An enquiry into the opinions, ancient and modern, concerning life and organization / by John Barclay, M.D.

  • Barclay, John, 1758-1826.
Date:
1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An enquiry into the opinions, ancient and modern, concerning life and organization / by John Barclay, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    below, were aetherial souls, receiving rewards or suffering punishments for their past deeds ; some for crimes that could never be expiated, and which rendered their punishments eternalj others for crimes whose stains might be removed, and who were exposed, for a series of ages, to the action of air, water, or fire, until their original purity should be restored K The poet Lucretius, although he admits the ac- tual existence of these simulacra, is unwilling to believe that they are animated, or spirits returned from the regions of the dead ; and therefore, to compose the minds of his friends that might be alarmed at their appearance, asserts they are mere pellicles, or membranes that are cast off from the surfaces of bodies, like old sloughs from grass- hoppers or serpentsYet, in this language, it is . Sedet, aeternumque sedebit Infelix Theseus. Virgil, ^n. vi. 617. * I Aliae panduntur inanes Suspensae ad ventos : aliis sub gurgite vasto Infectum eluitur scelus, aut exuritur igni— Donee longa dies, perfecto temporis orbe, Concretam exemit labem, purumque reliquit jEtherium sensum, atque aurai simplicis ignem. Virgil. JEn. vi. 74:0, ^ Nunc agere incipiam tibi, quod vehementer ad has res Adtinet, esse ea, quae rerum simulacra vocamus; Quae, quasi membranae summo de corpora rerum Dereptae, volitant ultro, citroque, per auras; Atque eadem, nobis vigilantibus obvia, menteis