 
 years later we finde the magnificent burning and consecra- 
 tion of Severus ; and if we so fix this period or cessation, 
 these Urnes will challenge above thirteen hundred years. 
 
 But whether this practice was onely then left by Emper- 
 ours and great persons, or generally about ^orne y and not 
 in other Provinces, we hold no authentick account. For after 
 Tertullian, in the dayes of <*Jttinudus it was obviously ob- 
 jected upon Christians, that they condemned the practice of 
 burning.-f And we find a passage in Sidonius^ which assert- 
 eth that practice in France unto a lower account. And per- 
 haps not fully disused till Christianity fully established, which 
 gave the final extinction to these Sepulchral Bonefires. 
 
 Whether they were the bones of men or women or child- 
 
 \Execrantur rogos, et 
 damnant ignium sepul- 
 turam. Min. in Oct. 
 
 "[Sidon. Apollinaris. 
 
Urne-Buriall 
 
 ren, no authentick decision from ancient custome in distinct 
 places of burial. Although not improbably conjectured, that 
 the double Sepulture or burying place of (^Abraham, had 
 in it such intention. But from exility of bones, thinness of 
 skulls, smallness of teeth, ribbes, and thigh-bones, not im- 
 probable that many thereof were persons of minor age, or 
 women. Confirmable also from things contained in them : 
 in most were found substances resembling Combes, Plates 
 like Boxes, fastened with Iron pins, and handsomely over- 
 wrought like the necks or Bridges of Musical Instruments, 
 long brass plates overwrought like the handles of neat im- 
 plements, brazen nippers to pull away hair, and in one a 
 kinde of Opale yet maintaining a blewish colour. 
 
 Now that they accustomed to burn or bury with them, 
 things wherein they excelled, delighted, or which were dear 
 unto them, either as farewells unto all pleasure, or vain ap- 
 prehension that they might use them in the other world, is 
 testified by all Antiquity. Observable from the Gemme or 
 Beril Ring upon the finger of Cynthia, the Mistress of *Pro- 
 pertius, when after her Funeral Pyre her Ghost appeared 
 unto him. And notably illustrated from the Contents of that 
 T^omane Urne preserved by Cardinal Farnese,* wherein be- 
 sides great number of Gemmes with heads of Gods and 
 Goddesses, were found an Ape of Agath, a Grashopper, 
 an Elephant of Ambre, a Crystal Ball, three glasses, two 
 Spoons, and six Nuts of Crystal. And beyond the content 
 of Urnes, in the Monument of Childrick the first/f and 
 fourth King from Tharamond, casually discovered three 
 
 *Vigeneri Annot. in 4. 
 Liv. 
 
 f Chifflet in Anast, 
 Childer. 
 
16 
 
 Hydriotafihia 
 
 years past at Tournay, restoring unto the world much gold 
 richly adorning his Sword, two hundred Rubies, many hun- 
 dred Imperial Coynes, three hundred Golden Bees, the 
 bones and horseshoe of his horse interred with him ac- 
 cording to the barbarous magnificence of those dayes in 
 their sepulchral Obsequies. Although if we steer by the 
 conjecture of many and Septuagint expression, some trace 
 thereof may be found even with the ancient Hebrews, not 
 onely from the Sepulcral treasure of 'David, but the circum- 
 cision knives which Joshua also buried. 
 
 Some men considering the contents of these Urnes, last- 
 ing pieces and toyes included in them, and the custome of 
 burning with many other Nations, might somewhat doubt 
 whether all Urnes found among us were properly T^omane 
 Reliques, or some not belonging unto our Brinish, Saxon , 
 or Ttanish Forefathers. 
 
 In the form of Burial among the ancient Brittains, the 
 large Discourses of Casar, Tacitus, and Strabo are silent : 
 for the discovery whereof, with other particulars, we much 
 deplore the loss of that Letter which Cicero expected or re- 
 ceived from his Brother Quintus, as a resolution of Brittish 
 customes ; or the account which might have been made by 
 Scribonius Largus the Physician, accompanying the Em- 
 perour Claudius, who might have also discovered that frugal 
 *Dioms excerpta per Bit* of the old Brittains, which in the bigness of a Bean 
 ilin, in Severe. CQU ^ sat i s fi e t h e ir thirst and hunger. 
 
 But that the Druids and ruling Priests used to burn and 
 bury, is expressed by ^Pomponius ; that Bellinus the Brother 
 
Urne-Buriall 17 
 
 of Brennus,and King ofBrittains was burnt, is acknowledged 
 by Tolydorus, as also by ^/fmandus Zierexensis in Historia, 
 and Tineda in his Universa Historia (Spanish). That they 
 held that practice in (pallia, Ccesar expressly delivereth. 
 Whether the Brittains (probably descended from them, of 
 like Religion, Language and Manners) did not sometimes 
 make use of burning ; or whether at least such as were after 
 civilized unto the < T$omane life and manners conformed not 
 unto this practice, we have no historical assertion or denial. 
 But since from the account of Tacitus the Ttomanes early 
 wrought so much civility upon the Brittish stock, that they 
 brought them to build Temples, to wear the Gown, and 
 study the <r ^omane Laws and Language, that they conformed 
 also unto their Religious rites and customes in burials, seems 
 no improbable conjecture. 
 
 That burning the dead was used in Sarmatia, is affirmed 
 by (jaguinus, that the Sueons and Qoihlanders used to burn 
 their Princes and great persons, is delivered by Saxo and 
 Olaus; that this was the old germane practice, is also as- 
 serted by Tacitus. And though we are bare in historical par- 
 ticulars of such obsequies in this Island, or that the Saxons, 
 Jutes, and ^/Ingles burnt their dead, yet came they from 
 parts where 'twas of ancient practice; the Qermanes using 
 it, from whom they were descended. And even in Jutland 
 and Sleswick in ^Inglia Cymbrica, Urnes with bodies were 
 found not many years before us. 
 
 But the 'Danish and Northern Nations have raised an Aera 
 or point of compute from their Custome of burning their 
 
18 
 
 Hydriotaphia 
 
 *Roisold, Brendetyde. 
 Ildtyde. 
 
 f Olai Wormii Monu- 
 menta et Antiquitat. 
 Dan. 
 
 dead:* Some deriving it from Unguinus, some from Frotho 
 the great ; who ordained by Law, that Princes and Chief 
 Commanders should be committed unto the fire, though the 
 common sort had the common grave interment. So Stark- 
 atterus that old Heroe was burnt, and l^ingo royally burnt 
 the body of Harold the King slain by him. 
 
 What time this custome generally expired in that Nation, 
 we discern no assured period ; whether it ceased before 
 Christianity, or upon their Conversion, by o^fusgurius the 
 Qaul in the time of Ludovicus Tius the Son of Charles the 
 Great, according to good computes ; or whether it might 
 not be used by some persons, while for a hundred and eighty 
 years Paganisme and Christianity were promiscuously 
 embraced among them, there is no assured conclusion. 
 About which times the 'Danes were busie in England, and 
 particularly infested this Countrey : where many Castles 
 and strong holds were built by them, or against them, and 
 a great number of names and Families still derived from 
 them. But since this custome was probably disused before 
 their Invasion or Conquest, and the Romanes confessedly 
 practiced the same, since their possession of this Island, the 
 most assured account will fall upon the Romanes, or Brit- 
 tains Romanized. 
 
 However, certain it is that Urnes conceived of no f %pj 
 mane Original, are often digged up both in IJorway and 
 'Denmark, handsomely described, and graphically repre- 
 sented by the Learned Physician Wormius;-\ and in some 
 parts of 'Denmark in no ordinary number, as stands deliv- 
 
Urne-Buriall 
 
 ered by Authors exactly describing those Countreys. And* 
 they contained not onely bones, but many other substances 
 in them, as Knives, pieces of Iron, Brass and Wood, and one 
 of ^(orway a brass guilded Jewes harp. 
 
 Nor were they confused or careless in disposing the no- 
 blest sort, while they placed large stones in circle about the 
 Urnes, or bodies which they interred ; somewhat answer- 
 able unto the Monument ofl^ollrich stones in England,-^ or 
 sepulcral Monument probably erected by T^dlo, who after 
 conquered ^ormandy ; where 't is not improbable some- 
 what might be discovered. Mean while to what Nation or 
 person belonged that large Urne found at ^Ashbury^ con- 
 taining mighty bones, and a Buckler; what those large 
 Urnes found at little <*Jl4assingham, or why the d/fnglesea 
 Urnes are placed with their mouths downward, remains yet 
 undiscovered. 
 
 \Adolphus Cyprius in 
 Annal. Sleswic. urnis 
 adeo abundabat collis, 
 
 f In Oxfordshire, 
 Cambden. 
 
