The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 3

18. Some Pieces delineating singular inhumanities in Tortures. The Scaphismus of the Persians. The living truncation of the Turks. The hanging Sport at the Feasts of the Thracians. The exact method of flaying men alive, beginning between the Shoulders, according to the description of Thomas Minadoi, in his Persian War. Together with the studied tortures of the French Traitours at Pappa in Hungaria: as also the wild and enormous torment invented by Tiberius, designed according unto the description of Suetonius. Excogitaverunt inter genera cruciatûs, ut largâ meri potione per fallaciam oneratos repentè veretris deligatis fidicularum simul urinæque tormento distenderet.

19. A Picture describing how Hannibal forced his passage over the River Rhosne with his Elephants, Baggage and mixed Army; with the Army of the Gauls opposing him on the contrary Shore, and Hanno passing over with his Horse much above to fall upon the Rere of the Gauls.

20. A neat Piece describing the Sack of Fundi by the Fleet and Souldiers of Barbarossa the Turkish Admiral, the confusion of the people and their flying up to the Mountains, and Julia Gonzaga the beauty of Italy flying away with her Ladies half naked on Horseback over the Hills.

21. A noble Head of Franciscus Gonzaga, who, being imprisoned for Treason, grew grey in one night, with this Inscription,

O nox quam longa est quæ facit una senem

22. A large Picture describing the Siege of Vienna by Solyman the Magnificent, and at the same time the Siege of Florence by the Emperour Charles the Fifth and Pope Clement the Seventh, with this Subscription,

Tum vacui capitis populum Phæaca putares?

23. An exquisite Piece properly delineating the first course of Metellus his Pontificial Supper, according to the description of Macrobius; together with a Dish of Pisces Fossiles, garnished about with the little Eels taken out of the backs of Cods and Perches; as also with the Shell Fishes found in Stones about Ancona.

24. A Picture of the noble Entertain and Feast of the Duke of Chausue at the Treaty of Collen, 1673, when in a very large Room, with all the Windows open, and at a very large Table he sate himself, with many great persons and Ladies; next about the Table stood a row of Waiters, then a row of Musicians, then a row of Musketiers.

25. Miltiades, who overthrew the Persians at the Battel of Marathon and delivered Greece, looking out of a Prison Grate in Athens, wherein he died, with this Inscription,

Non hoc terribiles Cymbri non Britones unquam,Sauromatæve truces aut immanes Agathyrsi.

26. A fair English Lady drawn Al Negro, or in the Æthiopian hue excelling the original White and Red Beauty, with this Subscription,

Sed quondam volo nocte Nigriorem

27. Pieces and Draughts in Caricatura, of Princes, Cardinals and famous men; wherein, among others, the Painter hath singularly hit the signatures of a Lion and a Fox in the face of Pope Leo the Tenth.

28. Some Pieces A la ventura, or Rare Chance Pieces, either drawn at random, and happening to be like some person, or drawn for some and happening to be more like another; while the Face, mistaken by the Painter, proves a tolerable Picture of one he never saw.

29. A Draught of famous Dwarfs with this Inscription,

Nos facimus Bruti puerum nos Lagona vivum

30. An exact and proper delineation of all sorts of Dogs upon occasion of the practice of Sultan Achmet; who in a great Plague at Constantinople transported all the Dogs therein unto Pera, and from thence into a little Island, where they perished at last by Famine: as also the manner of the Priests curing of mad Dogs by burning them in the forehead with Saint Bellin’s Key.

31. A noble Picture of Thorismund King of the Goths as he was killed in his Palace at Tholouze, who being let bloud by a Surgeon, while he was bleeding, a stander by took the advantage to stab him.

32. A Picture of rare Fruits with this Inscription,

Credere quæ possis surrepta sororibus Afris

33. An handsome Piece of Deformity expressed in a notable hard Face, with this Inscription,

– OraJulius in Satyris qualia Rufus habet.

34. A noble Picture of the famous Duel between Paul Manessi and Caragusa the Turk in the time of Amurath the Second; the Turkish Army and that of Scanderbeg looking on; wherein Manessi slew the Turk, cut off his Head and carried away the Spoils of his Body.

3. Antiquities and Rarities of several sorts

1. Certain ancient Medals with Greek and Roman Inscriptions, found about Crim Tartary; conceived to be left in those parts by the Souldiers of Mithridates, when overcome by Pompey, he marched round about the North of the Euxine to come about into Thracia.

