I believe the world grows near its end, yet is neither old nor decayed, nor will ever perish upon the ruins of its own principles. - Thomas Browne

obstinacy in a bad cause, is but constancy in a good.

for as though there were a Metempsuchosis, and the soule of one man passed into another, opinions doe find after certain revolutions, men and mindes like those that first begat them.

They burnt not children before their teeth appeared, as apprehending their bodies too tender a morsel for fire, and that their gristly bones would scarce leave separable relicks after the pyral combustion. That they kindled not fire in their houses for some days after was a strict memorial of the late afflicting fire. And mourning without hope, they had an happy fraud against excessive lamentation, by a common opinion that deep sorrows disturb their ghosts.