 \In Cheshire, Twinus 
 de rebus Albionicis. 
 
 / Norfolk, Hollings- 
 head. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 PLAYSTERED and whited Sepulchres were an- 
 ciently affected in cadaverous and corruptive Burials; 
 and the rigid Jews were wont to garnish the Sepul- 
 chres of the righteous. 1 1 Ulysses in Hecuba^ cared not how 
 meanly he lived, so he might finde a nobleTomb after death. 
 Great Princes affected great Monuments, and the fair and 
 larger Urnes contained no vulgar ashes, which makes that 
 
 xxii. 
 
 ^Euripides. 
 
20 
 
 Hydriota/ihia 
 
 disparity in those which time discovereth among us. The 
 present Urnes were not of one capacity, the largest con- 
 taining above a gallon, some not much above half that 
 measure ; nor all of one figure, wherein there is no strict 
 conformity, in the same or different Countreys; observ- 
 able from those represented by Casalius, Bosio, and others, 
 though all found in Italy ; while many have handles, ears, 
 and long necks, but most imitate a circular figure, in a 
 spherical and round composure ; whether from any mys- 
 tery, best duration or capacity, were but a conjecture. But 
 the common form with necks was a proper figure, making 
 our last bed like our first; nor much unlike the Urnes of our 
 *psa. ixiii. Nativity, while we lay in the nether part of the earth,* and 
 
 inward vault of our Microcosme. Many Urnes are red, 
 these but of a black colour, somewhat smooth, and dully 
 sounding, which begat some doubt, whether they were 
 burnt, or onely baked in Oven or Sun, according to the an- 
 cient way, in many Bricks, Tiles, Pots, and testaceous works; 
 and as the word testa is properly to be taken, when occur- 
 ring without addition, and chiefly intended by TUny, when 
 he commendeth Bricks and Tiles of two years old, and to 
 make them in the spring. Nor onely these concealed pieces, 
 but the open magnificence of Antiquity, ran much in the 
 Artifice of Clay. Hereof the house of ^JMausolus was built, 
 thus old Jupiter stood in the Capitol, and the Statua of Her- 
 cules made in the Reign of Tarquinius 'Priscus, was extant 
 in Tliny's dayes. And such as declined burning or Funeral 
 Urnes, affected Coffins of Clay, according to the mode of 
 
Urne-Buriall 
 
 21 
 
 irov, ov rj oiKOu/uen/ OVK 
 Dion. 
 
 Pythagoras, a way preferred by Varro. But the spirit of 
 great ones was above these circumscriptions, affecting Cop- 
 per, Silver, Gold, and Porphyrie Urnes, wherein Severus 
 lay, after a serious view and sentence on that which should 
 contain him.* Some of these Urnes were thought to have *x<wrs rw <Sv0po>- 
 been silvered over, from sparklings in several pots, with 
 small Tinsel parcels ; uncertain whether from the earth, or 
 the first mixture in them. 
 
 Among these Urnes we could obtain no good account of 
 their coverings ; onely one seemed arched over with some 
 kinde of brickwork. Of those found at Buxton some were 
 covered with flints, some in other parts with Tiles, those 
 at Yarmouth Caster were closed with Ttynane bricks. And 
 some have proper earthen covers adapted and fitted to them. 
 But in the Homerical Urne of Tatroclus, whatever was the 
 solid Tegument, we finde the immediate covering to be a 
 purple piece of silk : and such as had no covers might have 
 the earth closely pressed into them, after which disposure 
 were probably some of these, wherein we found the bones 
 and ashes half mortered unto the sand and sides of the Urne; 
 and some long roots of Quich, or Dogs-grass wreathed about 
 the bones. 
 
 No Lamps, included Liquors, Lachrymatories, or Tear- 
 Bottles attended these rural Urnes, either as sacred unto the 
 Manes, or passionate expressions of their surviving friends. 
 While with rich flames and hired tears they solemnized their 
 Obsequies, and in the most lamented Monuments made one , , 
 
 \Curn lacrymis posu- 
 
 part of their Inscriptions. -f Some finde sepulchral Vessels ere. 
 
22 
 
 Hydriotaphia 
 
 *Lazius. 
 
 \Aboutfive hundred 
 years. Plato. 
 
 \Vinum Opiminianum 
 annorum centum. 
 Petron. 
 
 1 2 Tabul. i . xi. de 
 Jure sacra. Neve au- 
 rum adito, ast quoiauro 
 denies vincti erunt, im 
 cum illo sepelire urere, 
 sefraude esto. 
 
 \\Plin. i. xvi. Inter 
 uAa atraTn) numeral 
 Theophrastus. 
 
 containing liquors, which time hath incrassated into gellies. 
 For beside these Lachrymatories, notable Lamps, with Ves- 
 sels of Oyles and Aromatical Liquors attended noble Ossua- 
 ries. And some yet retaining a Vinosity * and spirit in them, 
 which if any have tasted they have far exceeded the Palats 
 of Antiquity. Liquors not to be computed by years of an- 
 nual Magistrates, but by great conjunctions and the fatal 
 periods of Kingdoms. -f The draughts of Consulary date, 
 were but crude unto these, and Opimian wine J but in the 
 must unto them. 
 
 In sundry graves and Sepulchres, we meet with Rings, 
 Coynes, and Chalices ; ancient frugality was so severe, that 
 they allowed no gold to attend the Corps, but onely that 
 which served to fasten their teeth. Whether the Opaline 
 stone in this Urne were burnt upon the finger of the dead, 
 or cast into the fire by some affectionate friend, it will con- 
 sist with either custome. But other incinerable substances 
 were found so fresh, that they could feel no singe from fire. 
 These upon view were judged to be wood, but sinking in 
 water and tried by the fire, we found them to be bone or 
 Ivory. In their hardnesse and yellow colour they most re- 
 sembled Box, which in old expressions found the Epithete || 
 of Eternal, and perhaps in such conservatories might have 
 passed uncorrupted. 
 
 That Bay-leaves were found green in the Tomb of S. 
 Humbert^ after an hundred and fifty years, was looked 
 upon as miraculous. Remarkable it was unto old Spectators, 
 that the Cypresse of the Temple of 'Diana, lasted so many 
 
Urne-Buriall 
 
 hundred years : the wood of the Ark and Olive Rod of 
 <Aaron were older at the Captivity. But the Cypresse of 
 the Ark of f Hoah, was the greatest vegetable Antiquity, if 
 Josephus were not deceived, by some fragments of it in his 
 dayes. To omit the Moore-logs, and Firre-trees found un- 
 derground in many parts of England ; the undated ruines 
 of winds, floods or earthquakes ; and which in Flanders still 
 shew from what quarter they fell, as generally lying in the 
 North-East position.* 
 
 But though we found not these pieces to be wood, accord- 
 ing to first apprehension, yet we missed not altogether of 
 some woody substance ; for the bones were not so clearly 
 picked, but some coals were found amongst them ; a way to 
 make wood perpetual, and a fit associate for metal, whereon 
 was laid the foundation of the great Ephesian Temple, and 
 which were made the lasting tests of old boundaries, and 
 landmarks; whilest we look on these we admire not observ- 
 ations of Coals found fresh, after four hundred years.-f In 
 a long deserted habitation,]] even Egge-shells have been 
 found fresh, not tending to corruption. 
 
 In the Monument of King Childerick, the iron Reliques 
 were found all rusty and crumbling into pieces. But our 
 little iron pins which fastened the ivory works, held well to- 
 gether, and lost not their Magnetical quality, though want- 
 ing a tenacious moisture for the firmer union of parts, al- 
 though it be hardly drawn into fusion, yet that metal soon 
 submitteth unto rust and dissolution. In the brazen pieces 
 we admired not the duration but the freedom from rust, and 
 
 *Gorop. Becanus in 
 Niloscopio. 
 
 \OfBeringuccio nella 
 pyrotechnia. 
 
 \At Elmham. 
 
