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diff --git a/old/53829-0.txt b/old/53829-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index b619c50..0000000 --- a/old/53829-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1508 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pagan Ideas of Immortality During the Early -Roman Empire, by Clifford Herschel Moore - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Pagan Ideas of Immortality During the Early Roman Empire - -Author: Clifford Herschel Moore - -Release Date: December 29, 2016 [EBook #53829] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAGAN IDEAS OF IMMORTALITY *** - - - - -Produced by Sonya Schermann, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - - - - Ingersoll Lectures on Immortality - - - IMMORTALITY AND THE NEW THEODICY. By George A. Gordon. 1896. - - HUMAN IMMORTALITY. Two supposed Objections to the Doctrine. By - William James. 1897. - - DIONYSOS AND IMMORTALITY: The Greek Faith in Immortality as - affected by the rise of Individualism. By Benjamin Ide Wheeler. - 1898. - - THE CONCEPTION OF IMMORTALITY. By Josiah Royce. 1899. - - LIFE EVERLASTING. By John Fiske. 1900. - - SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY. By William Osler. 1904. - - THE ENDLESS LIFE. By Samuel M. Crothers. 1905. - - INDIVIDUALITY AND IMMORTALITY. By Wilhelm Ostwald. 1906. - - THE HOPE OF IMMORTALITY. By Charles F. Dole. 1907. - - BUDDHISM AND IMMORTALITY. By William S. Bigelow. 1908. - - IS IMMORTALITY DESIRABLE? By G. Lowes Dickinson. 1909. - - EGYPTIAN CONCEPTIONS OF IMMORTALITY. By George A. Reisner. 1911. - - INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY IN THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE. By George - H. Palmer. 1912. - - METEMPSYCHOSIS. By George Foot Moore. 1914. - - PAGAN IDEAS OF IMMORTALITY DURING THE EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE. By - Clifford Herschel Moore. 1918. - - - - - PAGAN IDEAS OF - - IMMORTALITY DURING THE - - EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE - - - - - The Ingersoll Lecture, 1918 - - Pagan Ideas of - - Immortality During the - - Early Roman Empire - - By - - Clifford Herschel Moore, Ph.D., Litt.D. - - _Professor of Latin in Harvard University_ - - [Illustration: colophon] - - Cambridge - Harvard University Press - London: Humphrey Milford - Oxford University Press - - 1918 - - COPYRIGHT, 1918 - HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS - - - - - THE INGERSOLL LECTURESHIP - -_Extract from the will of Miss Caroline Haskell Ingersoll, who died in - Keene, County of Cheshire, New Hampshire, Jan. 26, 1893_ - - -_First._ In carrying out the wishes of my late beloved father, George -Goldthwait Ingersoll, as declared by him in his last will and testament, -I give and bequeath to Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., where my -late father was graduated, and which he always held in love and honor, -the sum of Five thousand dollars ($5,000) as a fund for the -establishment of a Lectureship on a plan somewhat similar to that of the -Dudleian lecture, that is--one lecture to be delivered each year, on any -convenient day between the last day of May and the first day of -December, on this subject, “the Immortality of Man,” said lecture not to -form a part of the usual college course, nor to be delivered by any -Professor or Tutor as part of his usual routine of instruction, though -any such Professor or Tutor may be appointed to such service. The choice -of said lecturer is not to be limited to any one religious denomination, -nor to any one profession, but may be that of either clergyman or -layman, the appointment to take place at least six months before the -delivery of said lecture. The above sum to be safely invested and three -fourths of the annual interest thereof to be paid to the lecturer for -his services and the remaining fourth to be expended in the publishment -and gratuitous distribution of the lecture, a copy of which is always to -be furnished by the lecturer for such purpose. The same lecture to be -named and known as “the Ingersoll lecture on the Immortality of Man.” - - - - -PAGAN IDEAS OF IMMORTALITY DURING THE EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE - - - - -I - - -The invitation of the committee charged with the administration of the -Ingersoll lectureship and my own inclination have agreed in indicating -that aspect of the general subject of immortality, which I shall try to -present tonight. I shall not venture on this occasion to advance -arguments for or against belief in a life after death; my present task -is a humbler one: I propose to ask you to review with me some of the -more significant ideas concerning an existence beyond the grave, which -were