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• The Rights of War and Peace Book Ii
• Chapter I: Of the Causes of War; and First, of the Defence of Persons and Goods.
• Chapter II: Of Things Which Belong In Common to All Men.
• Chapter III: Of the Original Acquisition of Things; Where Also Is Treated of the Sea and Rivers.
• Chapter IV: Of a Thing Presumed to Be Quitted, and of the Right of Possession That Follows; and How Such a Possession Differs From Usucaption and Prescription.
• Chapter V: Of the Original Acquisition of a Right Over Persons; Where Also Is Treated of the Right of Parents: of Marriages: of Societies: of the Right Over Subjects: Over Slaves.
• Chapter VI: Of an Acquisition (possession Or Purchase) Derived From a Man’s Own Deed; Where Also of the Alienation of a Government, and of the Things and Revenues That Belong to That Government.
• Chapter VII: Of an Acquisition Derived to One By Vertue of Some Law; Where Also of Succeeding to the Effects and Estate of a Man Who Dies Without a Will.
• Chapter VIII: Of Such Properties As Are Commonly Called Acquisitions By the Right of Nations.
• Chapter IX: When Jurisdiction and Property Cease.
• Chapter X: Of the Obligation That Arises From Property.
• Chapter XI: Of Promises.
• Chapter XII: Of Contracts.
• Chapter XIII: Of an Oath.
• Chapter XIV: Of the Promises, Contracts, and Oaths of Those Who Have the Sovereign Power.
• Chapter XV: Of Publick Treaties, As Well Those That Are Made By the Sovereign Himself, As Those That Are Concluded Without His Order.
• Chapter XVI: Of Interpretation, Or the Way of Explaining the Sense of a Promise Or Convention.
• Chapter XVII: Of the Damage Done By an Injury, and of the Obligation Thence Arising.
• Chapter XVIII: Of the Rights of Embassies.
• Chapter XIX: Of the Right of Burial.
• Chapter XX: Of Punishments.
• Chapter XXI: Of the Communication of Punishments.
• Chapter XXII: Of the Unjust Causes of War.
• Chapter XXIII: Of the Dubious Causes of War.
• Chapter XXIV: Exhortations Not to Engage In a War Rashly, Tho’ For Just Reasons.
• Chapter XXV: Of the Causes For Which War Is to Be Undertaken On the Account of Others.
• Chapter XXVI: Of the Reasons That Justify Those Who Under Another’s Command Engage In War.

CHAPTER XIX

Of the Right of Burial.

I.From the same Law of Nations arises the Right of Burying the Dead.I. 1. From the same arbitrary Law of Nations arises the Right of Burying the Bodies of the Dead.1Dion Chrysostom, among those Customs which he opposes to written Laws, places this of Burial next to the Rights of Embassadors.2 And Seneca the Father,3 among those Laws that are unwritten, which yet are more certain than any that are written, inserts this of Interring the Dead. The Jewish Historians, Philo4 and Josephus,5 call it The Right of Nature. And Isidore Pelusiota, One of the Laws of Nature. As all common Customs, agreeable to natural Reason, are usually termed Laws of Nature,6 as we have observed elsewhere,7Common Nature, says Aelian,8commands us to bury the Dead. And in another Place,9Earth, and a Grave, are a common Claim, and equally due to all. Euripides,10 in his Suppliants, calls Sepulture The Law of Mankind. Aristides,11A common Law. Lucan,12A Ceremony that all Men are intitled to. Statius,13The Law of all the Earth, and the universal Agreement of the World. Tacitus,14The Commerce of human Nature. Lysias the Orator,15The common Hope of all. He that hinders it, is said by Claudian,16To divest himself of Humanity. And<390> by the Emperor Leo,17To disgrace his Nature. And by Isidore of Pelusium, τη̂ν ὄσιαν ὑβρίζειν, To violate all that is sacred.18

2. And because the Antients derived the Original of those Rights that are common to all civilized Nations, from the Gods, to the End they might be accounted the more sacred; as they did the Rights of Embassy, so we see this Right of Burial every where ascribed to the Gods. In the Tragedy of Euripides before quoted, you may find it called,19 Νόμον δαιμόνων, The Law of the Gods.20 And in Sophocles, Antigone makes this Answer to Creon, who denied Polynices Burial,

• For these Decrees were neither made by Jove,
• Nor by th’infernal Gods, from whom Mankind
• All other Rights derive. Nor did I think
• The Pow’r of mortal Man so great, that Laws
• Not written, but acknowledged by the Gods
• To be eternal, it could violate.
• Why then should I, deterr’d by mortal Rage,
• Neglect to see the heavenly Powers obey’d?

3. Isocrates treating of the Grounds of that War which Theseus made against Creon, speaks thus, Who is ignorant, who hath not been taught even in the Bacchanalia by the Dramatick Poets, what Misfortunes happened to Adrastus before Thebes, when, attempting to reduce Oedipus’ s Son, but his Son-in-Law, he lost most of his Army, and saw his Captains slain? He with Disgrace surviving, and not being able to obtain a Truce to bury his Dead, came a Suppliant to Athens (which was then governed by Theseus) and begged of him not to let those brave Men lie unburied, nor to suffer the antient Custom to be despised, and the Law of the Country, or rather the universal Law observed by all Mankind, to be violated, not being instituted by an human, but a divine Power: Which when Theseus heard, he forthwith sent his Embassadors to Thebes. The same Author immediately after,21 blames the Thebans for preferring the Decrees of their State, before the Laws of the Gods.22 He likewise makes Mention of the same Story in other Parts of his Works; and so do Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Xenophon, and Lysias. Aristides23 says, that this War was undertaken to vindicate the Rights of human Nature.

4. And we find every where, in antient Authors, this good Office of Burying the Dead, highly commended. For Cicero,24 and Lactan<391>tius, 25 call it an Act of Humanity; Valerius Maximus,26 of Humanity and Civility; Quintilian,27 of Compassion and Religion; Seneca,28 of Humanity and Compassion; Philo,29 of Commiseration of common Nature; Tacitus,30 a Commerce established in human Nature; Ulpian,31 an Act of Mercy and Piety; Modestinus32 terms it, the Memory of our mortal State; Capitolinus,33 an Act of Mercy; Euripides34 and Lactantius,35 of Justice; and Prudentius,36 of Liberality, or Charity. Optatus Milevitanus37 accuses the Donatists of Impiety, for denying Burial to the Bodies of Catholicks.<392>

• —— Creon must be beat
• By Dint of Arms, to Manners and to Man.

• Statius.38

Such Men, saith Spartianus,39 have no Regard to Humanity; Livy calls it a Cruelty,40 to which it is scarce credible, that any Man’s Anger or Revenge should hurry him; and41Homer, ἀεικέα ἔργα, An indecent Thing.42Lactantius condemns the Wisdom of those Men, as savouring too much of Impiety, who would make it superfluous to bury the Dead. Upon the same Account Eteocles is called impious, by Statius.43

II.From whence this Custom comes.II. 1. From whence this Custom of Burying the Dead took its Rise, whether they were first embalmed, as among the Aegyptians; or burnt, as among the Greeks; or only interred, as they are now, (which Cicero,1 and after him2Pliny, hold to be the most antient Custom) is not agreed upon. Moschion attributes it to the savage Cruelty of the Giants, who used to devour the dead Bodies of Men, the Abolition of which brutal Practice is signified by Burial; for thus he speaks,3

• Henceforth the Law ordain’d
• The Dead in Graves should be deposited,
• Not lye unburied to the View of Men:
• Dismal Memorial of once barb’rous Feasts.