Hydriotafthia 
 
 * Sue ton. in vita Tib. 
 Et in Amphitheatre 
 semiustulandum, not. 
 Casaub. 
 
 ill favour ; upon the hardest attrition, but now exposed unto 
 the piercing Atomes of aire, in the space of a few moneths, 
 they begin to spot and betray their green entrals. We con- 
 ceive not these Urnes to have descended thus naked as they 
 appear, or to have entred their graves without the old habit 
 of flowers. The Urne of f Philoparmon was so laden with 
 flowers and ribbons, that it afforded no sight of itself. The 
 rigid Lycurgus allowed Olive and Myrtle. The ^Athenians 
 might fairely except against the practice of <r Democritus to 
 be buried up in honey, as fearing to embezzle a great com- 
 modity of their Country, and the best of that kinde in Europe. 
 ButTfo/0 seemed too frugally politick, who allowed no larger 
 monument then would contain four heroick verses, and de- 
 signed the most barren ground for sepulture ; though we 
 cannot commend the goodnesse of that sepulchral ground, 
 which was set at no higher rate than the mean salary of 
 Judas. Though the earth had confounded the ashes of these 
 Ossuaries, yet the bones were so smartly burnt, that some 
 thin plates of brasse were found half melted among them : 
 whereby we apprehended they were not of the meanest car- 
 casses, perfunctorily fired as sometimes in military, and com- 
 monly in pestilence, burnings ; or after the manner of abject 
 corps, hudled forth and carelesly burnt, without the Esqui- 
 line Port at c Rome ; which was an affront continued upon 
 Tiberius, while they but half burnt his body,* and in the Am- 
 phitheater, according to the custome in notable Malefactors; 
 whereas f l{ero seemed not so much to fear his death, as that 
 his head should be cut off and his body not burnt entire. 
 
Urne-Buriall 
 
 Some finding many fragments of skulls in these Urnes, 
 suspected a mixture of bones ; in none we searched was there 
 cause of such conjecture, though sometimes they declined 
 not that practice; the ashes of 'Domitian* were mingled 
 with those of Julia, of (^Achilles with those of Tatroclus; all 
 Urnes contained not single ashes ; without confused burn- 
 ings they affectionately compounded their bones ; passion- 
 ately endeavouring to continue their living Unions. And 
 when distance of death denied such conjunctions, unsatisfied 
 affections conceived some satisfaction to be neighbours in the 
 grave, to lye Urne by Urne, and touch but in their names. 
 And many were so curious to continue their living relations, 
 that they contrived large, and family Urnes, wherein the 
 Ashes of their nearest friends and kindred might succes- 
 sively be received,-f at least some parcels thereof, while their 
 collateral memorials lay in minor vessels about them. 
 
 Antiquity held too light thoughts from Objects of mor- 
 tality, while some drew provocatives of mirth from Anato- 
 mies, J and Jugglers shewed tricks with Skeletons ; when 
 Fiddlers made not so pleasant mirth as Fencers, and men 
 could sit with quiet stomacks while hanging was played be- 
 fore them. Old considerations made few mementos by 
 skulls and bones upon their monuments. In the Mgyptian 
 Obelisks and Hieroglyphical figures, it is not easie to meet 
 with bones. The sepulchral Lamps speak nothing lesse than 
 sepulture ; and in their literal draughts prove often obscene 
 and antick pieces : where we finde D. M.|| it is obvious to 
 meet with sacrificing pateras, and vessels of libation, upon 
 
 *Sueton. in vita Domi- 
 tian. 
 
 ^See the most learned 
 and worthy Mr. M. 
 Casaubon upon Anto- 
 
 ninus. 
 
 | Sic erimus cuncti, &c. 
 Ergo dum vivimus 
 vivamus. 
 
 barbarous pastime at 
 Feasts, when men stood 
 upon a rolling Globe, 
 with their necks in a 
 Rope, and a knife in 
 their hands, ready to 
 cut it when the stone 
 was rolled aw ay, where- 
 in if they failed, they 
 lost their lives to the 
 laughter of their spec- 
 tators. Athenaus. 
 
 || Diis manibus. 
 
Hydriotaphia 
 
 old sepulchral monuments. In the Jewish Hypogaeum* and 
 subterranean Cell at ^Rorne, was little observable beside 
 the variety of Lamps, and frequent draughts of the holy 
 Candlestick. In authentick draughts of(^/fnthony and Jerome, 
 we meet with thigh-bones and death's heads ; but the cemi- 
 teriall Cells of ancient Christians and Martyrs were filled 
 with draughts of Scripture Stories ; not declining the flour- 
 ishes of Cypresse, Palms, and Olive ; and the mystical Fig- 
 ures of Peacocks, Doves and Cocks ; but iterately affecting 
 the portraits of Enoch, Lazarus, Jonas, and the vision of 
 Ezechiel, as hopeful draughts, and hinting imagery of the 
 Resurrection ; which is the life of the grave, and sweetens 
 our habitations in the Land of Moles and Pismires. 
 
 Gentile inscriptions precisely delivered the extent of 
 men's lives, seldome the manner of their deaths, which his- 
 tory itself so often leaves obscure in the records of mem- 
 orable persons. There is scarce any Philosopher but dies 
 twice or thrice in Laertius ; nor almost any life without two 
 or three deaths in Tlutarch ; which makes the tragical ends 
 of noble persons more favourably resented by compassion- 
 ate Readers, who finde some relief in the Election of such 
 differences. 
 
 The certainty of death is attended with uncertainties, in 
 time, manner, places. The variety of Monuments hath often 
 obscured true graves: and Caenotaphs confounded Sepul- 
 chres. For beside their real Tombs, many have found hon- 
 orary and empty sepulchres, The variety of Homer's Mon- 
 \Fausan. in Attids. uments made him of various Countreys. Euripides*^ had his 
 
Urne-Buriall 
 
 Tomb in zSffrica, but his sepulture in <*JI4acedonia. And 
 Severus* found his real Sepulchre in f %ome, but his empty 
 grave in (pallia. 
 
 He that lay in a golden Urne-f eminently above the earth, 
 was not like to finde the quiet of these bones. Many of these 
 Urnes were broke by a vulgar discoverer in hope of en- 
 closed treasure. The ashes of^JMarcellus^ were lost above 
 ground, upon the like account. Where profit hath prompted, 
 no age hath wanted such miners. For which the most bar- 
 barous Expilators found the most civil Rhetorick. Gold 
 once out of the earth is no more due unto it ; what was un- 
 reasonably committed to the ground is reasonably resumed 
 from it; let Monuments and rich Fabricks, not Riches adorn 
 men's ashes ; the commerce of the living is not to be trans- 
 ferred unto the dead: it is not injustice to take that which 
 none complains to lose, and no man is wronged where no 
 man is possessor. 
 
 What virtue yet sleeps in this terra damnata and aged 
 cinders, were petty magick to experiment ; these crumb- 
 ling Reliques and long-fired particles superannuate such 
 expectations: bones, hairs, nails, and teeth of the dead, were 
 the treasures of old Sorcerers. In vain we revive such prac- 
 tices ; present superstition too visibly perpetuates the folly of 
 our fore-fathers, wherein unto old Observation this Island 
 was so compleat, that it might have instructed Tersia. 
 
 ^Plato's historian of the other world, lies twelve dayes 
 incorrupted, while his soul was viewing the large sections 
 of the dead. How to keep the corps seven dayes from cor- 
 
 *Lamprid. invit. Akx- 
 and. Severi. 
 
 \Trajanus. Dion. 
 
 \Plut. in vit. Marcelli. 
 The Commission of the 
 Gothish King Theodoric 
 for finding out sepul- 
 chral treasure. Cassio- 
 dor. Var. 1.4. 
 
 Britannia hodie earn 
 attonite celebrat tantis 
 ceremoniis, ut dedisse 
 Persis videri possit. 
 Plin. i. 29. 
 
28 
 
 Hydriotaphia 
 
 *To be seen in Licet, de 
 reconditis veterum lu- 
 cernis. 
 
 \Topographia Roma ex 
 Martiano. Erat et vas 
 ustrinum appellatum 
 quod in eo cadaver a 
 comburerentur. Cap. 
 de Campo Esquilino. 
 
 ruption by anointing and washing, without exenteration, 
 were an hazardable piece of art, in our choisest practice. 
 How they made distinct separation of bones and ashes from 
 fiery admixture, hath found no historical solution. Though 
 they seemed to make a distinct collection, and overlooked 
 not Tyrrhus hisi toe. Some provision they might make by 
 fictile Vessels, Coverings, Tiles, or flat stones, upon and 
 about the body. And in the same Field, not far from these 
 Urnes, many stones were found under ground, as also by 
 careful separation of extraneous matter, composing and 
 raking up the burnt bones with forks, observable in that 
 notable lump of Cj-aluanus <*JVLartianus* who had the sight 
 of the Vas Ustrinum, -f or vessel wherein they burnt the 
 dead, found in the Esquiline Field at Ityne, might have 
 afforded clearer solution. But their insatisfaction herein be- 
 gat that remarkable invention in the Funeral Pyres of some 
 Princes, by incombustible sheets made with a texture of As- 
 bestos, incremable flax, or Salamanders' wool, which pre- 
 served their bones and ashes incommixed. 
 