2. Some ancient Ivory and Copper Crosses found with many others in China; conceived to have been brought and left there by the Greek Souldiers who served under Tamerlane in his Expedition and Conquest of that Country.

3. Stones of strange and illegible Inscriptions, found about the great ruines which Vincent le Blanc describeth about Cephala in Africa, where he opinion’d that the Hebrews raised some Buildings of old, and that Solomon brought from thereabout a good part of his Gold.

4. Some handsome Engraveries and Medals, of Justinus and Justinianus, found in the custody of a Bannyan in the remote parts of India, conjectured to have been left there by the Friers mentioned in Procopius, who travelled those parts in the reign of Justinianus, and brought back into Europe the discovery of Silk and Silk Worms.

5. An original Medal of Petrus Aretinus, who was called Flagellum Principum, wherein he made his own Figure on the Obverse part with this Inscription,

Il Divino Aretino

On the Reverse sitting on a Throne, and at his Feet Ambassadours of Kings and Princes bringing presents unto him, with this Inscription,

I Principi tributati da i Popoli tributano il Servitor loro

6. Mummia Tholosana; or, The complete Head and Body of Father Crispin, buried long ago in the Vault of the Cordeliers at Tholouse, where the Skins of the dead so drie and parch up without corrupting that their persons may be known very long after, with this Inscription,

Ecce iterum Crispinus

7. A noble Quandros or Stone taken out of a Vulture’s Head.

8. A large Ostridges Egg, whereon is neatly and fully wrought that famous Battel of Alcazar, in which three Kings lost their lives.

9. An Etiudros Alberti or Stone that is apt to be always moist: usefull unto drie tempers, and to be held in the hand in Fevers instead of Crystal, Eggs, Limmons, Cucumbers.

10. A small Viol of Water taken out of the Stones therefore called Enhydri, which naturally include a little Water in them, in like manner as the Ætites or Aëgle Stone doth another Stone.

11. A neat painted and gilded Cup made out of the Confiti di Tivoli and formed up with powder’d Egg-shells; as Nero is conceived to have made his Piscina admirabilis, singular against Fluxes to drink often therein.

12. The Skin of a Snake bred out of the Spinal Marrow of a Man.

13. Vegetable Horns mentioned by Linschoten, which set in the ground grow up like Plants about Goa.

14. An extract of the Inck of Cuttle Fishes reviving the old remedy of Hippocrates in Hysterical Passions.

15. Spirits and Salt of Sargasso made in the Western Ocean covered with that Vegetable; excellent against the Scurvy.

16. An extract of Cachundè or Liberans that famous and highly magnified Composition in the East Indies against Melancholy.

17. Diarhizon mirificum; or an unparallel’d Composition of the most effectual and wonderfull Roots in Nature.

℞ Rad. Butuæ Cuamensis.

Rad. Moniche Cuamensis.

Rad. Mongus Bazainensis.

Rad. Casei Baizanensis.

Rad. Columbæ Mozambiguensis.

Gim Sem Sinicæ.

Fo Lim lac Tigridis dictæ.

Fo seu.

Cort. Rad. Soldæ.

Rad. Ligni Solorani.

Rad. Malacensis madrededios dictæ an. ℥ij.

M. fiat pulvis, qui cum gelatinâ Cornu cervi Moschati Chinensis formetur in massas oviformes.

18. A transcendent Perfume made of the richest Odorates of both the Indies, kept in a Box made of the Muschie Stone of Niarienburg, with this Inscription,

– Deos rogatoTotum ut te faciant, Fabulle, Nasum.

19. A Clepselæa, or Oil Hour-glass, as the Ancients used those of Water.

20. A Ring found in a Fishes Belly taken about Gorro; conceived to be the same wherewith the Duke of Venice had wedded the Sea.

21. A neat Crucifix made out of the cross Bone of a Frogs Head.

22. A large Agath containing a various and careless Figure, which looked upon by a Cylinder representeth a perfect Centaur. By some such advantages King Pyrrhus might find out Apollo and the nine Muses in those Agaths of his whereof Pliny maketh mention.

23. Batrachomyomachia, or the Homerican Battel between Frogs and Mice, neatly described upon the Chizel Bone of a large Pike’s Jaw.