2. Others are of Opinion, that Men, by Burying the Dead, do, as it were, of their own Accord, pay a Debt which the Law of Nature would otherwise require of them, tho’ they were unwilling. For that, Man’s Body4 being taken from the Earth, should be restored to the Earth again, was not only declared by GOD to Adam, but all the Greek and Latin Writers do universally acknowledge it. Thus Cicero,5 out of Euripides’s Hypsipyle:<393>

• —— Earth must be
• To Earth restor’d. ——

Solomon says, Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was, and the Spirit return unto GOD who gave it. Euripides being upon this very Subject, in the Person of Theseus, speaks thus in his Suppliants,6

• Permit the Slain to find a peaceful Grave:
• All Things to that, which gave them Birth, return.
• To Heav’n soars up the pure aetherial Mind,
• The mortal Part to parent Earth descends;
• ’Tis fit it should be so. For Life to Man,
• Not as a Property, but Loan, is given:
• And strait the Earth her foster Child resumes.

Lucretius likewise calls the Earth,7

• The teeming Womb, and common Grave of all.

Cicero, in his second Book of Laws, has quoted this Passage out of Xenophon, The Body is restored to the Earth, and being placed in an hospitable Grave, is, as it were, covered with its Mother’s Veil. Pliny likewise tells us, that the Earth receives us at our Birth, nourishes us after we are born, sustains us brought up, and at last, being forsaken of all the World, she, like a tender Mother, takes us into her Bosom, and covers and secures us there.8

3. Some think, that the Hopes of a Resurrection were by our first Parents signified to their Posterity by this Emblem of Burial.9 For Pliny testifies, that Democritus taught that Men’s Bodies ought to be deposited in the Earth,10 by Reason of a Promise given them of their being restored to Life again. And Christians also do often attribute this Custom of decently Burying the Dead, to their Hopes of a Resurrection. Thus Prudentius,11

• What means that sumptuous Mausoleum there,
• And this fine stately Tomb erected here,
• Unless those lodg’d within, not dead but Sleeping are?

4. But what seems the most plain and obvious Reason is, that since Man is the most noble of all living Creatures, it was not fit that his Body should be torn in Pieces, and devoured by Beasts. Wherefore Burial was found out, that this might be avoided as much as possible. By the Compassion of Men, saith Quintilian, dead Bodies are preserved12 from the Depredations of Birds and Beasts. So Cicero,<394> Being torn by wild Beasts, he wanted even the common Honour of Burial.13 And Virgil,14

• Lie there inglorious, and without a Tomb,
• Far from thy Mother, and thy native Home,
• Expos’d to savage Beasts, and Birds of Prey,
• Or thrown for Food, to Monsters of the Sea.

• Dryden.

And GOD himself threatens some wicked Kings, by his Prophets, that they should be buried with The Burial of an Ass, and that the Dogs should lick their Blood. Nor has Lactantius Regard to any Thing in Burial but the Dignity of human Nature, when he saith, We will not suffer the Image of GOD to lie as a Prey to wild Beasts and Fowls of the Air.15 And St. Ambrose, Nothing is more excellent than to do this good Office for him, who cannot requite thee; to defend the Body of thy Companion in Nature from the Fowls, and from the Beasts.16

5. But suppose there was no Fear of any such Injury, yet to suffer a Man’s Body to rot above Ground, and to be trodden under Foot, is an Indignity offered to human Nature. Agreeable to this is that Saying of Sopater, in his Controversies, ὅτι τὸ θάπτειν καλὸν, &c. That to bury the Dead is a very decent Thing, and instituted by Nature itself, lest the Bodies of Men after Death being naked, should be exposed to Shame and Reproach, whilst they dissolve and corrupt. And they that do this, perform an Office of Humanity acceptable to all, whether it be the Gods, or Demi-Gods, that have thus ordered to respect and honour the Dead. For it is not agreeable to Reason, that the Secrets of human Nature should, after Death, be exposed to publick View. Hence was derived that antient Custom of Burying the Dead, that being laid under Ground, we might not see them rot and moulder away. The like Reason is given by Gregory Nyssen, in his Letter to Letoius, We bury the Dead, saith he,17that the Shame of human Nature may not lie exposed to the Face of the Sun.

6. Hence it is, that this good Office of Burial is said to be performed, not so much to the Man, that is, the particular Person buried,18 as to Humanity, that is,<395> human Nature in general. Wherefore19Seneca and Quintilian20 called Burial, A Piece of publick Humanity; and Petronius,21A Piece of Humanity, derived down to us from our Ancestors. From all which Instances we may conclude, that Sepulture is not to be denied either to our private or publick Enemies. As to private Enemies, there is a fine Speech in Sophocles, about interring Ajax, where Ulysses thus says to Menelaus,22

• O Menelaus, do not sully all
• That you have spoke, by injuring the Dead.

The Reason whereof is given by Euripides, in his Antigone, thus,

• To ev’ry Mortal, Death’s the End of Strife;
• For what Revenge can you desire more?

So in his Suppliants,

• If the Argives did you wrong, they’re fallen;
• And that’s Revenge enough for any Foe.

And Virgil,

• With dead and vanquish’d Foes no War is made.23

Which Verse the Author to Herennius has quoted, and gives this Reason for it, For that, saith he, which is the last and greatest of Evils has already befallen them.24 With whom agrees Statius.

• We’ve been at War, ’tis true;
• But Wrath and Hate by Death are done away.25

The same Reason is given by Optatus Milevitanus, Tho’ your Passion was implacable while your Enemy lived, yet it should end with his Death; for he is now silent with whom you used to contend.26

III.It is due, even to Enemies.III. 1. And therefore it is agreed upon by all, that Burial is due, even to our publick Enemies. This, saith Appian,1is a common Right in all Wars. And Philo calls it,2The Commerce of War. Tacitus,3Our very Enemies do not envy us Graves.4 Dion Chrysostome, This is a Right religiously observed, even amongst Enemies, tho’ their Enmity was irreconcileable before. Lucan, treating upon this Subject, saith,5That funeral Rites are to be celebrated, even for Enemies. And Sopater, to the same Purpose, What War, saith he, can be so barbarous as to rob Mankind of its last Honour? What Enmity can extend the Resentment of Injuries so far as to dare to violate this Law? Whereunto we may add that of Dion Chry-<396>sostom, whom we have just now quoted; By this Law, saith he, the Dead are not accounted Enemies, nor does any Man extend his Anger and Revenge to the Bodies of the Slain.

2.6 Instances of this are every where to be met with. Thus Hercules buried his Enemies; Alexander, those he had slain at Issus,7Hannibal made a Search for the Romans,8C. Flaminius, P. Emilius,9T. Gracchus,10 and11Marcellus, to give them Burial. You would have thought, says Silius Italicus,12that it had been some Carthaginian Captain that had been slain. The very same was done by the Romans to Hanno13 the Carthaginian; to Mithridates by Pompey;14 by Demetrius, to many of his Enemies;15 and by Anthony to King Archelaus.16 This was Part of the Oath, which the Greeks took, when they made War with the Persians. I will bury all my Fellow-Soldiers, and if I come off Victorious, the very Barbarians.17 And all Histories abound with Instances of18 a Suspension of Arms obtained for taking away the Dead. The Athenians in Pausanias say, That they buried the Medes themselves; because all dead Bodies, whether of Friends or Foes, have a Right to be interred.19

3. Wherefore according to the Exposition of the Rabbi’s, the High-Priest, tho’ he was forbidden to be present at Funerals upon any other Occasion, yet,20 if a Man were found dead and unburied, he was commanded to bury him himself.21 And Christians have had so great Regard to this Duty, that, rather than fail of performing it, they have thought it lawful to melt down or sell their consecrated Plate, which they never did, but for the Relief of the Poor, or the Redemption of Captives.22

4. Some Instances indeed may be found of the contrary, but they are only such as are condemned by the general Voice of Mankind.<397>

• 23O save me from this Rage, ’tis all I ask!

Is in Virgil.