 How the bulk of a man should sink into so few pounds 
 of bones and ashes, may seem strange unto any who con- 
 siders not its constitution, and how slender a mass will re- 
 main upon an open and urging fire of the carnal composition. 
 Even bones themselves reduced into ashes, do abate a nota- 
 ble proportion. And consisting much of a volatile salt, when 
 that is fired out, make a light kind of cinders. Although 
 their bulk be disproportionable to their weight, when the 
 heavy principle of Salt is fired out, and the Earth almost 
 
Urne-Buriall 
 
 onely remaineth ; observable in sallow, which makes more 
 Ashes than Oake ; and discovers the common fraud of sell- 
 ing Ashes by measure, and not by ponderation. 
 
 Some bones make best Skeletons,* some bodies quick and 
 speediest ashes : who would expect a quick flame from Hy- 
 dropical Heraclitus ? The poisoned Soldier when his Belly 
 brake, put out two pyres in 'Plutarch.^ But in the plague of 
 oSfthens^ one private pyre served two or three Intruders ; 
 and the Saracens burnt in large heaps, by the King of Cas- 
 tile, shewed how little Fuel sufficeth. Though the Funeral 
 pyre of Tatroclus took up an hundred foot,|| a piece of an 
 old boat burnt 'Pompey ; And if the burthen of Isaac were 
 sufficient for an holocaust, a man may carry his own pyre. 
 
 From animals are drawn good burning lights, and good 
 medicines f against burning; though the seminal humor 
 seems of a contrary nature to fire, yet the body compleated 
 proves a combustible lump, wherein fire findes flame even 
 from bones, and some fuel almost from all parts. Though 
 the Metropolis of humidity** seems least disposed unto it, 
 which might render the skulls of these Urnes less burned 
 then other bones. But all flies or sinks before fire almost in 
 all bodies : when the common ligament is dissolved, the 
 attenuable parts ascend, the rest subside in coal, calx or 
 ashes. 
 
 To burn the bones of the King of Edom^\- for Lyme, 
 seems no irrational ferity; but to drink of the ashes of dead 
 relations,];]; a passionate prodigality. He that hath the ashes 
 of his friend, hath an everlasting treasure : where fire taketh 
 
 * Old bones according to 
 Lyserus. Those of young 
 persons not tall nor fat 
 according to Columbus. 
 
 fin vita. Grace. 
 IThucydides. 
 Laurent. Valla. 
 
 rj tvQa. 
 
 ^[Speran. Alb. Ovor. 
 
 **The brain. Hippo- 
 crates. 
 
 II. I . 
 
 J \As Artemisia of her 
 Husband Mausolus. 
 
Hydriotaphia 
 
 leave, corruption slowly enters ; in bones well burnt, fire 
 makes a wall against it self, experimented in copels, and 
 tests of metals, which consist of such ingredients. What the 
 Sun compoundeth, fire analyseth, not transmuteth. That 
 devouring agent leaves almost alwayes a morsel for the 
 Earth, whereof all things are but a colony; and which, if 
 time permits, the mother Element will have in their primi- 
 tive mass again. 
 
 He that looks for Urnes and old sepulchral Reliques, must 
 not seek them in the ruines of Temples, where no Religion 
 anciently placed them. These were found in a Field, accord- 
 ing to ancient custome, in noble or private burial ; the old 
 practice of the Canaanites, the Family of <A braham, and the 
 burying place of Joshua, in the borders of his possessions; 
 and also agreeable unto c ]$omane practice to bury by high- 
 wayes, whereby their Monuments were under eye: memo- 
 rials of themselves, and mementos of mortality unto living 
 passengers ; whom the Epitaphs of great ones were fain to 
 beg to stay and look upon them. A language though some- 
 
 *Siste viator. times used, not so proper in Church-Inscriptions.* The sen- 
 
 sible Rhetorick of the dead, to exemplarity of good life, first 
 admitted the bones of pious men and Martyrs within Church- 
 walls ; which in succeeding ages crept into promiscuous 
 practice. While Constantine was peculiarly favoured to be 
 admitted unto the Church Porch ; and the first thus buried 
 in England was in the dayes of Cuthred. 
 
 Christians dispute how their bodies should lye in the 
 
 \Kirckmannusdefuner. grave.-f In urnal interment they clearly escaped this Con- 
 
Urne-Buriall 31 
 
 troversie ; though we decline the Religious consideration, 
 yet in cemiterial and narrower burying places, to avoid con- 
 fusion and cross position, a certain posture were to be ad- 
 mitted ; which even Pagan civility observed. The Persians 
 lay North and South, the ^leganans and Phoenicians placed 
 their heads to the East, theoSTthenians, some think, towards 
 the West, which Christians still retain. And Eeda will have 
 it to be the posture of our Saviour. That he was crucified 
 with his face towards the West, we will not contend with 
 tradition and probable account; but we applaud not the 
 hand of the Painter, in exalting his Cross so high above those 
 on either side; since hereof we finde no authentick account 
 in history, and even the crosses found by Helena pretend no 
 such distinction from longitude or dimension. 
 
 To be knaved out of our graves, to have our skulls made 
 drinking-bowls, and our bones turned into Pipes, to delight 
 and sport our Enemies, are Tragical abominations, escaped 
 in burning Burials. 
 
 Urnal interments, and burnt Reliques lye not in fear of 
 worms, or to be an heritage for Serpents ; in carnal sepul- 
 ture, corruptions seem peculiar unto parts, and some speak 
 of snakes out of the spinal marrow. But while we suppose 
 common wormes in graves, 't is not easie to finde any there; 
 few in Church-yards above a foot deep, fewer or none in 
 Churches, though in fresh decayed bodies. Teeth, bones, 
 and hair, give the most lasting defiance to corruption. In 
 an Hydropical body ten years buried in a Church yard, we 
 met with a fat concretion, where the nitre of the Earth, and 
 
Hydriotaphia 
 
 * Of Thomas Marquesse 
 of Dorset, whose body 
 being buried 1530 was 
 1 608, upon the cutting 
 open of the Cerecloth, 
 found perfect and no- 
 thing corrupted, the flesh 
 not hardened, but in 
 colour, proportion, and 
 softnesse like an ordi- 
 nary corps newly to be 
 interred. Burton* s de- 
 script, of Leicestershire. 
 
 \In his Map of Russia. 
 
 the salt and lixivious liquor of the body, had coagulated 
 large lumps of fat into the consistence of the hardest Cas- 
 tile-soap; whereof part remaineth with us. After a battle 
 with the Tertians, the < T(omane Corps decayed in few dayes, 
 while the ^Persian bodies remained dry and uncorrupted. 
 Bodies in the same ground do not uniformly dissolve, nor 
 bones equally moulder ; whereof in the opprobrious disease 
 we expect no long duration. The body of the Marquess 
 of Ttorset seemed sound and handsomely cereclothed, that 
 after seventy eight years was found uncorrupted.* Common 
 Tombs preserve not beyond powder : a firmer consistence 
 and compage of parts might be expected from Arefaction, 
 deep burial or Charcoal. The greatest Antiquities of mortal 
 bodies may remain in petrified bones, whereof, though we 
 take not in the pillar of Lot 's wife, or Metamorphosis of 
 Ortelius^ some may be older than Pyramids, in the petri- 
 fied Reliques of the general inundation. When <i/flexander 
 opened the Tomb of Cyrus, the remaining bones discovered 
 his proportion, whereof urnal fragments afford but a bad 
 conjecture, and have this disadvantage of grave interments, 
 that they leave us ignorant of most personal discoveries. 
 For since bones afford not only rectitude and stability, but 
 figure unto the body, it is no impossible Physiognomy to 
 conjecture at fleshly appendencies, and after what shape 
 the muscles and carnous parts might hang in their full con- 
 sistences. A full spread Cariola shows a well-shaped horse 
 behinde ; handsome formed skulls give some analogy of 
 flesh resemblance. A critical view of bones makes a good 
 
Urne-Buriall 
 
 33 
 
 distinction of sexes. Even colour is not beyond conjecture 
 since it is hard to be deceived in the distinction of Negro(e)'s 
 skulls. 'Dante's Characters* are to be found in skulls as 
 well as faces. Hercules is not onely known by his foot. Other 
 parts make out their comproportions, and inferences upon 
 whole, or parts. And since the dimensions of the head meas- 
 ure the whole body, and the figure thereof gives conjecture 
 of the principal faculties, Physiognomy out-lives our selves, 
 and ends not in our graves. 
 
