Similar sentiments with regard to the importance of burial, appear to have prevailed also among the heathen nations of antiquity. Both the historical and the poetical works of the Greeks clearly prove, that el en in their most flourishing period of prosperity and ciN lization, they con sidered it essential to their happiness to he buried and honoured with certain ceremonies after death. Solon, in his conversation with Crcesus, (Ilerodot. Cllo,30-32,) plainly intimates, that lie considered a public funeral,—a magnificent interment, as a source of happiness. More than one of the Greek dramas, and, among these, the most esteemed tragedy of Sophocles, the Antigone, de rive their whole interest from a contest about the right of burial. The fate of the twelve Athenian commanders, who suffered death because they had been prevented front recovering and burying the dead bodies of their countrymen, after a naval light, is well known. The an cient Greeks and Romans, indeed, were strongly persuad ed, that their souls would not be admitted into the Ely sian fields, till their bodies were committed to the earth ; and if it happened that they never obtained the rites of burial, they were supposed to continue in a wandering state, excluded from the mansions of the blest, for a term of one hundred years. I fence the imperious duty, in combent upon all travellers who should happen to meet with a dead body in their way, to cast dust upon it three limes ; of which three handfuls, one at least was cast upon the head. I le who encountered an unburied body without pc' forming this ceremony, chew upon himself a curse, Will( 11 no sacrifice could remove. Horace, ac cordingly, makes the shade of Architas to beg this ser vice of a passing, seaman : Iferodotus informs us, (Euterp. 90.) that in Egypt, if any person, native or foreigner, was found either de stroyed by a crocodile, or drowned in the water, the city nearest which the dead hotly was discovered was obliged to embalm it, with every mark or respectful attention, and afterwards deposit it in some consecrated place. Isacus adduces it as a proof of Cleon's not being the son of As tvphylus, that he neither buried hint, nor performed his exsequies. A law of Athens compelled the bu rial of a dead body found by accident, and pronounced him impious who refused. Sem Ms on Virgil (..Eneid vi. 176.) says, that writers on morals rank the interring of the dead among the first of moral duties. Thus, too, although a priest was contaminated by merely looking on a dead body, yet it was considered the height of impiety to leave it unburied. Some individuals, however, ap pear to have dissented from this almost universal opinion of the sacred duty of interment. The Cynics Seen] to have regarded burial with contempt ; and Pliny (H. X. 1. vii.) classes the concern manifested about it among the sveaknesses of human nature. But the importance at tached to it, in the general estimation of mankind, is sufficiently obvious from the facts already mentioned, from the denial of the privilege of interment to persons in particular situations, and from the circumstance of disgrace attending the funerals of some of those to whom it was allowed. Persons killed by lightning were buried apart by themselves, being deemed odious to the gods ; those who wasted their patrimony, forfeited the right of being buried in the sepulchres of their fathers ; and those who were guilty of suicide, were privately depo sited in the earth, without the usual solemnities—That those sentiments with regard to the importance of bu rial, have descended, in a great measure unimpaired, to modern times, proves that they are deeply implanted in Ihe human breast ; and that, if they belong to the weak nesses of our nature, they are too univiversally prevalent, and too firmly rooted, to be easily eradicated by the ef forts of philosophy.
