CHAP. 56. (55.)—THE MANES, OR DEPARTED SPIRITS OF THE SOUL.
After burial come the different quiddities as to the existence of the Manes. All men, after their last day,[1360] return to what they were before the first; and after death there is no more sensation left in the body or in the soul than there was before birth. But this same vanity of ours extends even to the future, and lyingly fashions to itself an existence even in the very moments which belong to death itself: at one time it has conferred upon us the immortality of the soul; at another transmigration; and at another it has given sensation to the shades below, and paid divine honours to the departed spirit, thus making a kind of deity of him who has but just ceased to be a man. As if, indeed, the mode of breathing with man was in any way different from that of other animals, and as if there were not many other animals to be found whose life is longer than that of man, and yet for whom no one ever presaged anything of a like immortality. For what is the actual substance of the soul, when taken by itself? Of what material does it consist? Where is the seat of its thoughts? How is it to see, or hear, or how to touch? And then, of what use is it, or what can it avail, if it has not these faculties? Where, too, is its residence, and what vast multitudes of these souls and spirits[1361] must there be after the lapse of so many ages? But all these are the mere figments of childish ravings, and of that mortality which is so anxious never to cease to exist. It is a similar piece of vanity, too, to preserve the dead bodies of men; just like the promise that he shall come to life again, which was made by Democritus;[1362] who, however, never has come to life again himself. Out upon it! What downright madness is it to suppose that life is to recommence after death! or indeed, what repose are we ever to enjoy when we have been once born, if the soul is to retain its consciousness in heaven, and the shades of the dead in the infernal regions? This pleasing delusion, and this credulity, quite cancel that chief good of human nature, death, and, as it were, double the misery of him who is about to die, by anxiety as to what is to happen to him after it. And, indeed, if life really is a good, to whom can it be so to have once lived?
How much more easy, then, and how much more devoid of all doubts, is it for each of us to put his trust in himself, and guided by our knowledge of what our state has been before birth, to assume that that after death will be the same.
CHAP. 57. (56.)—THE INVENTORS OF VARIOUS THINGS.
Before we quit the consideration of the nature of man, it appears only proper to point out those persons who have been the authors of different inventions. Father Liber[1363] was the first to establish the practice of buying and selling; he also invented the diadem, the emblem of royalty, and the triumphal procession. Ceres[1364] introduced corn, the acorn having been previously used by man for food; it was she, also, who introduced into Attica the art of grinding corn[1365] and of making bread, and other similar arts into Sicily; and it was from these circumstances that she came to be regarded as a divinity. She was the first also to establish laws;[1366] though, according to some, it was Rhadamanthus. I have always been of opinion, that letters were of Assyrian origin, but other writers, Gellius,[1367] for instance, suppose that they were invented in Egypt by Mercury: others, again, will have it that they were discovered by the Syrians; and that Cadmus brought from Phœnicia sixteen letters into Greece. To these, Palamedes, it is said, at the time of the Trojan war, added these four, Θ, Ξ, Φ, and Χ. Simonides,[1368] the lyric poet, afterwards added a like number, Ζ, Η, Ψ, and Ω; the sounds denoted by all of which are now received into our alphabet.[1369]
Aristotle, on the other hand, is rather of opinion, that there were originally eighteen letters,[1370] Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ο Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ, and that two, Θ namely and Χ, were introduced by Epicharmus,[1371] and not by Palamedes. Aristides says, that a certain person of the name of Menos, in Egypt, invented letters fifteen years before the reign of Phoroneus,[1372] the most ancient of all the kings of Greece, and this he attempts to prove by the monuments there. On the other hand, Epigenes,[1373] a writer of very great authority, informs us that the Babylonians have a series of observations on the stars, for a period of seven hundred and twenty thousand years, inscribed on baked bricks. Berosus and Critodemus, who make the period the shortest, give it as four hundred and ninety thousand years.[1374] From this statement, it would appear that letters have been in use from all eternity. The Pelasgi were the first to introduce them into Latium.
The brothers Euryalus and Hyperbius[1375] were the first who constructed brick-kilns and houses at Athens; before which, caves in the ground served for houses. Gellius[1376] is inclined to think that Toxius, the son of Cælus, was the first inventor of mortar, it having been suggested to him by the nest of the swallow. Cecrops[1377] gave to a town the name of Cecropia, after himself; this is now the citadel of Athens. Some persons will have it, that Argos had been founded before this period by King Phoroneus; others, again, that Sicyon had been previously built; while the Egyptians declare that their own city, Diospolis, had been in existence long before them. Cinyra,[1378] the son of Agriopas,[1379] invented tiles and discovered copper-mines,[1380] both of them in the island of Cyprus; he also invented the tongs, the hammer, the lever, and the anvil. Wells were invented by Danaus,[1381] who came from Egypt into that part of Greece which had been previously known as Argos Dipsion.
The first stone-quarries were opened by Cadmus at Thebes, or else, according to Theophrastus, in Phœnicia. Walls were first built by Thrason;[1382] according to Aristotle, towers were first erected by the Cyclopes,[1383] but according to Theophrastus, by the Tirynthii. The Egyptians invented weaving;[1384] the Lydians of Sardis the art of dyeing wool.[1385] Closter, the son of Arachne, invented the spindle for spinning wool;[1386] Arachne herself, linen cloth and nets;[1387] Nicias of Megara, the art of fulling cloth;[1388] and Tychius, the Bœotian, the art of making shoes.[1389] The Egyptians will have it that the medical art was first discovered among them, while others attribute it to Arabus, the son of Babylonis and Apollo; botany and pharmacy are ascribed to Chiron, the son of Saturn and Philyra.[1390]
Aristotle supposes that Scythes, the Lydian, was the first to fuse and temper copper, while Theophrastus ascribes the art to Delas, the Phrygian.[1391] Some persons ascribe the working of copper to the Chalybes, others to the Cyclopes. Hesiod says, that iron was discovered in Crete, by the Idæan Dactyli.[1392] Erichthonius, the Athenian, or, as some people say, Æacus, discovered silver.[1393] Gold mines, and the mode of fusing that metal, were discovered by Cadmus, the Phœnician, at the mountain of Pangæus,[1394] or, according to other accounts, by Thoas or Eaclis, in Panchaia;[1395] or else by Sol, the son of Oceanus, whom Gellius mentions as having been the first who employed honey in medicine. Midacritus[1396] was the first who brought tin from the island called Cassiteris.[1397] The Cyclopes invented the art of working iron.[1398] Choræbus, the Athenian, was the first who made earthen vessels;[1399] but Anacharsis, the Scythian, or, according to others, Hyperbius, the Corinthian, first invented the potter’s wheel. Dædalus[1400] was the first person who worked in wood; it was he who invented the saw, the axe, the plummet, the gimlet, glue, and isinglass;[1401] the square, the level, the turner’s lathe, and the key, were invented by Theodorus, of Samos.[1402] Measures and weights were invented by Phidon, of Argos,[1403] or, according to Gellius, by Palamedes. Pyrodes, the son of Cilix, was the first to strike fire from the flint, and Prometheus taught us how to preserve it, in the stalk of giant-fennel.[1404]