 Severe contemplators observing these lasting reliques, 
 may think them good monuments of persons past, little ad- 
 vantage to future beings ; and considering that power which 
 subdueth all things unto it self, that can resume the scattered 
 Atomes,or identifie out of any thing, conceive it superfluous 
 to expect a resurrection out of Reliques. But the soul sub- 
 sisting, other matter clothed with due accidents may solve 
 the individuality : yet the Saints we observe arose from 
 graves and monuments, about the holy City. Some think 
 the ancient Patriarchs so earnestly desired to lay their bones 
 in Canaan, as hoping to make a part of that Resurrection, 
 and though thirty miles from Mount Calvary, at least to lie 
 in that Region, which should produce the first-fruits of the 
 dead. And if according to learned conjecture, the bodies of 
 men shall rise where their greatest Reliques remain, many 
 are not like to erre in the Topography of their Resurrection, 
 though their bones or bodies be after translated by Angels 
 into the field of Ezechiel's vision, or as some will order it, 
 into the Valley of Judgement, or Jehosaphat.-\ 
 
 *The Poet Dante in his 
 view ofPurgatory,found 
 gluttons so meagre, and 
 extenuated, that he con- 
 ceived them to have been 
 in the Siege of Jeru- 
 salem, and that it was 
 easie to have discovered 
 Homo or Omo in their 
 faces : M being made 
 by the two lines of their 
 cheeks, arching over the 
 Eye-brows to the nose, 
 and their sunk eyes mak- 
 ing O O which makes 
 up Omo. 
 Par en Focchiaje anella 
 
 senza gemme : 
 Chi, nel visa degli uom- 
 
 ini legge OMO, 
 Bene avria quivi cono- 
 
 sciutofemme. 
 
 \Tirin. in Ezek. 
 
Hydriotajihia 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 *Rituale Graeum, 
 opera J. Goar in officio 
 exequiarum. 
 
 \Similis reviviscendi 
 promissa Democrito 
 vanitas, qui non revixit 
 ipse. Quae, malum, sta 
 dimentia est , iterari 
 vitam morte. Plin. \ . 
 T.C. 55. 
 
 jKeu Ta^a 8' K you'^s 
 
 evwv et deinceps. 
 
 Cedit enim retro de 
 terra quod fuit ante 
 In Terram, &c. Lu- 
 cret. 
 
 CHRISTIANS have handsomely glossed the de- 
 formity of death, by careful consideration of the 
 body, and civil rites which take off brutal termina- 
 tions. And though they conceived all reparable by a resur- 
 rection, cast not off all care of interment. And since the 
 ashes of Sacrifices burnt upon the Altar of God were care- 
 fully carried out by the Priests, and deposed in a clean field; 
 since they acknowledged their bodies to be the lodging of 
 Christ, and temples of the holy Ghost, they devolved not 
 all upon the sufficiency of soul existence; and therefore with 
 long services and full solemnities concluded their last Exe- 
 quies, wherein* to all distinctions the (jreek devotion seems 
 most pathetically ceremonious. 
 
 Christian invention hath chiefly driven at Rites which 
 speak hopes of another life, and hints of a Resurrection. 
 And if the ancient (gentiles held not the immortality of 
 their better part, and some subsistence after death, in sev- 
 eral rites, customes, actions and expressions, they contra- 
 dicted their own opinions : wherein 'Democritus went high, 
 even to the thought of a resurrection,^ as scoffingly re- 
 corded by 'Tliny. What can be more express than the 
 expression of Thocy Hides ?% Or who would expect from 
 Lucretius a sentence of Ecclesiastes? Before 'Plato could 
 
Urne-Buriall 35 
 
 speak, the soul had wings in Homer, which fell not, but flew 
 out of the body unto the mansions of the dead; who also 
 observed that handsome distinction of Demas and Sema, for 
 the body conjoyned to the soul and body separated from it. 
 Lucian spoke much truth in jest, when he said, that part 
 of Hercules which proceeded from <^/flcmena perished, that 
 from Jupiter remained immortal. Thus* Socrates was con- *pj ato in 
 tent that his friends should bury his body, so they would 
 not think they buried Socrates, and regarding onely his im- 
 mortal part, was indifferent to be burnt or buried. From 
 such Considerations 'Diogenes might contemn Sepulture. 
 And being satisfied that the soul could not perish, grow 
 careless of corporal interment. The Stoicks who thought 
 the souls of wise men had their habitation about the Moon, 
 might make slight account of subterraneous deposition; 
 whereas the Pythagoreans and transcorporating Philoso- 
 phers, who were to be often buried, held great care of their 
 interment. And the Tlatonicks rejected not a due care of the 
 grave, though they put their ashes to unreasonable expect- 
 ations, in their tedious term of return and long set revolu- 
 tion. 
 
 Men have lost their reason in nothing so much as their 
 Religion, wherein stones and clouts make Martyrs; and 
 since the Religion of one seems madness unto another, to 
 afford an account or rational of old Rites requires no rigid 
 Reader; that they kindled the pyre aversely, or turning 
 their face from it, was an handsome Symbole of unwilling 
 ministration ; that they washed their bones with wine and 
 
Hydriotaphia 
 
 milk, that the mother wrapt them in Linnen, and dryed 
 them in her bosome, the first fostering part, and place of 
 their nourishment; that they opened their eyes towards 
 heaven, before they kindled the fire, as the place of their 
 hopes or original, were no improper Ceremonies. Their 
 ?, vale, vale, nos last valediction * thrice uttered by the attendants was also 
 te ordine quo natura verv so lemn and somewhat answered by Christians, who 
 
 permit tet sequamur. .. v i -r i i i i i 
 
 thought it too little, if they threw not the earth thrice upon 
 the interred body. That in strewing their Tombs the Tfg- 
 manes affected the Rose, the (greeks Amaranthus and Myr- 
 tle ; that the Funeral pyre consisted of sweet fuel, Cypress, 
 Firre, Larix, Yewe, and Trees perpetually verdant, lay 
 silent expressions of their surviving hopes : wherein Chris- 
 tians which deck their Coffins with Bays have found a more 
 elegant Embleme. For that tree seeming dead, will restore 
 it self from the root, and its dry and exsuccous leaves re- 
 sume their verdure again; which if we mistake not, we have 
 also observed in Furze. Whether the planting of Yewe in 
 Church-yards, hold not its original from ancient Funeral 
 Rites, or as an Embleme of Resurrection from its perpetual 
 verdure, may also admit conjecture. 
 
 They made use of Musick to excite or quiet the affec- 
 tions of their friends, according to different harmonies. But 
 the secret and symbolical hint was the harmonical nature 
 of the soul ; which delivered from the body went again to 
 enjoy the primitive harmony of heaven, from whence it first 
 descended ; which according to its progresse traced by an- 
 tiquity, came down by Cancer , and ascended by Capricornus. 
 
Urne-Buriall 
 
 37 
 
 They burnt not children before their teeth appeared, as 
 apprehending their bodies too tender a morsel for fire, and 
 that their gristly bones would scarce leave separable re- 
 liques after the pyral combustion. That they kindled not fire 
 in their houses for some dayes after, was a strict memorial 
 of the late afflicting fire. And mourning without hope, they 
 had an happy fraud against excessive lamentation, by a 
 common opinion that deep sorrows disturbed their ghosts.* *Tu manes ne lade 
 
 That they buried their dead on their backs, or in a su- 
 pine position, seems agreeable unto profound sleep, and 
 common posture of dying ; contrary to the most natural way 
 of birth ; nor unlike our pendulous posture, in the doubtful 
 state of the womb. ^Diogenes was singular, who preferred 
 a prone situation in the grave, and some Christians -f like -^Russians, wv. 
 neither, who declined the figure of rest, and make choice 
 of an erect posture. 
 
 That they carried them out of the world with their feet 
 forward, not inconsonant unto reason : as contrary unto the 
 native posture of man, and his production first into it. And 
 also agreeable unto their opinions, while they bid adieu 
 unto the world, not to look again upon it ; whereas (^Ma- 
 hometans who think to return to a delightful life again, are 
 carried forth with their heads forward, and looking towards 
 their houses. 
 
 They closed their eyes as parts which first die or first 
 discover the sad effects of death. But their iterated clama- 
 tions to excitate their dying or dead friends, or revoke them 
 unto life again, was a vanity of affection ; as not presum- 
 
Hydriotafihia 
 
 ably ignorant of the critical tests of death, by apposition of 
 feathers, glasses, and reflexion of figures, which dead eyes 
 represent not, which however not strictly verifiable in fresh 
 and warm cadavers, could hardly elude the test in corps of 
 four or five dayes. 
 
 That they sucked in the last breath of their expiring 
 
 friends, was surely a practice of no medical institution, but 
 
 a loose opinion that the soul passed out that way, and a 
 
 *Francesco Perucd. fondnesse of affection from some * Tythagorical foundation, 
 
 Pompefunebri. ^^ ^ ^^ of Qne ^^ passed into another ; which they 
 
 wished might be their own. 
 
