ANA, &c. MONIES. From beaft. pre proper to mankind, and nsistency, and l their reason, heir customs; rices of single people; and ar time, but nbraced, ap - whole gene By these it will appear, that the species have agreed fo little in their opinion of right and wrong, that it would almost incline us to doubt whether these have any fixed point in the nature itself of things, and do not almost depend on accidental convenience*, and the various circumstances of time and place; or at least that we have not the proper qualifications to enable us to determine; except peradventure in extreme cafes. For, what criterion can we have? and who fhall be the judge? if every age and nation comes to plead its own caufe, and produce its customs, which ever of the other condemns it, must withal prove why its own opinion is preferable to that of the age or nation at the bar. † They must all then feverally bring their particular customs and opinions of right and wrong before the tribunal of the whole world. This is, and must be, the last refort; except in cases of immediate revelation; but then the fame queftion will again recur, and with equal Ipfa utilitas jufli prope mater & aqui. Hor. Sat. I. 3. 98. + Nil agit exemplum, litem quod lite refolvit. Id. Sat. II. 3. 103. force; force; for they vary as much in t veral revelations as in their custom then we can have no decifion; but one must go on, as they have dond the beginning, each abounding in h fenfe and very fure that he is right all the reft wrong. They have been pleafant in relat the difpofal of their dead. Teixeira, Relations of the Kings of Perfia, fays, the Parfis, the remainder of the old cole, ftill very numerous in fome c provinces, have a certain place in mountains, near Yard, the chief city of religion, about forty leagues eaft of If where they have preferved, they pre their perpetual fire, without having ond fered it to go out, for full 3500 y which place they alfo call, in their lang the boufe of the fire. Near this, in among the rocks, they bring their ar people, often from very diftant parts. placing them upright in one of these, them in this pofture, jammed up, wi any nourishment, till they expire; for think it a fhame, or rather a crime, t B 2 uch in their seir customs. So fion; but every have done from ding in his own e is right, and in relation to Teixeira, in his a, fays, “that • the old Ignia fome of the place in their ef city of their cast of Ifpaban, they pretend, ving once fuf3500 years; heir language, this, in holes. their ancient at parts, and of these, leave up, without ire; for they crime, to die in (4) in their beds*. Here, as the air is extremely pure and dry, they remain in the fame pofture, entire and uncorrupted for ages; and their families and defcendants come, from time to time, in great devotion, to offer them flowers and sweet smelling herbs; worshipping thus, as it were, prefent and in perfon, the faints and tutelar fpirits of their houfe." Pedro Teixeira Relaciones de los Reyes de Perfia & Harmuz, P. 4. "These fame people have a quaint me thod to find whether a perfon who dies younger in his bed will be faved, or not. It is no matter how he lived! They faften his corps on a horfe, which they drive before them, anointing firft the head and eyes' of their departed friend. The crows do not fail to light upon him presently, and at once attack his eyes. Now, if they peck' his right eye first, which their wife faces are very intent to obferve, they conclude him fafe, and they preserve him, and honour his memory accordingly; but if they This notion was very ancient among them, for. Curtius fays (VIII. 9. 32.) "Nec ullus corporibus quæ · " fene&us folvit bonor redditur." fasten OR Sup So "Pliny's Hyperboreans, if they get drunk, and leap into the fea rock, were fure of being faved *.” no wonder goodness of life has neve confidered as equal to foundness of fince priests, who are the only arbit these matters, were undone by the pe infidelity, but lived very comfortal their fins, The Perfians of the magiary fed late as the time of Juftinian, accordi his hiftorian Agathias, had an ordeal (a might very well call it) of this kind as abfurd. And, to fee the inconfif of mankind, that is, in one view, a lower than angels, and in another, h a little higher than brutes; after he given an account of Merméroez, a "Mors non nifi fatietate vite epulatis delib Jenio luxu, ex quadam rupe in mare falientibus. genus fepultura beatiffimum." H. N. (IV.) 12. p. B2 giary fect, as according to ordeal (as one his kind; and inconsistency view, a little other, hardly after he had oez, a Per atis delibutoque lientibus. Hoc ́.) 12. p. 212. fian ( 6 ) fian general, as one of the greatest men and finest geniuses in the world, which was approved by the almost conftant fuccefs of his wise schemes; he goes on to fay, "that on his death, his nearest relations carried his body out of the city, and exposed it, naked, to be devoured by the dogs.-Then is the time to know for certain, how it fares with him in the other world; for if the dogs let him alone, or devour him flowly and by halves, they take it for granted that he is condemned to fuffer the moft horrible tortures; and his family and friends make dreadful moan and weep bitterly for his fad cafe." Agathias Juftinian, II. 10. "In another place, near the gulph of Bengal, the Gentoo Indians take their parents, when they come to an age that their children judge proper for it, to the top of a tree, and bid them hold faft; and then, coming down, thefe dutiful fons take the trunk with both their hands, and shake it with all their might. If the old people ftick till they are tired out with rocking it, they fay they are not yet quite ripe, and help them down; but if they drop, they eat them." Id. Ib. The fame famous author, wha |