HYDRIOTAPHIA.
URN BURIAL; OR, A DISCOURSE OF THE SEPULCHRAL URNS
LATELY FOUND IN NORFOLK.
TO MY WORTHY AND HONOURED FRIEND,
THOMAS LE GROS,
OF CROSTWICK, ESQUIRE.
WHEN the general 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 relicks, held no opinion of such after-considera-
tions.
But who knows the fate of his bones, or how often he
is to be buried? Who hath the oracle of his ashes, or
whither they are to be scattered? The relicks of many
lie like the ruins of Pompey's,* in all parts of the earth;
and when they arrive at your hands these may seem to
have wandered far, who, in a direct and meridian travel,+
* "Pompeios juvenes Asia atque Europa, sed ipsum terra
tegit Libyos."
+ Little directly but sea, between your house and Green-
land.
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