ne, and many other
very commendable and lawful things; and perhaps these priests
avoid salt, as being, according to some men's opinions, by its heat
provocative and apt to raise lust. Or they refuse it as the most
pleasant of all sauces, for indeed salt may be called the sauce of all
sauces; and therefore some call salt [Greek omitted]; because it makes
food, which is necessary for life, to be relishing and pleasant.

What then, said Florus, shall we say that salt is termed divine for
that reason? Indeed that is very considerable, for men for the most part
deify those common things that are exceeding useful to their necessities
and wants, as water, light, the seasons of the year; and the earth they
do not only think to be divine, but a very god. Now salt is as useful as
either of these, protecting in a way the food as it comes into the body,
and making it palatable and agreeable to the appetite. But consider
farther, whether its power of preserving dead bodies from rotting a long
time be not a divine property, and opposite to death; since it preserves
part, and will not suffer that which is mortal wholly to be destroyed.
But as the soul, which is our diviner part, connects the limbs of
animals, and keeps the composure from dissolution; thus salt applied to
dead bodies, and imitating the work of the soul, stops those parts that
were falling to corruption, binds and confines them, and so makes them
keep their union and agreement with one another. And therefore some of
the Stoics say, that swine's flesh then deserves the name of a body,
when the soul like salt spreads through it and keeps the parts from
dissolution. Besides, you know that we account lightning to be sacred
and divine, because the bodies that are thunderstruck do not rot for a
long time; what wonder is it then, that the ancients called salt as well
as lightning divine, since it hath the same property and power?

I making no reply, Philinus subjoined: Do you not think that that which
is generative is to be esteemed divine, seeing God is the principle of
all things? And I assenting, he continued: Salt, in the opinion of some
men, for instance the Egyptians you mentioned, is very operative that
way; and those that breed dogs, when they find their bitches not apt to
be hot, give them salt and seasoned flesh, to excite and arouse their
sleeping lechery and vigor. Besides, the ships that carry salt breed
abundance of mice; the females, as some imagine, conceiving