24. Pyxis Pandoræ, or a Box which held the Unguentum Pestiferum, which by anointing the Garments of several persons begat the great and horrible Plague of Milan.

25. A Glass of Spirits made of Æthereal Salt, Hermetically sealed up, kept continually in Quick-silver; of so volatile a nature that it will scarce endure the Light, and therefore onely to be shown in Winter, or by the light of a Carbuncle, or Bononian Stone.

He who knows where all this Treasure now is, is a great Apollo. I’m sure I am not He. However, I am,

Sir, Yours, etc.

A LETTER TO A FRIEND, UPON OCCASION OF THE DEATH OF HIS INTIMATE FRIEND

Give me leave to wonder that News of this Nature should have such heavy Wings that you should hear so little concerning your dearest Friend, and that I must make that unwilling Repetition to tell you, Ad portam rigidos calces extendit, that he is Dead and Buried, and by this time no Puny among the mighty Nations of the Dead; for tho’ he left this World not very many Days past, yet every Hour you know largely addeth unto that dark Society; and considering the incessant Mortality of Mankind, you cannot conceive there dieth in the whole Earth so few as a thousand an Hour.

Altho’ at this distance you had no early Account or Particular of his Death; yet your Affection may cease to wonder that you had not some secret Sense or Intimation thereof by Dreams, thoughtful Whisperings, Mercurisms, Airy Nuncio’s, or sympathetical Insinuations, which many seem to have had at the Death of their dearest Friends: for since we find in that famous Story, that Spirits themselves were fain to tell their Fellows at a distance, that the great Antonio was dead; we have a sufficient Excuse for our Ignorance in such Particulars, and must rest content with the common Road, and Appian way of Knowledge by Information. Tho’ the uncertainty of the End of this World hath confounded all Human Predictions; yet they who shall live to see the Sun and Moon darkned, and the Stars to fall from Heaven, will hardly be deceiv’d in the Advent of the last Day; and therefore strange it is, that the common Fallacy of consumptive Persons, who feel not themselves dying, and therefore still hope to live, should also reach their Friends in perfect Health and Judgment. That you should be so little acquainted with Plautus’s sick Complexion, or that almost an Hippocratical Face should not alarum you to higher fears, or rather despair of his Continuation in such an emaciated State, wherein medical Predictions fail not, as sometimes in acute Diseases, and wherein ’tis as dangerous to be sentenc’d by a Physician as a Judge.

Upon my first Visit I was bold to tell them who had not let fall all Hopes of his Recovery, that in my sad Opinion he was not like to behold a Grashopper, much less to pluck another Fig; and in no long time after seem’d to discover that odd mortal Symptom in him not mention’d by Hippocrates, that is, to lose his own Face, and look like some of his near Relations; for he maintain’d not his proper Countenance, but look’d like his Uncle, the Lines of whose Face lay deep and invisible in his healthful Visage before: For as from our beginning we run through Variety of Looks, before we come to consistent and setled Faces; so before our End, by sick and languishing alterations, we put on new Visages: and in our Retreat to Earth, may fall upon such Looks which from Community of seminal Originals were before latent in us.

He was fruitlesly put in hope of advantage by change of Air, and imbibing the pure Aerial Nitre of these Parts; and therefore being so far spent, he quickly found Sardinia in Tivoli,283 and the most healthful Air of little effect, where Death had set her broad Arrow; for he lived not unto the middle of May, and confirmed the Observation of Hippocrates284 of that mortal time of the Year when the Leaves of the Fig-tree resemble a Daw’s Claw. He is happily seated who lives in Places whose Air, Earth and Water, promote not the Infirmities of his weaker Parts, or is early removed into Regions that correct them. He that is tabidly inclin’d, were unwise to pass his Days in Portugal: Cholical Persons will find little Comfort in Austria or Vienna: He that is weak-legg’d must not be in Love with Rome, nor an infirm Head with Venice or Paris. Death hath not only particular Stars in Heaven, but malevolent Places on Earth, which single out our Infirmities, and strike at our weaker Parts; in which Concern, passager and migrant Birds have the great Advantages; who are naturally constituted for distant Habitations, whom no Seas nor Places limit, but in their appointed Seasons will visit us from Greenland and Mount Atlas, and as some think, even from the Antipodes.285

Tho’ we could not have his Life, yet we missed not our desires in his soft Departure, which was scarce an Expiration; and his End not unlike his Beginning, when the salient Point scarce affords a sensible Motion, and his Departure so like unto Sleep, that he scarce needed the civil Ceremony of closing his Eyes; contrary unto the common way wherein Death draws up, Sleep let fall the Eye-lids. With what Strift and Pains we came into the World we know not; but ’tis commonly no easie matter to get out of it: yet if it could be made out, that such who have easie Nativities have commonly hard Deaths, and contrarily; his Departure was so easie, that we might justly suspect his Birth was of another nature, and that some Juno sat cross-legg’d at his Nativity.

