A great part of antiquity
contented their hopes of subsistency with a transmigra-
tion of their souls,--a good way to continue their me-
mories, while having 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 accumulation of glory unto their last dura-
tions. 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 public soul of all
things, which was no more than to return into their un-
known and divine original again. Egyptian ingenuity
was more unsatisfied, contriving their bodies in sweet
consistences, to attend the return of their souls. But
all is vanity, feeding the wind, and folly. Egyptian
mummies, which Cambyses or time hath spared,
avarice now consumeth. Mummy is become mer-
chandise, Mizraim, cures wounds, and Pharaoh is sold
for balsams.
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.
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