ed, "I have taken a great deal of
pains," saith he, "my friends, to no purpose, for I have not convinced our
Criton, that I shall fly from hence, and leave no part of me behind:
notwithstanding, Criton, if you can overtake me, wheresoever you get hold
of me, bury me as you please: but believe me, none of you will be able to
catch me when I have flown away from hence." That was excellently said,
inasmuch as he allows his friend to do as he pleased, and yet shows his
indifference about anything of this kind. Diogenes was rougher, though of
the same opinion, but in his character of a Cynic, he expressed himself in
a somewhat harsher manner; he ordered himself to be thrown anywhere
without being buried. And when his friends replied, "What, to the birds
and beasts?" "By no means," saith he; "place my staff near me, that I may
drive them away." "How can you do that," they answer, "for you will not
perceive them?" "How am I then injured by being torn by those animals, if
I have no sensation?" Anaxagoras, when he was at the point of death, at
Lampsacus, and was asked by his friends, whether, if anything should
happen to him, he would not choose to be carried to Clazomenae, his
country, made this excellent answer,--"There is," says he, "no occasion for
that, for all places are at an equal distance from the infernal regions."
There is one thing to be observed with respect to the whole subject of
burial, that it relates to the body, whether the soul live or die. Now
with regard to the body, it is clear that whether the soul live or die,
that has no sensation.

XLIV. But all things are full of errors. Achilles drags Hector, tied to
his chariot; he thinks, I suppose, he tears his flesh, and that Hector
feels the pain of it; therefore, he avenges himself on him, as he
imagines; but Hecuba bewails this as a sore misfortune--

I saw (a dreadful sight!) great Hector slain,
Dragg'd at Achilles' car along the plain.

What Hector? or how long will he be Hector? Accius is better in this, and
Achilles, too, is sometimes reasonable--

I Hector's body to his sire convey'd,
Hector I sent to the infernal shade.

It was not Hector that you dragged along, but a body that had been
Hector's. Here another starts from underground, and will not suffer his
mother to sleep--

To thee I call, my once loved parent, hear,
Nor longer with thy sleep relieve thy care;
Thine eye which pities not is closed--arise,