2. The ceremonies observed in burying- the dead have varied in different ages, and among different nations. The two modes of burial chiefly practised by the ancients were cremation and simple interment. Of these, we have already observed, interment, or inhumation, appears to be of earliest date. The custom of burning, how ever, is probably very ancient ; and we have several ex amples of it in the Old Testament scriptures. Saul, we arc informed, was burnt at Jabesh, and his bones after wards buried ; and Asa was burnt in the bed which he tad made for himself, filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spires. But the practice of burnuiv, tae act assured, existed m ither in Pt Isla nor in Egy pt : The Persians thought it profane to f •ed a divinity at ith cases ; and the Egyptians •bhorru d it on r ac • being fully. peruaded that I:r( was a sorm ions animal,
which des wired NS ((AIM seize, and v.ltirh, when satiated, expired with at t it had consumed. Among the flre• ks and Rot ions, the prat of ( ruina tion prevailed, but not universally. Both Virgil and Ovid mention the custom of burning as being g( l.t ral before the foundation of Rome. (iEncid, xi. 8. roe. iv. 85.3.) Inhumation, however, Circio distr.% es, (Dr Leg. ii. 22.) was preferred by Numa, the Corn•iian family, and ,Darius. But cremation seems still to have been generally practised. Tacitns xvi. 6.) says, Popplea's corpse WaS not hunt, according to the Roman fashion ; which shews the prevailing custom at that pe riod. And it is a misapprehension of Capitolinus's words, to suppose that Antoninus prohibited it ; for :\ lacrobius, (vii. 7.) who live d during the rein of Theodosius the Younger, speaks of it as being It ft off only in his time. Among the I lindoos, the practice of burning the dead has prevailed from the remotest times. Sev• ral ancient authors also mention the unnatural custom of the women in India burning themselves with the bodies of their hus bands, which seems to be of great antiquity. Thus Pro pertius : • Cicero, in his Tusculan questions, likewise mentions the same fact. " The women in India," says he, " when their husband dies, eagerly contend to have it determined which of them he loved best, for each man has seseral wives. She who conquers deems herself happy, is ac companied by her friends to the funeral pile, where her body is burnt with that of her husband ; they at ho are vanquished depart in It is evident, however, that the custom of burning the dead was at one time prevalent among the northern nations of Europe, as well as among the Greeks and Romans, and the inhabitants of Asia. The author of Ynglinga Saga, published by Snorro Sturleson, in his history of the kings of Norway, ascribes the introduction of this practice to Odin. af..er his settle ment in the north. But he views it, at the same time, as borrowed from the Asiatics. Odin, lie says, enforced those laws in his own dominions, N% 111C11 were formerly observed among the inhabitants of Asia. He enjoined that all the dead should he burnt, and that their goods should be brought to the funeral pile with them ; p•o mising that all the goods thus burnt should au-company them to Walhalla, and that there they should enjoy to hat belonged to them on earth. Ile ordered that the ashes should be thrown into the sea, or be buried in the earth ; but that men remarkable fir their dignity and virtue should have monuments erected in memory of them ; and that those who were distinguished by any great ac tion should have grave-stones. called Bautasteina. (Yngt. Sag. c. S.) Sturleson speaks of two distinct age s. The first, he says, was called Bruna-aulla, (the age of funeral piles,) during which it was custom: ry to burn all the dead, and to erect monuments over them, called Bautas teina. From the time, however, that Danus the great king of the Danes, caused a tomb to be made for him, and gave orders that he should be buried with all the ensigns of royalty, with all his arms, and with a great part of his riches, many of his posterity followed his example. Hence the age of graves (Haugs-q1d) had its origin in Denmark. But the age of funeral piles continued long among the Swedes and Normans. (Pref. to Hist. p. 2.) Halms Mikillati was born A. D. 170. A similar distinction of ages appears to have existed among the Norwegians, in ancient times. We find one Atbiorn, in an address to Bacon the Good, on occasion of a general convention of the people, dividing the time past into the age of funeral piles, and that of graves. (Saga Haconar, c. 17.) It is a fact not generally known, that the inhuman custom which prevails in lliudostan, of burning wives with their dead husbands, was common among the north ern nations. Not only did it exist among the Thracians, the Heruli, the inhabitants of Poland and of Prussia, during their heathen state, but also among the Scandina vians. (Oddo, Vit. Olaf Trygguason.) It appears, how ever, that widows were not burnt alive ; but that, accord ing to the custom of the country, they previously put themselves to death. The reason assigned for this hor rid law was, that their nuptial felicity would thus be con tinued after death in Walhalla, which was their heaven. (See Bartholin. de Causis Contempt. Mortis, Jamieson's Etynzolog. Diet. v. BAILE-FYRE) Tie in troduction of Christianity appears to have put a stop to the practice of burning the dead ; and interment came, at length, to be universally adopted by those nations which were converted to the true faith.