• Stript of the Man, the cruel Wretch deny’d
• The Slain a little Dust:

In Claudian.24 Wherewith agrees that of Diodorus Siculus, It is savage Cruelty to wage War with the Dead, who were lately of the same Nature with ourselves.25

IV.Whether even to notorious Malefactors.IV. 1. Some Doubt indeed might have been made concerning notorious Malefactors, if the Divine Law, given to the Hebrews, which as it is the Rule of all other Virtues, so it is likewise of Humanity, had not commanded, that those very Men that were hanged upon the Gallows (which was reckoned a Circumstance of the greatest Ignominy, Num. xxv. 4. Deut. xxi. 23. 2 Sam. xxi. 26.) should be buried the same Day. Hence Josephus1 also observes, that the Jews were so careful to bury their Dead, that they took down even the Bodies of those, who were executed by publick Justice, before the setting of the Sun, and interred them; and some other of the Hebrew Interpreters add, That they did this out of Reverence to the Image of GOD, wherein Man was created. Homer in his third Odyssey relates, that Aegysthus,2 who to the Sin of Adultery had added that even of the King’s Murder, was notwithstanding by Orestes the slain King’s Son buried. And even among the Romans, Ulpian informs us,3 the Bodies of executed Malefactors could not be denied to their Relations, if they required them; nay,4Paulus the Lawyer was of Opinion, that they were to be given to any that should ask them. And even Dioclesian and Maximilian the Emperors declare, in a Rescript,5We do not, say they, deny Burial to those Criminals, who have deservedly been put to Death.

2. In some Histories indeed we meet with Instances of those6 who have been cast out unburied, but this is oftner done in Civil, than in foreign Wars; and tho’ we sometimes see the Bodies of notorious Malefactors hung in Chains, to deter others; yet whether this be a laudable Custom or not, is much disputed, not only by Politicians but Divines.

3. On the contrary, we find those commended who have ordered the Bodies of those very Men to be buried, that had denied Burial to others; as Pausanias King of the Spartans, who, being sollicited by those of Aegina to retaliate the Barbarity of the Persians towards Leonidas, rejected their Counsel, as unworthy of himself and the Grecian Honour.7Theseus thus speaks to Creon in Statius.8

• Go forth and meet, the worst of Ills, thy Fate,
• Yet of a Grave secure.

The Pharisees buried King Alexander Jannaeus, who had used the Bodies of their dead Countrymen very barbarously. And tho’ GOD hath sometimes punished some Persons with the Loss of Burial, yet this he did by his own peculiar Right,<398> as his Authority is above all Laws. And whereas David kept the Head of Goliath to shew it, as a Token of his Victory, this was done to an Alien, to a Contemner of the true GOD, and under that Law wherein the Word Neighbour was confined to the Hebrews alone.

V.Whether also to those who kill themselves.V. 1. There is however this one Thing remarkable, that in the Jewish Law concerning Burial, an Exception was made of those who laid violent Hands upon themselves, as1Josephus informs us. And no Wonder, since no other Punishment can possibly be inflicted upon them who esteem Death itself to be none. Thus were the Milesian Virgins deterred from killing themselves,2 and3 the meaner People of Rome formerly, tho’ Pliny disapproves it.4 Thus did Ptolomy command the Body of Cleomenes,5 who had killed himself, to be hanged up. And6 it is every where customary, says Aristotle, to brand those with some Mark of Ignominy, who murder themselves; which Andronicus Rhodius explains, of prohibiting them Burial. And this Law, among many others enacted by Demonassa, Queen of Cyprus, is highly commended by Dion Chrysostom. Neither is it to the Purpose to object with Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Moschion and others, that the Dead are deprived of all Sense, and therefore can neither be affected with Pain nor Shame: For it is sufficient, if what is done to the Dead, strike a Terror into the Living, so as to discourage them from the Crime.7

2. For the Platonists do argue excellently well against the Stoicks,8 and such as hold it lawful for a Man to kill himself to avoid Slavery or the Pains of an acute Distemper or even out of Hopes of acquiring Glory, by maintaining, that the Soul is to be kept in the safe Custody of the Body, and not to be dismissed, but by the Command of him, who first gave it.9 Which Point is fully discussed by Plotinus, Olympiodorus and Macrobius upon Scipio’s Dream. Brutus, following this Opinion,10 had formerly condemned the Fact of Cato, tho’ he afterwards imitated it <399>himself. It is neither pious nor manly, saith he, to yield to adverse Fortune, and to fly away from those Calamities, which we should magnanimously bear. And Megasthenes observed,11 that the Fact of Calanus was by the wisest of the Indians condemned, it being contrary to their Maxims12 for any Man through Impatience to kill himself. Neither did the Persians approve of it, as appears by these Words of Darius in Curtius: I had rather die by another Man’s Crime, than my own.13

3. And therefore, to die was by the Hebrews called ἀπολύεσαι to be let go, or, to be dismist, as is plain not only from Luke ii. 29. but from the Septuagint Version of Gen. xv. 2. and Numbers; xx. about the End.14 Which way of Expression is also usual among the Greeks. He that dies, saith Themistius (de Anima) is said by them to be dismist, and Death they call a Dismission. We meet with much such an Expression also in Plutarch (de Consolatione) until GOD himself shall dismiss us.

4.15 Yet some of the Hebrews except one Case out of the Law against Self-Murder, as a Kind of commendable Departure, εὔλογος ἐξαγωνὴ, 16 when a Man plainly perceives, that his Life is like to be nothing for the future but a Reproach to GOD himself. For since it is concluded, that the Right over our own Lives is not in ourselves, but in GOD; as Josephus very well represented to his own Countrymen;17 they are of Opinion, that the Will of GOD, made known to us by sure Tokens, is the only lawful Reason why a Man should hasten his Death. To this Purpose they alledge the Example of Sampson,Judges xvi. who found, that the true Religion was made a mock of in his Person; and that of Saul, who fell upon his own Sword, that he might not be insulted by His and GOD’s Enemies. For they will have it, that he repented after Samuel’s Ghost had foretold him his Death, and altho’ he knew he should die in Case he did fight, yet that he would not refuse to fight for his Country and the Law of GOD,1Sam. xxxi. 4. having obtained eternal Praise thereby, as David himself declares. And hence it was, that he so highly commends those who had given Saul an honourable Burial.2Macc. xiv. 37. A third Instance we have in Razes a Senator of Jerusalem, as it is recorded in the History of the Maccabees. Instances are likewise to be met with in Ecclesiastical History of those that killed themselves,18 lest being put upon the Rack they<400> should abjure the Christian Faith; and of Virgins, who,19 to preserve their Chastity, have thrown themselves in to Rivers; whom notwithstanding the Church has thought fit to canonize as Martyrs. But yet it is worth while to see20 what St. Austin thinks of these People.

5. I find also, that another Exception to the general Rule of burying the Dead prevailed among the Greeks, which the Locrians objected against the Phocians, viz. that it was a Custom common to all Greece to cast out sacrilegious Persons unburied.21 The like doth Dion Prusaeensis report of such as were impious and notoriously wicked.22 And Plutarch, that the very same Punishment was established by Law in Athens23 against Traitors. But to return to my Subject; antient Writers do generally agree, that it is lawful to go to War with any Prince, that denies Burial to the Dead,§. 1.Num. 3. as appears by that Story of Theseus, which is recorded by Euripides and Isocrates, in the Places before cited.

VI.What other Rights belong to us by the Law of Nations.VI. There are also other Rights belonging to us by the arbitrary Law of Nations, as [[to what we have been possessed of a long Time, what comes to us by Contract, tho’ made upon very unequal Terms, and to succeed to the Estate of an Intestate Person. For all these, tho’ they have their Rise in some Measure from the Law of Nature, yet do they receive an additional Confirmation from human Laws, whether against the Uncertainty of Conjectures, or against some Exceptions, which<401> natural Reason might perhaps suggest; as we have already shewn when we treated of the Law of Nature.1

[1 ]The Right of Burial is indeed founded on the Law of Nature. See what is said on Pufendorf, B. II. Chap. III. § 23. Note 9. second Edition.