Besides his soft Death, the incurable state of his Disease might somewhat extenuate your Sorrow, who know that Monsters286 but seldom happen, Miracles more rarely, in Physick. Angelus Victorius287 gives a serious Account of a Consumptive, Hectical, Pthysical Woman, who was suddenly cured by the Intercession of Ignatius. We read not of any in Scripture who in this case applied unto our Saviour, tho’ some may be contain’d in that large Expression, that he went about Galilee healing all manner of Sickness, and all manner of Diseases. Amulets, Spells, Sigils and Incantations, practised in other Diseases, are seldom pretended in this; and we find no Sigil in the Archidoxis of Paracelsus to cure an extreme Consumption or Marasmus, which if other Diseases fail, will put a period unto long Livers, and at last makes Dust of all. And therefore the Stoicks could not but think that the fiery Principle would wear out all the rest, and at last make an end of the World, which notwithstanding without such a lingring period the Creator may effect at his Pleasure: and to make an end of all things on Earth, and our Planetical System of the World, he need but put out the Sun.

I was not so curious to entitle the Stars unto any Concern of his Death, yet could not but take notice that he died when the Moon was in motion from the Meridian; at which time, an old Italian long ago would perswade me that the greatest Part of Men died: but herein I confess I could never satisfie my Curiosity; altho’ from the time of Tides in Places upon or near the Sea, there may be considerable Deductions; and Pliny288 hath an odd and remarkable Passage concerning the Death of Men and Animals upon the Recess or Ebb of the Sea. However, certain it is he died in the dead and deep part of the Night, when Nox might be most apprehensibly said to be the Daughter of Chaos, the Mother of Sleep and Death, according to old Genealogy; and so went out of this World about that hour when our blessed Saviour entred it, and about what time many conceive he will return again unto it. Cardan289 hath a peculiar and no hard Observation from a Man’s Hand to know whether he was born in the Day or Night, which I confess holdeth in my own. And Scaliger to that purpose hath another from the tip of the Ear: Most Men are begotten in the Night, Animals in the Day; but whether more Persons have been born in the Night or the Day, were a Curiosity undecidable, tho’ more have perished by violent Deaths in the Day; yet in natural Dissolutions both Times may hold an Indifferency, at least but contingent Inequality. The whole Course of Time runs out in the Nativity and Death of Things; which whether they happen by Succession or Coincidence, are best computed by the natural not artificial Day.

That Charles the Vth was crown’d upon the Day of his Nativity, it being in his own Power so to order it, makes no singular Animadversion; but that he should also take King Francis Prisoner upon that Day, was an unexpected Coincidence, which made the same remarkable. Antipater who had an Anniversary Fever every Year upon his Birth-day, needed no Astrological Revolution to know what Day he should dye on. When the fixed Stars have made a Revolution unto the Points from whence they first set out, some of the Ancients thought the World would have an end; which was a kind of dying upon the Day of its Nativity. Now the Disease prevailing and swiftly advancing about the time of his Nativity, some were of Opinion that he would leave the World on the Day he entred into it: but this being a lingring Disease, and creeping softly on, nothing critical was found or expected, and he died not before fifteen Days after. Nothing is more common with Infants than to die on the Day of their Nativity, to behold the worldly Hours, and but the Fractions thereof; and even to perish before their Nativity in the hidden World of the Womb, and before their good Angel is conceived to undertake them. But in Persons who out-live many Years, and when there are no less than three hundred sixty five days to determine their Lives in every Year; that the first day should make the last, that the Tail of the Snake should return into its Mouth precisely at that time, and they should wind up upon the day of their Nativity,290 is indeed a remarkable Coincidence, which, tho’ Astrology hath taken witty Pains to salve, yet hath it been very wary in making Predictions of it.