 That they poured oyle upon the pyre, was a tolerable 
 practice, while the intention rested in facilitating the accen- 
 sion ; but to place good Omens in the quick and speedy 
 burning, to sacrifice unto the winds for a dispatch in this 
 office, was a low form of superstition. 
 
 The Archimime or Jester attending the Funeral train, 
 and imitating the speeches, gesture, and manners of the de- 
 ceased, was too light for such solemnities, contradicting 
 their funeral Orations, and doleful rites of the grave. 
 
 That they buried a piece of money with them as a Fee of 
 the Elysian Ferryman, was a practice full of folly. But the 
 ancient custome of placing coynes in considerable Urnes, 
 and the present practice of burying medals in the Noble 
 Foundations of Europe, are laudable wayes of historical dis- 
 coveries, in actions, persons, Chronologies ; and posterity 
 will applaud them. 
 
 We examine not the old laws of Sepulture, exempting 
 
Urne-Buriall 
 
 39 
 
 certain persons from burial or burning. But hereby we ap- 
 prehend that these were not the bones of persons Planet- 
 struck or burnt with fire from Heaven: no Reliques of 
 Traitors to their countrey, Self-killers, or Sacrilegious Male- 
 factors; persons in old apprehension unworthy of the earth; 
 condemned unto the Tartarus of Hell, and bottomlesse pit 
 of Tluto, from whence there was no redemption. 
 
 Nor were onely many customes questionable in order to 
 their Obsequies, but also sundry practices, fictions, and 
 conceptions, discordant or obscure, of their state and future 
 beings ; whether unto eight or ten bodies of men to adde one 
 of a woman, as being more inflammable, and unctuously 
 constituted for the better pyral combustion, were any ra- 
 tional practice : or whether the complaint of 'Periander's 
 Wife be tolerable, that wanting her funeral burning she suf- 
 fered intolerable cold in Hell, according to the constitution 
 of the infernal house of Tluto, wherein cold makes a great 
 part of their tortures, it cannot passe without some question. 
 
 Why the Female Ghosts appear unto Ulysses, before 
 the Heroes and masculine spirits ; why the Pysche or soul 
 of Tiresias is of the masculine gender; * who being blinde * In Homer . 
 on earth sees more than all the rest in hell; why the Fune- /fcuov Tpe<nao O-K^T- 
 ral Suppers consisted of Egges, Beans, Smallage, and Let- Tpov 6XWV ' 
 tuce, since the dead are made to eat Asphodels -f about the -j-/ L*CU*. 
 Elysian meadows ; why, since there is no Sacrifice accept- 
 able, nor any propitiation for the Covenant of the grave, 
 men set up the Diety of (J/J4orta, and fruitlessly adored 
 Divinities without ears, it cannot escape some doubt. 
 
40 Hydriotaphia 
 
 The dead seem all alive in the humane Hades of Homer, 
 yet cannot we speak, prophesie, or know the living, except 
 they drink blood, wherein is the life of man. And therefore 
 the soules ofTenelope's Paramours conducted bj(>JMercury 
 chirped like bats, and those which followed Hercules made 
 a noise but like a flock of birds. 
 
 The departed spirits know things past and to come, yet 
 are ignorant of things present. Agamemnon foretells what 
 should happen unto Ulysses, yet ignorantly inquires what is 
 to become of his own Son. The ghosts are afraid of swords 
 in Homer, yet SyUlla tells Mneas in Virgil, the thin habit 
 of spirits was beyond the force of weapons. The spirits put 
 off their malice with their bodies, and Ctesar and Tompey 
 accord in Latine Hell, yet ^Ajax in Homer endures not a 
 conference with Ulysses : and 'Deiphobus appears all man- 
 gled in Virgil's Ghosts, yet we meet with perfect shadows 
 among the wounded ghosts of Homer. 
 
 Since Charon in Lucian applauds his condition among the 
 dead, whether it be handsomely said of ^Achilles, that living 
 contemner of death, that he had rather be a plowman's 
 servant than Emperour of the dead ? How Hercules his 
 soul is in hell, and yet in heaven, and Julius his soul in a 
 Star, yet seen byJEneas in hell? except the Ghosts were 
 but images and shadows of the soul, received in higher 
 mansions, according to the ancient division of body, soul, 
 and image or simulacrum of them both. The particulars of 
 future beings must needs be dark unto ancient Theories, 
 which Christian Philosophy yet determines but in a Cloud 
 
Urne-Buriall 41 
 
 of Opinions. A Dialogue between two Infants in the womb 
 concerning the state of this world, might handsomely illus- 
 trate our ignorance of the next, whereof methinks we yet 
 discourse in Tlato's den, and are but Embryon Philoso- 
 phers. 
 
 ^Pythagoras escapes in the fabulous hell of 'Dante* among *Dei inferno, cant. 4. 
 that swarm of Philosophers, wherein whilest we meet with 
 'Plato and Socrates, Cato is to be found in no lower place 
 than Purgatory. Among all the set, Epicurus is most con- 
 siderable, whom men make honest without an Elysium,w\\o 
 contemned life without encouragement of immortality, and 
 making nothing after death, yet made nothing of the King 
 of terrours. 
 
 Were the happinesse of the next world as closely appre- 
 hended as the felicities of this, it were a martyrdome to live; 
 and unto such as consider none hereafter, it must be more 
 than death to die, which makes us amazed at those audaci- 
 ties, that durst be nothing, and return into their Chaos 
 again. Certainly such spirits as could contemn death, when 
 they expected no better being after, would have scorned to 
 live had they known any. And therefore we applaud not 
 the judgement of (^Machiavel, that Christianity makes men 
 cowards, or that with the confidence of but half dying, the 
 despised virtues of patience and humility have abased the 
 spirits of men, which Pagan principles exalted, but rather 
 regulated the wildnesse of audacities, in the attempts, 
 grounds, and eternal sequels of death, wherein men of the 
 boldest spirits are often prodigiously temerarious. Nor can 
 
42 Hydriotafihia 
 
 we extenuate the valour of ancient Martyrs, who con- 
 temned death in the uncomfortable scene of their lives, and 
 in their decrepit Martyrdomes did probably lose not many 
 moneths of their dayes, or parted with life when it was 
 scarce worth the living. For (beside that long time past 
 holds no consideration unto a slender time to come) they 
 had no small disadvantage from the constitution of old age, 
 which naturally makes men fearful ; arid complexionally 
 superannuated from the bold and courageous thoughts of 
 youth and fervent years. But the contempt of death from 
 corporal animosity promoteth not our felicity. They may 
 sit in the Orchestra, and noblest Seats of Heaven, who have 
 held up shaking hands in the fire, and humanely contended 
 for glory. 
 
 Mean while Epicurus lies deep in T> ante's hell, wherein 
 we meet with Tombs enclosing souls which denied their 
 immortalities. But whether the virtuous heathen, who lived 
 better than he spake, or erring in the principles of himself, 
 yet lived above Philosophers of more specious Maximes, lie 
 so deep as he is placed ; at least so low as not to rise against 
 Christians, who, believing or knowing that truth, have last- 
 ingly denied it in their practice and conversation, were a 
 quasry too sad to insist on. 
 
 But all or most apprehensions rested in Opinions of some 
 future being, which, ignorantly or coldly believed, beget 
 those perverted Conceptions, Ceremonies, Sayings, which 
 Christians pity or laugh at. Happy are they, which live not 
 in that disadvantage of time, when men could say little for 
 
Urne-Buriall 43 
 
 futurity, but from reason. Whereby the noblest mindes 
 fell often upon doubtful deaths, and melancholy Dissolu- 
 tions ; with these hopes Socrates warmed his doubtful spirits 
 against that cold potion, and Cato before he durst give the 
 fatal stroke, spent part of the night in reading the immor- 
 tality of Tlato, thereby confirming his wavering hand unto 
 the animosity of that attempt. 
 
 It is the heaviest stone that melancholy can throw at a 
 man, to tell him he is at the end of his nature; or that there 
 is no further state to come, unto which this seems progres- 
 sional, and otherwise made in vain; without this accom- 
 plishment the natural expectation and desire of such a state 
 were but a fallacy in nature ; unsatisfied Considerators 
 would quarrel the justice of their constitutions, and rest 
 content that <^dam had fallen lower, whereby by know- 
 ing no other Original, and deeper ignorance of themselves, 
 they might have enjoyed the happinesse of inferiour Creat- 
 ures who in tranquillity possess their constitutions, as hav- 
 ing not the apprehension to deplore their own natures; and 
 being framed below the circumference of these hopes, or 
 cognition of better being, the wisdom of God hath necessi- 
 tated their contentment : but the superiour ingredient and 
 obscured part of our selves, whereunto all present felicities 
 afford no resting contentment, will be able at last to tell us 
 we are more than our present selves, and evacuate such 
 hopes in the fruition of their own accomplishments. 
 