[2. ]Orat. De Consuetudine.

[3. ]He places this Duty in the same Rank with those of giving Alms, and raising a Person who has fallen, Lib. I. Controv. I. p. 85. Edit. Gron. major.

[4. ]The Author, probably, had his Eye on the Passage of this Author, which shall be quoted Note 29. on this Paragraph. I know not any Place where Philo formally calls the Custom of burying the Dead, a Law of Nature.

[5. ]I find this, where, speaking of the Siege of Jerusalem, he says, that the Jews, as if they had agreed to trample on the Laws of their Country, and those of Nature and common Humanity, and the Respect due to the Deity, let the Bodies of the Dead rot above Ground. Bell. Jud. Lib. V. Cap. II.

[6. ]The Passages, quoted by our Author, for the most Part, shew that it was mentioned as the Law of Nature, properly so called.

[7. ]See Chap. XII. of this Book, § 26. and B. III. Chap. VII. § 5. Num. 2.

[8. ]Var. Hist. Lib. XII. Cap. LXIV. p. 755. Edit. Periz.

[9. ]Idem. Lib. XIII. Cap. XXX.

[10. ]It is called so by the Chorus, speaking of the Burial which Creon refused those who had been slain in a Battle between him and Adrastus, near Thebes. Supplic. v. 378.

[11. ]Speaking of the same Story with Euripides, he says, that the Athenians espoused the Cause of the Argians, looking on the Violation of a Law common to all Mankind, as an Injury to themselves. Orat. XIII. Tom. I. p. 202. Edit. P. Steph.

[12. ]Pharsal. Lib. VII. v. 799, &c.

[13. ]Thebaid. Lib. XII. v. 642. where he immediately after speaks of Nature, which ought, in Conjunction with the Gods, to favour an Attempt tending to avenge its Rights. For the Case is the same here as in the Passages quoted Notes 10 and 11, v. 644, &c.

[14. ]It is where he speaks of the Manner how Tiberius treated those who were charged with being in Sejanus’s Party. After having put them to Death he forbad their being buried. Annal. Lib. VI. Cap. XIX. Num. 3, 4.

[15. ]The Orator says this also, on Occasion of the War between the Athenians and Thebans, because the latter refused Burial to the Slain of Adrastus’s Army. Orat. XXXI. Cap. II.

[16. ]The Poet speaks of Gildon, who added this Act of Barbarity to what he had been guilty of, in killing the Sons of his Brother Masceres. Bell. Gildon. v. 395, &c. Concerning the succinct and elegant Phrases here employed, Exuere hominem, fratrem, &c. see the learned and judicious Observations of the late Mr. Cuper, Lib. I. Cap. VIII. He there quotes the Words, without mentioning the Poet’s Name, and seems to suppose them spoken of Creon. Whence it appears, that he mistook this for a Passage in Statius. He had in his Memory confounded these Words of Claudian with those of the Thebais of Statius, Lib. XII. ver. 165, 166. Or, perhaps, he had lately read the Chapter in Alberic Gentilis on this Subject, where that Lawyer having quoted the Passage of Statius, adds, And another Latin Poet, speaking of another Creon, says, he divested himself of the Man. De Jure Belli, Lib. II. Cap. XXIV. p. 456, 457. But, however that may be, I thought I might make this Remark, to shew, occasionally, that my Author is not the only great Man who is liable to Mistake, when he quotes by his Memory.

[17. ]That Emperor doth not speak precisely of Refusal of Burial, but only of the Inconveniency attending the not allowing the Dead to be buried in Towns, as the Poor cannot be so soon carried out of Town, for Want of having left where withal to defray the Expences of a Funeral, and, consequently, must lie several Days above Ground. Novell. LIII.

[18. ]Epist. CCCCXCI.

[19. ]Sophocles, in his Ajax, and in his Antigone he calls it Θεω̂ν νόμους. Grotius.

[20. ]Supplic. v. 563.

[21. ]Plutarch, in his Theseus, will have it, that they obtained the Privilege of Burying from the Thebans, by Contract, and not by Force of Arms. But Pausanias, in his Attici, says, it was by Force of Arms. Grotius.

[22. ]Our Author here mistakes Isocrates’s Thought. The Orator, to shew the Deference at that Time paid to the Athenians, says, that those who had the Command at Thebes, shewed more Regard for their Demands than for the Laws made by the Gods themselves, for the Burial of the Dead. p. 269. The Author, reading this Passage hastily, and without observing the Sequel, imagined the Words ὑπὸ τη̂ς πόλεως, referred to the City of Thebes, whereas it relates to Athens.

[23. ]He there speaks of a different War, viz. that with the Amazons, Tom. 1. p. 204. But as this Instance is produced after the other, and our Author met with κᾳνταν̂θα which insinuates, that the Thought of Aristides belongs to both, he has referred it immediately to the former.

[24. ]Our Author, in his Margin, had quoted the Oration for Quintius; but I am well assured that there is no Passage in all that Oration, where the Word Humanitas is applied to the Right of Burial. I believe I have found the Occasion of the Mistake. Our Author, collecting Materials for this Chapter, made Use of Authorities which he found collected by other Writers. It is probable he had before him a long Note of Peter Daniel, on a Passage of Petronius, whom he quotes, § 2. where that Commentator explaining the Words tralatitia humanitas, produces a great Number of Passages, which mention some Duties of Humanity, not unlike that which regards the Burial of the Dead. He there sets down two from the Oration for Quintius, one from Chap. XVI. where it is said, that Good Men abate of their Right, even in Favour of Strangers and Enemies, on a Principle of Honour and Humanity. I find this quoted by Peter de Faure, in his Semestria, Lib. II. Cap. I. p. 11. almost with the same View. The second is taken from Chap. XXXI. where the Orator speaks almost to the same Purpose. Here our Author has confounded in his Memory, these Passages, with those relating to Burial. My Conjecture will be confirmed by another Inadvertency of the like Nature, which I shall observe in Note 27. on this Paragraph, and which flows from the same Source. Our Author may have been led into this Mistake by a Reflection we meet with in the Oration immediately following that for Quintius. I shall the more willingly set it down here, as it is remarkable; and I am surprized it was forgot in this Chapter, where it would have been natural to insert it. Cicero, speaking of Parricides, says, “Our Ancestors did not judge proper to expose the Bodies of those Wretches to wild Beasts, lest such Food might encrease their Ferocity; nor to throw them naked into the River, lest they should defile that Element which serves to purify other Things. They left such Criminals the Use of nothing common to Mankind. For what is so common as Air to the Living, Earth to the Dead, the Sea to those who sail on it, the Shore to those who are thrown on it.” Orat. pro S. Roscio Amerin. Cap. XXVI. The Punishment of Parricides was to be sown up in a Leather Sack, and thrown into the Sea.

[25. ]Who has this Expression too, Lib. VI. Cap. XII. That last and greatest Act of Piety, to bury Strangers, and the Poor.Grotius.

[26. ]Lib. V. Cap. I. which is entitled De Humanitate & Clementiâ, where several Instances are produced of Persons who have buried their Enemies; some of those are afterwards quoted by our Author.

[27. ]Here we have the other Mistake, which will confirm what I have said in Note 24. Our Author had here quoted, in his Margin, Quintilian, Lib. XII. Cap. ult. Institut. Orat. But that Chapter contains nothing relating to Burial. But he had seen the following Passage, thus quoted, both in Peter de Faure, Semestria, Lib. II. Cap. I. and in the Comment on Petronius above-mentioned. “As a Father of Eloquence he formed them; and as an experienced Sailor will instruct the Mariners, concerning Shores and Ports, tell them the Signs of an approaching Storm, and how to work the Ship in a fair or contrary Wind, not only on a Motive of Humanity, but even out of Love for the Employment.” Lib. XII. Cap. XI. Among other Passages of the Declamations of Quintilian the Father, he had also read one, where the Words Compassion and Religion are used, and that in Relation to Burial. Hence it is easy to conclude, that he has, by Mistake, quoted the Oratorical Institutions of the Son, instead of the Declamations of the Father or Grandfather.

