Pseudodoxia epidemica, or, Enquiries into very many received tenents, and commonly presumed truths. / By Thomas Brown Dr. of Physick. The fifth edition. With marginal observations, and a table alphabetical. Whereunto are now added two discourses the one of urn-burial, or sepulchrall urns, lately found in Norfolk. The other of the Garden of Cyrus, or network plantations of the antients. Both newly written by the same author.

  • Thomas Browne
Date:
1669
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pseudodoxia epidemica, or, Enquiries into very many received tenents, and commonly presumed truths. / By Thomas Brown Dr. of Physick. The fifth edition. With marginal observations, and a table alphabetical. Whereunto are now added two discourses the one of urn-burial, or sepulchrall urns, lately found in Norfolk. The other of the Garden of Cyrus, or network plantations of the antients. Both newly written by the same author. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    cage jaw ldger = ‘oat ES AIP Rrenwecs 4 \ Hydriotaphia, Uru-Burial. Meithaye, loft their Reafon in nothing fo much as their Religion, where- in Stones and Clouts make-Martyrsy; aid fince the Religion of-one fees Madnefs unto another, to.afford aa accoanty om rational-of old Rites re- quires norigid Reader. That they kindledst#e Pyre averfely,’ or turning their face from it, was an handfom Symbole ot unwilling Miniftration, That they wathed their Bones with Wine and Milk; that the Mother werapt them in Linen, anddried them inher Bofome, the firtt foftering part and place of their Nourifhment; that they opened their eyes to- wards Heaven before they kindled the Fire, as the place of their hopes or vale, vale, OFiginal s'Wwere md improper’ Ceremonies, Their faft Valediction (f) thrice vale, nos te ~ uttered by the Attendants Was ‘alfd ‘very folemh, and‘fomewhat ‘anfwered ordwe qx0 by Chriftians, who thought it too litrle, if they threw’ notthe earth ‘thrice Native Dor- yon the interred Body. “That in ftrewing their Tombs the Romans affec- e ay Lam ted the Rofe, thé Greeks dasaranchas and Myrtle; that’ the Funeral Pyre ors confiftedof feet fewel, Cyprefs, Piste, Larix, Yew, and Trees petpetually verdant 5\lay filent expteffions:'of ‘their {urviving Hopes *:’ wherein Chri- ' ftrans, whichdeck their Coffins with Bays, have found a more elegant Em- bleme, «For that Tree, feeming dead, ‘will reftore it self from the Root, and its dry and; exfiiccous Leaves refume their verdure again’; ‘which, if we miftake not, we have alfo obferved in Furze. Whether the planting of Yew in Church-yaids hold not its otiginal “from ancient Funeral-Rites, or as an Embleme’of: Reflirreétion from its perpethal Verdure, my alfo admit conjecture’ oe | | They made ufe-of Mufick to ‘excite or quiet the Affeétions of their Friends, according to. different Harmonies, ' But the fecret and fymboli- cal hinewas the Harmonical nature of the Soul, which delivered from the Body ivent again to enjoy the'primitive Harmony of Heaven, from whence at firit defcended 5: which, ' “according ‘to its ‘progrefs traced’ by Antiquity, came down by Cancer, and'afcended by Capricornus. 3 They burnt not Children before their Teeth appeared, as apprehending their Bodies tootender a morfel. for Fire, and thi their griltly Bones would fcarce leave feparable Reliques: after the pyral ‘Combuttion. © That they kindled not Fire in their houfes forfome days‘after, was a (trict me- morial of the late afflicting Fire. - And mourning withoat hope, they had an happy fraud aeainft exceffive Lamentation, by a commton opinion, that ¢ Tamaacs. deep Sorrows difturbed their Ghofts (¢). ndjlede meas. That they buried their dead-on their Backs, or in a fupine pofttion,feems agreeable unto profound Sleep and common poftire of dying, contrary tothe moft natural way: of Birth nor ‘unlike our pendylons pofture in the doubtful fate of the Woinb. Diogenes was fingular, who' preferred a % Ruffaews, - prone fituation i the Grave ; and fome Chrittians (4) like neither, who Or. declined the figure of Reft, and made choice of an ereét pofture. That they cartied thenrout of the world with their Feet forward, was ‘ot mconfonant anto Reafon 5 as contrary unto the native pofture of Man,, Min muouiss wynereas houles. The {nd eft Agectio Eyes tp vara days Tmt {ya pre ted founda withec Th the an mens difpat Th of the That Fenty Coyns ny the coves them, We fon B the Bo Relig: lefacte unto ¢]