Citations:symmyst


 * 1607?,, The Hiſtory of Four-footed Beaſts and Serpents (1658), chapter lxiii: “Of the Lion”, page 369:
 * And this thing is thought to be most conſonant to the opinion of Plato, for in conſideration of the habit, and not of the kinde; a good houſe-keeper, and charitable nouriſhing man, is ſaid to be tranſmuted into a tree: He which liveth by catching and ſnatching, to ſerve his own concupiſcence, into a Kite; he which for love of military diſcipline and Martial affairs, into a Lion; he that was a Tyrant and a devourer of men, into a Dragon: and Empedocles alſo ſaid, that if a man depart this natural life, and be tranſmuted into a brute beaſt, it is moſt happieſt for him if his ſoul go into a Lion: but if he looſe his kinde and ſenſes, and be tranſmuted into a plant, then is it beſt to be metamorphoſed into a Laurel or Bay-tree. And for theſe cauſes we read of Hippo changed into a Lion, and Atlas into a Lioneſs, and the like I might ſay of Proteus, of the Curetes, and others: and generally all the Eaſtern wiſe men believed the tranſmigration of ſpirits from one into another, and inſinuated ſo much to their ſymmiſts and diſciples, making little or no difference betwixt the natures of men and brute beaſts. Therefore they taught that all their Prieſts after death were turned into Lions, their religious Veſtals or women into Hyæna’s, their Servants or Miniſters in the Temples, about the ſervice of their vain Gods into Crows and Ravens; the Fathers of families, into Eagles and Hawks; but thoſe which ſerved the Leontick Altars, meaning Nemeæa ſacra, inſtituted for the honour of Hercules, were tranſformed diverſly: but of all theſe we have already expreſſed our opinion; namely, to believe and think ſo baſely of mankinde, created after Gods Image, as once to conceive or entertain one thought of ſuch paſſing of one from another, were moſt lewd and Diabolical; but to conceive them as allegories, by which the mindes of the wiſe may be inſtructed in divine things, and God his judgements; as it is Poetical, ſo is it not againſt any point of learning, or good Religion.