[28. ]De Beneficiis, Lib. V. Cap. XX.

[29. ]It is where he introduces the Patriarch Jacob making great Complaint of the false News told him by his Sons, concerning Joseph’s Death. The afflicted Father bewails nothing so much as his Want of Burial; and addressing himself to his dear Son, he says to him, among other Things. Had it been absolutely necessary for thee to die a violent Death, it would have been less Trouble to me to have heard thou fell by a Man’s Hand; for tho’ the Murderer had been inhuman enough to leave thy Body unburied, Perhaps some Traveller seeing thy Corps, and touched with Compassion for human Nature, would have taken Care of, and buried it. Lib. de Joseph. p. 530. Edit. Paris.

[30. ]The Passage is quoted, Note 14.

[31. ]“It is therefore to be enquired and considered with what View the Charges (of the Funeral) were defrayed. Whether the Person who took Care of it did it as a Duty to the Deceased, or his Heir, or on a Motive of bare Humanity; whether he followed the Dictates of Mercy, or Piety, or Affection. The Design of shewing such Mercy may be also distinguished; for the Person may have been merciful and pious, only that the Corps might not lie unburied, not with a View of doing this Act at his own Expence,” &c. Digest. Lib. XI. Tit. VII. De religiosis & sumptib. funer. Leg. XIV. § 7.

[32. ]“The Heir is rather to be commended than condemned, who doth not obey the Testator’s Will, by throwing his Body into the Sea; but, being mindful of the Condition of human Nature, buries it.” Digest. Lib. XXVIII. Tit. VIII. De condition. Institutionum, Leg. XXVII.

[33. ]That Historian doth not speak precisely of Burial, but of Antoninus’s Goodness, who ordered the Bodies of even the lowest Rank of Men to be buried at the publick Expence; whereas that Compliment was usually paid to Persons of Distinction only. Vit. Anton. Cap. XIII.

[34. ]Supplic. v. 379, 526, 530. See likewise Sophocles, Ajax, v. 1352.

[35. ]“In what does Justice consist more, than in doing that for Strangers out of Humanity, which we perform for our own Relations out of Affection; which is much more certain and just, as it is not done for a Man who is sensible of nothing, but to GOD alone, in whose Presence a just Action is a most acceptable Sacrifice.” Inst. Div. Lib. VI. Cap. XII. Num. 31.

[36. ]Opus Benignum, an Act of Kindness. Cathemerin. Hymn X. v. 61, &c. Edit. Cellar.

[37. ]Lib. VI.

[38. ]Theb. Lib. XII. v. 165, 166.

[39. ]Vita Caracallae, Cap. IV.

[40. ]He is there speaking of the Treatment given to the Body of Alexander, King of Epirus, which being cut in two, part of it was sent to Consentia, &c. Lib. VIII. Cap. XXIV. Num. 14, 15.

[41. ]The same Author, in his 24th Iliad, says, that Jupiter, and the Gods, were angry with Achilles, for not using Hector’s Body so handsomely as he ought. Grotius.

[42. ]“Some indeed have thought the Burial of the Dead superfluous, and said, there is no Harm in letting the Body lie neglected and unburied. But the impious Wisdom of such Men is repugnant both to the common Sense of Mankind, and the Voice of GOD, which conspire in commanding that Action.” Instit. Divin. Lib. VI. Cap. XII. Num. 27.

[43. ]Thebaid. Lib. III. v. 97, 98.

[1 ]“The Manner of Burying the Dead, used by Cyrus, in Xenophon, seems to me the most antient. The Body is returned to the Earth, and being so placed, is lodged in its Mother’s Bosom.” De Legibus, Lib. II. Cap. XXII.

[2. ]Hist. Natur. VII. 54. where there is also this Passage, By Burying is meant any Kind of privately disposing of the Body; but by Interment, when it is laid in the Ground.Grotius.

See, concerning the Signification of the Word Sepelire, the fine Observations of the late Mr. Cuper, Lib. I. Cap. VII.

[3. ]Our Author here only gives us a Latin Version of his own, without telling us where he finds this Passage of the antient Poet. It may be seen in Stobaeus, and is Part of a large Fragment, in which Moschion describes the savage Life of the first Men, and the Manner how Mankind by Degrees became civilized. The Original stands thus,

• Κἀκτον̂δε τον̂ς, θανόντας ὥριζε νόμος
• Τύμβοις καλύπτειν κάπιμοιρα̂σθαι κόνιν,
• Νεκροὺς ἀθάπτους μηδ’ ἐν ὀϕθάλμοις ἐα̂ν,
• Τη̂ς πρόσθε θοίνης μνημόνευμα δυσσεβές
• Eclog. Tit. XI.

[4. ]Job x. 9. And Philo against Flaccus, Ἀνθρώποις ἡ ϕύσις, &c. Nature has ordained the Earth as Man’s proper Place, not only while he lives, but also when he is dead, that she who receives us at our coming into the World, may receive us too at our going out. But as there is no laudable Action done by Man, of which GOD has not imprinted some Similitude in some other Sort of Animal, so does it likewise happen in this very Affair. Pliny reports of Pismires, Lib. XI. 30. That they only, besides Men, of any Creature, bury one another. And yet he himself, speaking of the Dolphins, says, Lib. IX. 8. That they are seen carrying away their Dead, for Fear some Sea Monster should tear it in Pieces. And Virgil, of the Bees, has this remarkable Observation. Georg. Lib. IV. ver. 255, 256.

• And Crowds of Dead, that never must return
• To their loved Hives in decent Pomp are born:
• Their Friends attend the Hearse, the next Relations mourn.
• Dryd.

Servius says, With all the Solemnity of a Funeral.Grotius.

[5. ]Tuscul. Quaest. Lib. III. Cap. XXV. The Original of this Fragment is preserved by Plutarch, Consul. ad Apol. 110, 111.

[6. ]Supplic. v. 531, &c.

[7. ]Lib. V. v. 1260.

[8. ]Hist. Natur. Lib. II. Cap. LXIII.

[9. ]It ought to be proved, both that the Custom of Burying is as antient as the first Parents of Mankind, and that Men had then a Notion of a Resurrection. The History of those old Times is too concise to allow us to advance any Thing certain on those Heads.

[10. ]Our Author, trusting his Memory, has altered Pliny’s Sense. The Passage is Lib. VII. Cap. LV. where, having treated all that was usually said of Hell, and the State of Souls in another Life, as childish Fables, he adds, “Of the same Sort is Democritus’s idle Assurance, that the Bodies of Men would be preserved and live again; but he himself never returned into the World.” So that Pliny is not here speaking of Burial, of which he had treated in the preceding Chapter, but only of some Notion of a Resurrection of Bodies, which the Philosopher had framed to himself. On this see Mr. Le Clerc’s Philological Index to Stanley’s History of the Oriental Philosophy, at the Word Resurrection. Our Author had read, or remembered this Passage, as if it had run thus, Concerning the Preservation of Bodies, on the Account of a Promise of Resurrection. But had he consulted the Original, he would soon have seen it was impossible to find that Sense there.

[11. ]Cathemerin. Hymn X. ver. 53, &c. Edit. Cellar.

[12. ]Declam. VI. See the Prophecy about Jeroboam’s Posterity, for the Punishment of his Sins, 1 Kings xiv. 11. And Tertullian, on the Resurrection. Homer, in his third Odyss.

• Τῷ κέ οἱ οὐδὲ θανόντι, &c.
• When dead, not a few Ashes would they give
• Nor one small Turf to screen th’unhappy Corps;
• But all exposed to Dogs, and Fowl, a Prey
• They left it.