44 
 
 Hydriotafihia 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 *Tibullui. 
 
 \Oracula Chaldaica 
 cum scholiis Psetii 
 et Phethonis. 
 ffir) Xar6vT<av crw/ia 
 \f/v)(a.l Ka.6apwrra.rai. 
 Vi corpus relin- 
 quentium anim<e 
 purissimce. 
 
 NOW since these dead bones have already out- 
 lasted the living ones of <*JVLeihuselah t and in a 
 yard under ground, and thin walls of clay, out 
 worn all the strong and specious buildings above it, and 
 quietly rested under the drums and tramplings of three 
 conquests, what Prince can promise such diuturnity unto 
 his Reliques, or might not gladly say, 
 
 Sic ego componi versus in ossa velim* 
 Time which antiquates Antiquities, and hath an art to make 
 dust of all things, hath yet spared these minor monuments. 
 In vain we hope to be known by open and visible conserva- 
 tories, when to be unknown was the means of their con- 
 tinuation and obscurity their protection ; if they dyed by 
 violent hand, and were thrust into their Urnes, these bones 
 become considerable, and some old philosophers would 
 honour them,-f whose souls they conceived most pure, which 
 were thus snatched from their bodies ; and to retain a 
 stronger propension unto them : whereas they weariedly 
 left a languishing corps, and with faint desires of re-union. 
 If they fell by long and aged decay, yet wrapt up in the 
 bundle of time, they fell into indistinction, and make but 
 one blot with infants. If we begin to die when we live, and 
 long life be but a prolongation of death, our life is a sad 
 
Urne-Buriall 
 
 45 
 
 composition ; we live with death, and die not in a moment. 
 How many pulses made up the life of tJWethuselah, were 
 work for (Archimedes : Common Counters sum up the life 
 of dJWoses his name.* Our dayes become considerable like 
 petty sums by minute accumulations ; where numerous frac- 
 tions make up but small round numbers ; and our dayes of 
 a span long make not one little finger.'f 
 
 If the nearnesse of our last necessity, brought a nearer 
 conformity unto it, there were a happinesse in hoary hairs, 
 and no calamity in half senses. But the long habit of living 
 indisposeth us for dying, when Avarice makes us the sport 
 of death, when 'David grew politickly cruel, and Solomon 
 could hardly be said to be the wisest of men. But many are 
 too early old, and before the date of age. Adversity stretch- 
 eth our dayes, misery makes </[lcmena's nights,]; and time 
 hath no wings unto it. But the most tedious being is that 
 which can unwish it self, content to be nothing, or never 
 to have been, which was beyond the mal-content of Job, 
 who cursed not the day of his life, but his nativity, content 
 to have so far been, as to have a title to future being, 
 although he had lived here but in an hidden state of life, 
 and as it were an abortion. 
 
 What Song the Syrens sang, or what name ^Achilles as- 
 sumed when he hid himself among women, though puzzling 
 questions, are not beyond all conjecture. What time the 
 persons of these Ossuaries entered the famous Nations of 
 the dead, 1 1 and slept with Princes and Counsellors, might 
 admit a wide solution. But who were the proprietaries of 
 
 */ the Psalme of 
 Moses. 
 
 ^According to the 
 ancient Arithmetick 
 of the hand wherein 
 the little finger of 
 the right hand 
 contracted, signified 
 an hundred. 
 
 Pier us in 
 Hieroglyph. 
 
 \ One night as long as 
 three. 
 
 The puzzling ques- 
 tions of Tiberius unto 
 Grammarians Marcel. 
 Donatus in Suet. 
 
 (jKXvra cOvca venpiav. 
 
Hydriotaphia 
 
 *That the world may 
 last but six thousand 
 years. 
 
 f Hector's fame lasting 
 above two lives of Me- 
 thuselah, before that 
 famous Prince was ex- 
 tant. 
 
 these bones, or what bodies these ashes made up, were a 
 question above Antiquarism, not to be resolved by man, nor 
 easily perhaps by spirits, except we consult the Provincial 
 Guardians, or tutelary observators. Had they made as good 
 provisions for their names, as they have done for their 
 Reliques, they had not so grossly erred in the art of per- 
 petuation. But to subsist in bones, and be but Pyramidally 
 extant, is a fallacy in duration. Vain ashes, which in the ob- 
 livion of names, persons, times, and sexes, have found unto 
 themselves a fruitlesse continuation, and onely arise unto 
 late posterity, as Emblemes of mortal vanities, antidotes 
 against pride, vainglory, and madding vices. Pagan vain- 
 glories, which thought the world might last for ever, had 
 encouragement for ambition, and finding no o^/ftropos unto 
 the immortality of their names, were never dampt with the 
 necessity of oblivion. Even old ambitions had the advantage 
 of ours, in the attempts of their vainglories, who acting 
 early, and before the probable Meridian of time, have by 
 this time found great accomplishment of their designes, 
 whereby the ancient Heroes have already outlasted their 
 Monuments and Mechanical preservations. But in this lat- 
 ter Scene of time we cannot expect such Mummies unto 
 our memories, when ambition may fear the Prophecy of 
 Elias* and Charles the first can never hope to live within 
 two (^Methuselah* s of Hector.-^- 
 
 And therefore restlesse inquietude for the diuturnity of 
 our memories unto present considerations, seemes a vanity 
 almost out of date, and superannuated piece of folly. We 
 
Urne-Buriall 
 
 47 
 
 cannot hope to live so long in our names, as some have done 
 in their persons ; one face of Janus holds no proportion to 
 the other. 'T is too late to be ambitious. The great muta- 
 tions of the world are acted, or time may be too short for 
 our designes. To extend our memories by Monuments, 
 whose death we dayly pray for, and whose duration we can- 
 not hope, without injury to our expectations, in the advent 
 of the last day, were a contradiction to our beliefs. We 
 whose generations are ordained in this setting part of time, 
 are providentially taken off from such imaginations. And 
 being necessitated to eye the remaining particle of futurity, 
 are naturally constituted unto thoughts of the next world, 
 and cannot excusably decline the consideration of that dura- 
 tion, which maketh Pyramids pillars of snow, and all that 's 
 past a moment. 
 
 Circles and right lines limit and close all bodies, and the 
 mortal right-lined-circle * must conclude and shut up all. 
 There is no antidote against the Opium of time, which tem- 
 porally considereth all things ; our fathers finde their graves 
 in our short memories, and sadly tell how we may be buried 
 in our Survivors. Grave-stones tell truth scarce fourty 
 years : -f- Generations passe while some trees stand, and old 
 Families last not three Oakes. To be read by bare inscrip- 
 tions like many in Qruter y \ to hope for Eternity by Enig- 
 matical Epithetes, or first letters of our names, to be studied 
 by Antiquaries, who we were, and have new Names given 
 us like many of the Mummies, are cold consolations unto 
 the Students of perpetuity, even by everlasting Languages. 
 
 *The character of 
 death. 
 
 } Old ones being taken 
 up, and other bodies laid 
 under them. 
 
 J Gr -uteri Inscriptiones 
 Antique. 
 
Hydriotaphia 
 
 *Cuperem notum esse 
 quod sim, non opto ut 
 idatur qualis sim. 
 Card, in vita propria. 
 
 To be content that times to come should onely know 
 there was such a man, not caring whether they knew more 
 of him, was a frigid ambition in Cardan* disparaging his 
 horoscopal inclination and judgement of himself, who cares 
 to subsist like Hippocrates' Patients, or &chUl*S* horses in 
 Homer, under naked nominations, without deserts and noble 
 acts, which are the balsame of our memories, the Entelechia 
 and soul of our subsistencies. To be namelesse in worthy 
 deeds exceeds an infamous history. The Canaanitish woman 
 lives more happily without a name, than Herodias with one. 
 And who had not rather have been the good thief, then 
 dilate? 
 
 But the iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy, 
 and deals with the memory of men without distinction to 
 merit of perpetuity. Who can but pity the founder of the 
 Pyramids ? Herostratus lives that burnt the Temple of T>i- 
 ana, he is almost lost that built it; time hath spared the 
 Epitaph of (Adrian's horse, confounded that of himselfe. 
 In vain we compute our felicities by the advantage of our 
 good names, since bad have equal durations; and Ther- 
 sites is like to live as long as Agamemnon. Without the 
 favour of the everlasting Register, who knows whether 
 the best of men be known ? or whether there be not more 
 remarkable persons forgot, then any that stand remembred 
 in the known account of time? the first man had been as 
 unknown as the last, and (^Methuselah's long life had been 
 his only Chronicle. 
 
