IMMORTALITY ( Lat. immortalitas, from immortuhs, undying, from in-, not inor(alis, natrtal, from mars, death: connected with Skt. mar, to die. Gk. pops, morns, death, and dpor6t, brotost, mortal, Litt'. midi, to die, °Church Slay. tartitca, dead, 011G. mord, Ger. Mord, murder, AS. .0, death). The endless existence of the human such in the continued possession of its dis tinct personality and consciousness. How early the idea of a survival after death entered the mind of man cannot be dttermined. There is. no evidence of it in the Paleolithic period, But in the Neolithic period not only the ornaments, weapons. tools. and food placed by the side of the 'lead, but the houses, mounds, chulpas, and tombs built for them, testify to a belief that some of dead for some time continue sonte kind of an existence after death. It is probable that at first death was looked upon as a deep and prolonged sleep. The dead was left in his dwelling-place, the survivors seeking a new home, or a special structure was made for him. Visions of the departed in dreams naturally led to the con clusion that they left their dwellings in the night, and, upon further reflection, to the theory of a double or finer material, but dependent upon the fool and drink brought to the tomb. The practices of the Neolithic period already imply the development of sonic such theory of a 'soul.' The fact that these customs and the faith they imply survived into the more advanced civilizations of antiquity and are to be found ex tensively at the present time among peoples that have remained upon lower stages of development, indicates for them a very high age.
Tombs were the earliest temples, and the an cestral cult was the earliest form of divine wor ship. As long as offerings were made to the dead the departed aneestors were believed to ex ist 'and to ',navel their descendants. Thus the cult itself tended to create a confidence in an indefinite prolongation of existence in the case the of filial worship. As the great cosmic forces began to attract, more attention the double of the dead inIt•ht be connected with them in one way ta- another, and thereby become more independent. of the tomb. But even where, as in
Egypt, this process can he most clearly per ceived, the ancestral cult as the basis of hope for survival maintained itself to the latest times. Whether the mass of men in Egypt who were too poor to pay the cost of embalming and 'a house for eternity' were regarded as lone' surviv ing the shock of death is doubtful. But the assurance in a future life, as rich as the present and not very different in its outward conditions, for those properly embalmed and entombed, was very strong. Numerous pictorial representations and inscription in tombs and papyri from differ ent periods -how how intensely the inhabitants of the Nile Valley believed in a life after death.
Starting from the same premises, speculation as to the future took a different turn in India. Tho doctrine of metempsychosis was developed. With out losing its identity. the spiritual substance in man was supposed to cutter into other forms of life, rising or sinking in the scale of being in consequence of the deeds wrought in the body and the character formed. (See EstataTot.ot,v.) This transmigration of souls implied eternal ex isteuee before as well as after any appearance in the world as a human !wing. It precluded rho idea of a disembodied spirit, and it adjusted out• ward circumstance to inner character, punish ment to crime, and reward to virtue more nicely than any other system of thought. But this assurance of eternal life I ecannt itself a burden to the mind of man, and it cried out for deliver ance from the endlessly turnint• wheel of exist ence. Buddhism offered relief in the hope of Nirvana. In Persia. 1\lazdaism proclaimed, pos• sibl• nit in the Gathic period, but certainly 84. early as the third century ices, the doctrine of a resurrection (q.v.). This doctrine was no doubt based upon the simpler and more wide spread belief that the sleepers in the dust might be aroused. Ca-es of apparent death and suc cessful resuscitation would strengthen this expec tation. The animistic basis is quite evident.