He speaks of Aegysthus, whom as an Adulterer, and the Usurper of the Crown, the Argives had thrown out unburied, but whose Remains were afterwards interred by the more compassionate Orestes, as you will hear by and by. Menelaus, in Sophocles, of Ajax,

• Ἀλλ’ ἀμϕὶ χλωρὰν, &c.
• But let his Carcase
• Rot on these yellow Sands, and feed the Fowl
• Which haunt the Beech, or swim the liquid Deep.

But this too Ulysses, a Precedent of singular Prudence, does forbid there. And Sophocles in his Antigone, to her great Praise, says,

• Ἥτις τη̂ν ἀυτάδελϕον, &c.
• Nor would she let her murther’d Brother lye
• Unburied, a Prey to voracious Dogs
• Or Birds.

Appian, Civil. I. of some People slain by Marius’s Order, Ταϕήν τε οὐδενὶ, &c. Nor was any one permitted to give any of the Persons killed, common Burial, but such Men as these were left to the mangling Mercy of Birds and Dogs.Ammianus Marcellinus, at the Beginning of his eighth Book, speaking of Julian, And for Fear that the ravenous Fowl should devour the Bodies of the Slain, he commanded them all without Distinction to be put into the Ground.Grotius.

In the Passage here quoted from Homer, the Poet is not speaking of what actually happened, but of what Menelaus would have done, had he been at Argos. This is evident from the Sequel of the Discourse. As to the Question itself, it is, perhaps, most natural to say, that the Custom of interring Bodies, which is the most antient, was introduced for avoiding the Nuisance of bad Smells, exhaling from them, especially in hot Countries, which were first peopled. To this other Notions may afterwards have been added, which differed according to Times and Places. The Reason, mentioned by our Author, has not made an Impression on all Nations; for we see the Hyrcanians gave human Bodies to be devoured by Dogs, which they kept for that Use. And the Magi, a famous Set of Philosophers in the East, did not bury their Dead, till they were torn by Dogs and Birds. See Herodotus, Lib. I. Cap. CXL. Cicero, Tuscul. Quaest. Lib. I. Cap. XLV. with Davies’s Notes. Sextus Empiricus, Pyrrhon. hypotyp. Lib. III. Cap. XXIV. § 227, with those of Mr. Fabricius. To which may be added, a Piece in the Hist. Critiq. Tom. XII. Art. X.

[13. ]De Invent. Lib. I. Cap. LV.

[14. ]Aeneid, Lib. X. v. 557, &c.

[15. ]Lib. VI. Cap. XII. Num. 30.

[16. ]Lib. De Tobia, Cap. I.

[17. ]Upon the same Account Agathias says, it is a Custom, Τὰ ἀισχυντηλὰ τω̂ν ὠδίνων ἐπικαλύπτειν, To cover and hide what comes from a Woman in Labour. Thus does it appear, both at our Birth and our Death, how very nothing we are by Nature. To denote which the Jewish Doctors said, that all People, both of the highest and lowest Condition, when born or deceased, must be wrapped up alike. Grotius.

[18. ]Servius, upon the eleventh Aeneid. For Sepulture is a Benefit that all Mankind is intitled to.Grotius.

[19. ]De Benefic. Lib. V. Cap. XX.

[20. ]Declamat. VI. Cap. III. Edit. Burman.

[21. ]Satyric. Cap. CXIV.

[22. ]This is not spoken by Ulysses, but by the Chorus. Ajax, v. 1110, 1111. Ulysses’s Speech comes in Ver. 1349, &c.

[23. ]Aeneid, XI. (104).

[24. ]Neither these Words, nor the Verse quoted from Virgil, can be found through the whole Book of Rhetorick, written by an antient Author, and which has long passed for a Work of Cicero. I am confident I can here shew what gave Occasion to the Mistake, which is an indisputable Proof, that our Author sometimes falls into one, by quoting on the Credit of others. Albericus Gentilis, in his Treatise De Jure Belli, Lib. II. Cap. XXIV. p. 459, having produced several of the Authorities here employed, adds this Passage, as taken from the third Book of the Rhetorick addressed to Herennius, No Man ought to be angry with the Dead. Thus Ulysses, &c. and thus Aeneas, &c. For that which is the last, &c. and thus Apollo in Homer (Iliad) Lib. XXIV. against Achilles, &c. but there is not one single Verse of Virgil, in the whole four Books of the Rhetorick in Question; and that Lawyer elsewhere makes Use of this Reason for proving, by the By, that the Work does not belong to Cicero, Which Author is notCicero, says he, if he has any Thing fromVirgil, p. 531. It is evident therefore, that our Author had no other Voucher for his Quotation than Alberic Gentilis; but I know not whence the Person last mentioned had taken the Words he produces. I have looked for them to no Purpose in Quintilian, and the Collection of the antient Latin Rhetoricians, published by Pithon, at Paris, in 1559.

[25. ]Thebaid. Lib. XII. v. 573, 574.

[26. ]Lib. II. contra Parm.

[1 ]De Bell. Punic. p. 105. Edit. Amst. (63 H. Steph.)

[2. ]That Author says, that “Men of Goodness and Humanity bury such of their Enemy as fall in Battle, even at their own Expence; and that those who extend their Enmity even to the Dead, make an Agreement with the Enemy, for allowing them to pay them the last Duties.” In Flac. p. 974.

[3. ]Annal. Lib. I. Cap. XXII. Num. 3.

[4. ]Orat. de Lege. See another Passage of that Orator, quoted § 1. Note 2.

[5. ]The Passage has been quoted in Note 12. on Paragraph 1.

[6. ]Josephus in legibus; Θαπτέσθωσαν δὲ καὶ οἱ πολέμιοι, Let even your Enemies be buried. Agamemnon, in the seventh Iliad, buries the Trojans; Antigonus, in Plutarch, does the same to Pyrrhus. See that Author in his Life of Pyrrhus.Grotius.

Homer does not say that Agamemnon ordered the Slain of the Trojan Army to be buried; but only that a Truce was made that each might bury their own. See Ver. 396, &c.

[7. ]Diodor. Sicul. Lib. XVII. Cap. XL.

[8. ]Hannibal ordered an Enquiry to be made for the Body of Flaminius, in order to bury it, but it was not found. Livy, Lib. XXII. Cap. VII. Num. 5.

[9. ]Livy says no more than that, “According to some Authors, the Body of that Roman Consul was sought for and buried.” Ibid. Cap. LII. Num. 6.

[10. ]Another uncertain Fact. “There are several Accounts, says Livy of Gracchus’s Funeral. Some say he was buried by his own Countrymen in the Roman Camp: Others that Hannibal raised a funeral Pile for him at the Entrance of the Carthaginian Camp; which is the most common Report.” Lib. XXV. Cap. XVII. Num. 4.

[11. ]See Plutarch, in his Life, p. 316. Tom. I. Edit. Wech.Cicero like wise observes that “The cruellest of Enemies did not allow his dead Body to be deprived of the Honour of Burial.” De Senect. Cap. XX.

[12. ]De Bello Punico. Lib. XV. Ver. 389, 390.

[13. ]Our Author takes this from Valerius Maximus, Lib. V. Cap. I. Num. 2.

[14. ]See Appian of Alexander, p. 413. Edit. Amst. (250. H. Steph.)

[15. ]As, for Example, after the Victory he obtained at Salamis, over Ptolomy.Plutarch, in his Life, p. 896.

[16. ]See Plutarch in his Life, p. 917.