 Oblivion is not to be hired : the greater part must be con- 
 
Urne-Buriall 49 
 
 tent to be as though they had not been, to be found in the 
 register of God, not in the record of man. Twenty seven 
 names make up the first story, and the recorded names ever 
 since contain not one living Century. The number of the 
 dead long exceedeth all that shall live. The night of time 
 far surpasseth the day, and who knows when was the ^Equi- 
 nox ? Every houre addes unto that current Arithmetique, 
 which scarce stands one moment. And since death must be 
 the Lucina of life, and even Pagans could doubt whether 
 thus to live were to die; since our longest Sun sets at right 
 descensions, and makes but winter arches, and therefore it 
 cannot be long before we lie down in darknesse, and have 
 our light in ashes ; since the brother of death daily haunts us 
 with dying mementos, and time that grows old it self, bids 
 us hope no long duration ; diuturnity is a dream and folly 
 of expectation. 
 
 Darknesse and light divide the course of time, and ob- 
 livion shares with memory a great part even of our living 
 being; we slightly remember our felicities, and the smartest 
 strokes of affliction leave but short smart upon us. Sense 
 endureth no extremities, and sorrows destroy us or them- 
 selves. To weep into stones are fables. Afflictions induce 
 callosities, miseries are slippery, or fall like snow upon us, 
 which notwithstanding is no stupidity. To be ignorant of 
 evils to come, and forgetful of evils past, is merciful pro- 
 vision in nature, whereby we digest the mixture of our few 
 and evil dayes, and our delivered senses not relapsing into 
 cutting remembrances, our sorrows are not kept raw by 
 
Hydriotaphia 
 
 * Omnia vanttas et 
 pastio venti, vo/xi) 
 ave[j.ov K<U )8d<rK?7crts, 
 ut olim Aquila et Sym- 
 machus. V. Drus. 
 Eccles. 
 
 the edge of repetitions. A great part of Antiquity contented 
 their hopes of subsistency with a transmigration of their 
 souls. A good way to continue their memories, while hav- 
 ing the advantage of plural successions, they could not but 
 act something remarkable in such variety of beings, and 
 enjoying the fame of their passed selves, make accumula- 
 tion of glory unto their last durations. Others rather than 
 be lost in the uncomfortable night of nothing, were content 
 to recede into the common being, and make one particle 
 of the publick soul of all things, which was no more then 
 to return into their unknown and divine Original again. 
 ^Egyptian ingenuity was more unsatisfied, contriving their 
 bodies in sweet consistencies, to attend the return of their 
 souls. But all was vanity,* feeding the winde, and folly. 
 The ^Egyptian Mummies, which Cambyses or time hath 
 spared, avarice now consumeth. Mummie is become Mer- 
 chandise, (JMizraim cures wounds, and Pharaoh is sold for 
 balsames. 
 
 In vain do individuals hope for immortality, or any patent 
 from oblivion, in preservations below the moon : men have 
 been deceived even in their flatteries above the Sun, and 
 studied conceits to perpetuate their names in heaven. The 
 various Cosmography of that part hath already varied the 
 names of contrived constellations ; r ^imrod is lost in Orion, 
 and Osyris in the Dogge-star. While we look for incorrup- 
 tion in the heavens, we finde they are but like the Earth, 
 durable in their main bodies, alterable in their parts ; where- 
 of beside Comets and new Stars, perspectives begin to tell 
 
Urne-Buriall 51 
 
 tales. And the spots that wander about the Sun, with 'Phae- 
 ton's favour, would make clear conviction. 
 
 There is nothing strictly immortal, but immortality; 
 whatever hath no beginning may be confident of no end. 
 All others have a dependent being, and within the reach of 
 destruction, which is the peculiar of that necessary essence 
 that cannot destroy it self; and the highest strain of omnipo- 
 tency to be so powerfully constituted, as not to suffer even 
 from the power of it self. But the sufficiency of Christian 
 immortality frustrates all earthly glory, and the quality of 
 either state after death makes a folly of posthumous mem- 
 ory. God who can onely destroy our souls, and hath assured 
 our resurrection, either of our bodies or names hath directly 
 promised no duration. Wherein there is so much of chance 
 that the boldest expectants have found unhappy frustra- 
 tion; and to hold long subsistence, seems but a scape in 
 oblivion. But man is a noble Animal, splendid in ashes, and 
 pompous in the grave, solemnizing Nativities and Deaths 
 with equal lustre, nor omitting Ceremonies of bravery, in 
 the infamy of his nature. 
 
 Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible Sun within 
 us. A small fire sufficeth for life, great flames seemed too 
 little after death, while men vainly affected precious pyres, 
 and burn like Sardanapalus, but the wisdom of funeral Laws 
 found the folly of prodigal blazes, and reduced undoing 
 fires, unto the rule of sober obsequies, wherein few could be 
 so mean as not to provide wood, pitch, a mourner, and an 
 Urne. 
 
52 Hydriotaphia 
 
 Five Languages secured not the Epitaph of (jordianus ; 
 the man of God lives longer without a Tomb then any by 
 one, invisibly interred by Angels, and adjudged to obscur- 
 ity, though not without some marks directing humane dis- 
 covery. Enoch and Elias without either tomb or burial, in 
 an anomalous state of being, are the great examples of per- 
 petuity, in their long and living memory; in strict account 
 being still on this side death, and having a late part yet to 
 act upon this stay of earth. If in the decretory term of the 
 world we shall not all die but be changed, according to 
 received translation, the last day will make but few graves ; 
 at least quick Resurrections will anticipate lasting Sepult- 
 ures ; some graves will be opened before they are quite 
 closed, and Lazarus be no wonder. When many that feared 
 to die shall groan that they can die but once, the dismal 
 state is the second and living death, when life puts despair 
 on the damned, when men shall wish the coverings of 
 Mountains, not of Monuments, and annihilation shall be 
 courted. 
 
 While some have studied Monuments, others have stu- 
 diously declined them : and some have been so vainly bois- 
 terous, that they durst not acknowledge their Graves; 
 *jornandes de rebus wherein Q^flaricus seems most subtle,* who had a River 
 Getuls - turned to hide his bones at the bottome. Even Sylla that 
 
 thought himself safe in his Urne, could not prevent reveng- 
 ing tongues, and stones thrown at his Monument. Happy 
 are they whom privacy makes innocent, who deal so with 
 
Urne-Buriall 53 
 
 men in this world, that they are not afraid to meet them in 
 the next, who, when they die, make no commotion among 
 the dead, and are not toucht with that poetical taunt of 
 
 Isaiah. * *Isa. xiv, 1 6, etc. 
 
 Pyramids, Arches, Obelisks, were but the irregularities 
 of vainglory, and wilde enormities of ancient magnanimity. 
 But the most magnanimous resolution rests in the Christian 
 Religion, which trampleth upon pride, and sits on the neck 
 of ambition, humbly pursuing that infallible perpetuity, 
 unto which all others must diminish their diameters and be 
 poorly seen in Angles of contingency. -f- ^Anguiuscontinge 
 
 Pious spirits who passe their dayes in raptures of futurity, ' ' least f An & les - 
 made little more of this world, then the world that was be- 
 fore it, while they lay obscure in the Chaos of preordination, 
 and night of their fore-beings. And if any have been so 
 happy as truely to understand Christian annihilation, extasis, 
 exolution, liquefaction, transformation, the kisse of the 
 Spouse, gustation of God, and ingression into the divine 
 shadow, they have already had an handsome anticipation of 
 heaven ; the glory of the world is surely over, and the earth 
 in ashes unto them. 
 
 To subsist in lasting Monuments, to live in their pro- 
 ductions, to exist in their names, and pragdicament of 
 Chymaeras, was large satisfaction unto old expectations 
 and made one part of their Elysiums. But all this is nothing 
 in the Metaphysicks of true belief. To live indeed is to 
 be again our selves, which being not onely an hope but 
 
54 
 
 Hydriotaphia 
 
 an evidence in noble believers, 't is all one to lie in St. 
 * in Pa where bodies Innocents* Church-yard, as in the Sands of Mgypt: ready 
 to be any thing, in the extasie of being ever, and as content 
 with six foot as the Moles of os4drianus.~\- 
 
 soon consume. 
 
 f A stately Mausoleum 
 or sepulchral pyle built 
 by Adrianus in Rome, 
 where now standeth the 
 Castle of St. Angela. 
 
 Tabesne cadavera solvat 
 n rogus haud refert. 
 
 LUCAN 
 
Three hundred and eighty-jive copies printed at the Riverside 
 Press for Houghton, Mifflin fc? Company, Boston and New York. 
 
 R 
 
 No. -L 4 7 
 
JOHN HOWELL || 
 
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