In this consumptive Condition and remarkable Extenuation he came to be almost half himself, and left a great Part behind him which he carried not to the Grave. And tho’ that Story of Duke John Ernestus Mansfield291 be not so easily swallow’d, that at his Death his Heart was found not to be so big as a Nut; yet if the Bones of a good Skeleton weigh little more than twenty Pounds, his Inwards and Flesh remaining could make no Bouffage, but a light Bit for the Grave. I never more lively beheld the starved Characters of Dante292 in any living Face; an Aruspex might have read a Lecture upon him without Exenteration, his Flesh being so consumed, that he might, in a manner, have discerned his Bowels without opening of him: so that to be carried sextâ cervice, to the Grave, was but a civil Unnecessity; and the Complements of the Coffin might out-weigh the Subject of it.

Omnibonus Ferrarius 293 in mortal Dysenteries of Children looks for a Spot behind the Ear; in consumptive Diseases some eye the Complexion of Moles; Cardan eagerly views the Nails, some the Lines of the Hand, the Thenar or Muscle of the Thumb; some are so curious as to observe the depth of the Throat-pit, how the Proportion varieth of the Small of the Legs unto the Calf, or the compass of the Neck unto the Circumference of the Head: but all these, with many more, were so drown’d in a mortal Visage, and last Face of Hippocrates, that a weak Physiognomist might say at first Eye, This was a Face of Earth, and that Morta294 had set her hard Seal upon his Temples, easily perceiving what Caricatura295 Draughts Death makes upon pined Faces, and unto what an unknown degree a Man may live backward.

Tho’ the Beard be only made a Distinction of Sex, and Sign of masculine Heat by Ulmus, yet the Precocity and early Growth thereof in him, was not to be liked in reference unto long Life. Lewis, that virtuous but unfortunate King of Hungary, who lost his Life at the Battle of Mohacz, was said to be born without a Skin, to have bearded at fifteen,296 and to have shewn some grey Hairs about twenty; from whence the Diviners conjectur’d, that he would be spoiled of his Kingdom, and have but a short Life: But Hairs make fallible Predictions, and many Temples early grey have out-liv’d d the Psalmist's Period.297 Hairs which have most amused me have not been in the Face or Head, but on the Back, and not in Men but Children, as I long ago observed in that Endemial Distemper of little Children in Languedock, call’d the Morgellons,298 wherein they critically break out with harsh Hairs on their Backs, which takes off the unquiet Symptoms of the Disease, and delivers them from Coughs and Convulsions.

The Egyptian Mummies that I have seen, have had their Mouths open, and somewhat gaping, which affordeth a good Opportunity to view and observe their Teeth, wherein ’tis not easie to find any wanting or decay'd; and therefore in Egypt, where one Man practised but one Operation, or the Diseases but of single Parts, it must needs be a barren Profession to confine unto that of drawing of Teeth, and little better than to have been Tooth-drawer unto King Pyrrhus,299 who had but two in his Head. How the Bannyans of India maintain the Integrity of those Parts, I find not particularly observed; who notwithstanding have an Advantage of their Preservation by abstaining from all Flesh, and employing their Teeth in such Food unto which they may seem at first framed, from their Figure and Conformation: but sharp and corroding Rheums had so early mouldred those Rocks and hardest parts of his Fabrick, that a Man might well conceive that his Years were never like to double or twice tell over his Teeth.300 Corruption had dealt more severely with them than sepulchral Fires and smart Flames with those of burnt Bodies of old; for in the burnt Fragments of Urnes which I have enquired into, altho' I seem to find few Incisors or Shearers, yet the Dog Teeth and Grinders do notably resist those Fires.

In the Years of his Childhood he had languish’d under the Disease of his Country, the Rickets; after which notwithstanding many have been become strong and active Men; but whether any have attain’d unto very great Years, the Disease is scarce so old as to afford good Observation. Whether the Children of the English Plantations be subject unto the same Infirmity, may be worth the Observing. Whether Lameness and Halting do still encrease among the Inhabitants of Rovigno in Istria, I know not; yet scarce twenty Years ago Monsieur du Loyr observed, that a third part of that People halted: but too certain it is, that the Rickets encreaseth among us; the Small-Pox grows more pernicious than the Great: the King's Purse knows that the King's Evil grows more common. Quartan Agues are become no Strangers in Ireland; more common and mortal in England: and tho' the Ancients gave that Disease301 very good Words, yet now that Bell makes no strange sound which rings out for the Effects thereof.