[17. ]The Author takes this from Diodorus of Sicily; at least I know of no other Historian, who has given us the Form of the Oath in Question. But he has given a wrong Turn to the Clause, which when righly translated, is nothing to the Purpose. The Original stands thus: Ἀλλὰ τοὺς ἐν τῃ̑ μάχη τελευτήσαντας τω̂ν συμμάχων πάντας θάψω καὶ· κρατήσας τῷ πολέμῳ τω̂ν Βαρβάρων οὐδεμίαν τω̂ν ἀγονισαμένων πόλεων ἀνάστατον ποιήσω. That is, I will bury all those of the Allies, who shall fall in Battle; and when I have gained the Victory over the Barbarians, I will not sack any of the Towns taken. Biblioth. Histor. Lib. XI. Cap. XXIX. p. 258. Edit. H. Steph. This is a very different Sense, and contains nothing relating to the Burial of the Enemy. Our Author having either read this Passage in haste, or remembered it imperfectly, has curtailed it, and at the same Time altered the pointing, as if it had been, πάντας θάψω καί κρατήσας τῷ πολέμῳ τοὺς Βαρβάρους. Here then is a very remarkable Instance of the Necessity of tracing the Sources of Quotations; and comparing the Passages cited with the Originals.

[18. ]See below B. III. Chap. XX. § 45. Grotius.

See an Example of this in Note 21. on § 1. of this Chapter.

[19. ]Lib. I. Cap. XXXII. p. 31. Edit. Wech.

[20. ]See Leviticus, xxi. 1, &c.

[21. ]Servius observes the same out of the Roman Pontifical Law. Grotius.

In his Comment on the Sixth Book of the Aeneid, where he says, that, “Though the Pontiffs were not allowed even to see a dead Corpse, yet it had been a greater Fault in them to leave it unburied after they had seen it. The bare throwing some handfuls of Earth on the Body would have been a Sort of Burial.” On Ver. 176. See Guthier, De Jure Manium, Lib. II. Cap. VIII. In which Piece, however, this remarkable Passage of Servius is not inserted.

[22. ]“No one can complain that Captives are redeemed: No one can be displeased that the Temple of GOD is built: No one can be angry that Ground is allowed for burying the Remains of the Faithful: No one can grieve that the Dead are at rest by being interred. In these three Cases, the Vessels of the Church, even after they have been consecrated, may be broken, melted down and sold.” Ambros. De Offic. Lib. II. Cap. XXVIII.

[23. ]Serviusinterprets this, the Fury of his Enemies, which would even after his Death desire to insult him.Grotius.

[24. ]See the Passage quoted in Note 16. on Paragraph I.

[25. ]Lib. V. Cap. XXIX. p. 213. Edit. H. Steph.

[1 ]It is where he is speaking of the Cruelty of the Idumeans in the Slaughter they made among the Jews during the War. Bell. Jud. Lib. IV. Cap. XV.

[2. ]Homer says that Orestes having killed Aegysthus, his Mother’s Gallant, made a funeral Entertainment at Argos, according to the Custom of those Times, for the Burial of his Mother and her Gallant; that is, he killed them both, tho’ the Poet has avoided telling us so of the Mother, in express Terms, as the Scholiast observes Odyss. Lib. III. Ver. 309, 310. Pausanias tells us they were buried without the Town. Lib. II. Cap. XVI. p. 59. Edit. Wech.

[3. ]Digest. Lib. XLVIII. Tit. XXIV. De Cadaveribus punitorum, Leg. I.

[4. ]Ibid. Leg. III.

[5. ]This Custom of the Romans is mentioned in Philo against Flaccus.Grotius.

[6. ]This Josephus in his Account of the Death of Alexander King of the Jews, has termed ἀταϕία, ὑβρίζειν τη̂ν νεκρὸν, to insult the Dead by Non-Interment. Add Quintilian, Declam. IV. Grotius.

[7. ]We learn this from Herodotus. See how he makes Pausanias answer Lampo, one of the considerable Men in the Island of Aegina: “Sir, I admire the Goodness of your Intentions, and the Concern you express for my Character; but must observe to You, You deviate from a right Way of thinking. Having first extolled me and my Country on the Account of our Actions, You reduce us very low when you endeavour to persuade me to use the Dead with Severity, and tell me that if I take that Liberty, which rather becomes Barbarians than Grecians, and with which we reproach them, my Reputation will become more considerable.” Lib. IX. Cap. LXXVII.

[8. ]Thebaid. Lib. XII. Ver. 780, 781.

[1 ]It appears from Josephus that even such as had laid violent Hands on themselves remained unburied only till Sun-Set. De Bello Jud. Lib. III. Cap. XXV. As to Hegesippus, quoted by our Author in his Margin, he is not speaking of the Jews, but of other Nations, “Some of which, as he observes, expose the Bodies of those who kill themselves, unburied; others cut off their right Hand!” The Practice last mentioned was established among the Athenians, as appears from our Author’s Remark in the sixth Note on this Paragraph, where he quotes the same Passage of Hegesippus.

[2. ]Aul. Gell. Lib. XV. Cap. X. Plutarch, De Mulier. Virtut. Tom. II. p. 249.

[3. ]Servius upon the twelfth Aeneid: We must know indeed, that it was provided by the Pontifical Laws, that whoever hanged himself, should be cast out unburied. And therefore he very justly styles it, Informis Lethi, an ugly Death, as being the most infamous one in the World. Since there is nothing uglier than this Death, we must believe that the Poet spoke so in Relation to the Majesty of the Queen. But Cassius Hemina says, that Tarquinius Superbus, after he had forced the People to make Common-Sewers, and many of them had hanged themselves to avoid the Drudgery, ordered their Bodies to be affixed to a Cross. Then was it first reckoned Dishonourable for a Man to lay violent Hands upon himself.Grotius.

See James Guthier’s Treatise De Jure Manium, Lib. I. Cap. X. and the Observationes Juris Romani by Mr. De Bynckershoek, Lib. IV. Cap. IV. where that great Lawyer alledges several Reason for shewing that, according to the Roman Law, Self Murder was punished only when it was attended by Damage to the Publick or to some private Person.

[4. ]He doth not disapprove of the Punishment, but only banters those on whom it made an Impression; as if a Man could after Death be sensible of the ignominious Manner in which his Body was treated. Hist. Nat. Lib. XXXVI. Cap. XV.

[5. ]See Plutarch, in the Lives of Agis and Cleomenes, p. 823. Tom. I. Edit. Wech. But as Gronovius here observes, this was not done because he had killed himself; but because being incensed at his being detained as a Prisoner, he had raised a Sedition, and entered into a Conspiracy against Ptolomy Philopater.

[6. ]At Athens in Aeschines’s Days, if a Man had murdered himself, his Hand was buried separate from his Body. Aeschin. in Ctesiphon. Add to this, Hegesip. Lib. III. Cap. XVII. Grotius.

[7. ]Quintilian speaking of a Law which ordered that the Bodies of Tyrants should remain unburied, observes that that Sort of Punishment was thought necessary, because the Idea of it affects several more strongly than that of Punishments inflicted in their Life time. Declam. CCLXXIV. This is no chimerical Law; the Author of the Treatise on Homer’s Poetry, commonly ascribed to Plutarch, but by others thought to be the Work of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, is good Security of its Reality. Quoting the Verses mentioned in Note 12. on Paragraph II, he says: “And when Aegysthus was killed he (the Poet) says he would not have been buried, had Menelaus been present; for such was the Law concerning Tyrants,” p. 73. Edit. Barnes.

[8. ]See my Preface on Pufendorf, § 27. at the End, p. III. of the Second Edition.

[9. ]On this Subject see Pufendorf, B. II. Cap. IV. § 19.

[10. ]Plutarch in his Life. And a great many Philosophers except the Stoicks. Seneca, Epist. LXX. You will meet too with several Men of eminent and professed Wisdom, who deny that one ought ever to offer Violence to his own Life, and who declare it as their Opinion that a Self-Murderer is guilty of an impious and wicked Action. That we ought to wait for that End, which Nature has designed us.Procopius, Gotthic. IV. Βίαιος καταστροϕὴ, &c. It is an unprofitable, rash, and imprudent Thing for a Man to force his Way out of the World; and this Thoughtless Bravery of courting Death is looked upon by all Men of good Sense to have only usurped the Name of Courage. Nor is it altogether unworthy your Reflection, to consider whether in so doing, you do not act an ungrateful Part against GOD.Grotius.

[11. ]Strabo, Geograph. Lib. XI.

[12. ]This was no less the Opinion of the Arabians than of the Indians and Persians, as you may learn from Job iii. 21. Grotius.

[13. ]Lib. V. Cap. XII. Num. 11.

[14. ]Our Author, in his Notes on the Gospels, adds that Marcus Antoninus uses the Word Ἀπολειτουργεɩ̂ν to the same Purpose, which signifies to quit a Service or Employment. The Passage is Lib. X. § 22. on which see Gataker’s Comment. But as to the other Expression of the same Emperor, there quoted by our Author: Ἄπιθι ον̂̔ν ἵλεως καὶ γὰρ ὁ ἀπολύων, ἵλεως, I believe his Memory failed him. It is probable he had the following Words in his Mind: Ἄπιθι ον̂̔ν ἐκ τον̂ ζῃ̑ν ἐυμενὴς ᾑ̑ (as Gataker rightly reads, instead of ἢ) καὶ ὁ ἐνεργω̂ν ἀποθνήσκει ἅμα ἵλεως τοɩ̂ς ἐνισταμένοις. That is, Depart therefore out of Life chearfully, like a Man who has succeeded in his Designs, and be not uneasy at what Obstacles you have met with. Lib. VII. § 47. The learned and accurate English Commentator on Marcus Antoninus quotes no Parallel Passage, for what our Author makes him say, and where the Word ἀπολύειν is used in the Sense here specified. We find only ἀπολυθη̂ναι τον̂ σώματος, to be dismissed or freed from the Body, Lib. XI. § 3. on which Gataker, who quotes the Passage of St. Luke, and two others, one from Heraclitus, the other from Clement of Alexandria, where ἀπόλυσις and ἀπολύεσθαι are used concerning Death, would not have forgot to express a Passage in his own Author. Nor does he quote it in his Dissertation De Novi Testamenti Stylo, Cap. VII. where he treats of this Way of speaking, and others of a like Nature on several considerable Authorities.

[15. ]That the Hebrews varied in their Judgments upon this Matter, is plain from Josephus, where he treats of the Death of Phasael and Herod’s Intention to kill himself. And Philo introduces the Jews speaking thus to Petronius; ἀνακερασόμεθα τὸ ἴδιον ἀ̑ιμα, &c. These Hands shall be imbrued in our own Blood, that will we mingle; then on the Dead let your Commands be laid; Heaven will forgive us, whilst we are divided betwixt Respect to the Emperor, and a Resolution of maintaining our sacred Laws. And this will be our Case, if despising this paltry Life not worth the keeping, we voluntarily quit it, and walk off with Unconcern.Grotius.

[16. ]An Expression used by the Stoics. See Diogenes Laertius, Lib. VII. § 130. with the Commentators.

[17. ]In his Discourse to those who were shut up with him in a Cave, and were inclined to kill themselves, that they might not fall into the Hands of the Romans. “If any one, says he, throws out of his own Body the Divine Depositum, do you imagine he will escape the Justice of an offended GOD? It is thought just to punish Slaves who run away, even from wicked Masters; and shall we not think ourselves guilty of Impiety if we run away from GOD, the best of Masters?” Bell. Jud. Lib. III. Cap. XXV.

[18. ]See Eusebius, Eccles. Hist. Lib. VIII. Cap. XII. Grotius.

Those Persons ought to have considered that GOD was powerful enough to support them in the midst of the most cruel Torments; and that, even tho’ he permitted them to sink under them, he was good enough to have Regard to the Frailty of human Nature, and pardon them a forced Abjuration, on sincere Repentance. So that this Reason did not Privilege them to think themselves exempted from the general Law. They committed a certain Sin, to avoid an uncertain one.

[19. ]Cicero in his Oration De Provinciis Consularibus, gives an Account of some Maids of Quality who threw themselves into Wells, and so by a voluntary Death, kept themselves from being ravished. Such another Story does St. Jerome against Jovinian relate of the Milesian Virgins; and there is an old Epigram to the same Purpose. Antholog. Lib. III. Tit. De juvenibus, beginning with ὠχόμεθ’ ὠ̑ Μίλητε. And the Jews tell you of a Woman in a Ship importuned to Adultery, who when she had asked her Husband, whether Bodies that are drowned in the Sea, would rise again, and he had answered, that they would, threw herself into the Sea. We have many Instances of this Kind among Christian Women. As, the Women of Antioch under Dioclesian, Sophronia under Maxentius; see the Martyrologies, Zonaras, and Sextus Aurelius.Procopius, Perfic. II. adds other Women of Antioch under Chosroes. And St. Ambrose commends the Virgins, who at the Expence of their Lives maintained their Honour. St. Jerome in his Commentaries at the End of the first Chapter of Jonah says, And therefore in Persecutions it is not lawful for me to kill my self, unless when my Chastity is in Danger without it.Grotius.

I know not whom our Author means here by Sextus Aurelius. Neither Sextus Aurelius Victor, or the Writer, who passes under his Name say any thing concerning Women, who dispatched themselves for the Preservation of their Chastity. He may perhaps have confounded that Abbreviator of the Roman History with another who lived long after him, and is sometimes joined to Eutropius, Aurelius Victor, and other such Abridgments, particularly in Denis Godfrey’s Collection, printed at Lyons in 1592. I speak of Pomponius Laetus, who mentions the melancholy Expedient made Use of by Sophronia for avoiding the Brutality of the Tyrant Maxentius. As for the rest, Eusebius also speaks of that tragical History, tho’ he does not mention the Lady’s Name, but only mentions her Husband’s Dignity. Hist. Eccles. Lib. VIII. Cap. XIV. and in his Life of Constantine, Lib. I. Cap. XXXIV.

[20. ]To whom we may add St. Chrysostom, Gal. i. 4. and the third Council of Orleans: It is our Judgment that the Offerings for Persons deceased, tho’ they were killed in the actual Commission of a Crime, ought to be accepted, unless they are proved to have laid violent Hands upon themselves. And yet this very St. Austin, Lib. I. De civitat. Dei, Cap. XVI. says, But, however, if the Case be so, that they destroyed themselves, purely that they might not suffer any Indecency of this Nature; who of common Humanity could be so barbarous as not to pardon them? And the Capitulare Francicum, Lib. VI. 70. It has been debated and resolved in Relation to him who hangs or murders himself, that is, any one, compassionating his unhappy Circumstances, will on that Account give any Alms, he may, if he pleases do so, and sing Psalms for him: But as for them themselves let them be without either Offerings or Masses: For God’s Judgments are unsearchable, and his Ways past finding out! See there too, vii. 443. Grotius.

[21. ]Diodor. Sicul. Lib. XVI. Cap. XXV. p. 523. Edit. H. Steph.

[22. ]Orat. Rhodiac. Concerning sacrilegious Persons and Traitors, see Meursius’s Themis Attica, Lib. II. Cap. II.

[23. ]But when Nicetas has in his third Book of the Life of Alexius Isaacius’s Brother, related the Death of Johannes Comnenus Crassus, who by Sedition had affected the Crown, he speaks of him in the following Manner; μετά δε τὸ σω̂μα, &c. After his Body was removed thence, it was made the Food of Dogs and Birds; which was however looked upon by all the World as a Thing a little Brutish and Inhuman.Grotius.

Besides the Crimes mentioned by our Author, there were others for which Men were deprived of Burial. See Potter’s Archaeolog. Graec. Lib. IV. Cap. I.

[1 ]But we have also shewn on those Places, or at least referred to our Notes on Pufendorf for Proofs, that our Author has no Reason to ground the Things there mentioned on the arbitrary Law of Nations.