current in the Greco-Roman world in the time of Jesus and during -the earlier Christian centuries, and to consider briefly the relation -of these pagan beliefs to Christian ideas on the same subject. In -dealing with a topic so vast as this in a single hour, we must select -those elements which historically showed themselves to be fundamental -and vital; but even then we cannot examine much detail. It may prove, -however, that a rapid survey of those concepts of the future life, whose -influence lasted long during the Christian centuries, and indeed has -continued to the present day, may not be without profit. - -The most important single religious document from the Augustan Age is -the sixth book of Virgil’s Aeneid; for although the Aeneid was written -primarily to glorify Roman imperial aims, the sixth book gives full -expression to many philosophic and popular ideas of the other world and -of the future life, which were current among both Greeks and Romans.[1] -It therefore makes a fitting point of departure for our considerations. -In this book, as you will remember, the poet’s hero, having reached -Italian soil at last, is led down to the lower world by the Cumaean -Sybil. This descent to Hades belongs historically to that long series of -apocalyptic writings which begins with the eleventh book of the Odyssey -and closes with Dante’s Divine Comedy. Warde Fowler deserves credit for -clearly pointing out that this visit of Aeneas to the world below is the -final ordeal for him, a mystic initiation, in which he receives -“enlightenment for the toil, peril, and triumph that await him in the -accomplishment of his divine mission.” When the Trojan hero has learned -from his father’s shade the mysteries of life and death, and has been -taught the magnitude of the work which lies before him, and the great -things that are to be, he casts off the timidity which he has hitherto -shown and, strengthened by his experiences, advances to the perfect -accomplishment of his task.[2] - -But we are not concerned so much with Virgil’s purpose in writing this -apocalyptic book, as with its contents and with the evidence it gives as -to the current ideas of the other world and the fate of the human soul. -What then does the poet tell us of these great matters? We can hardly do -better than to follow Aeneas and his guide on their journey. This side -of Acheron they meet the souls of those whose bodies are unburied, and -who therefore must tarry a hundred years--the maximum of human -life--before they may be ferried over the river which bounds Hades. When -Charon has set the earthly visitors across that stream, they find -themselves in a place where are gathered spirits of many kinds, who have -not yet been admitted to Tartarus or Elysium: first the souls of infants -and those who met their end by violence--men condemned to death though -innocent, suicides, those who died for love, and warriors--all of whom -must here wait until the span of life allotted them has been completed. -These spirits passed, the mortal visitors come to the walls of Tartarus, -on whose torments Aeneas is not allowed to look, for - - “The feet of innocence may never pass - Into this house of sin.” - -But the Sybil, herself taught by Hecate, reveals to him the eternal -punishments there inflicted for monstrous crimes. Then the visitors pass -to Elysium, where dwell the souls of those whose deserts on earth have -won for them a happy lot. Nearby in a green valley, Aeneas finds the -shade of his own father, Anchises, looking eagerly at the souls -which are waiting to be born into the upper world. In answer to -his son’s questions, the heroic shade discloses the doctrine of -rebirths--metempsychosis--with its tenets of penance and of -purification.[3] Finally, to fulfill the poet’s purpose, Anchises’ -spirit points out the souls of the heroes who are to come on earth in -due season; the spirits of future Romans pass before Aeneas in long -array; and at the climax he sees the soul of Augustus, that prince who -was destined in the fullness of time to bring back the Golden Age and to -impose peace on the wide world. This prophetic revelation ended, Aeneas -enlightened and strengthened for his task, returns to the upper world. - -This book seems at first a strange compound indeed of popular belief, -philosophy, and theology, which is not without its contradictions. On -these, however, we need not pause; but for our present interest we must -ask what are the main ideas on which this apocalypse is based. First of -all, a future life is taken for granted by the poet; otherwise the book -could never have been written. Secondly, we notice that, according to -ancient popular belief, the souls of those who had not received the -proper burial rites, were doomed to wander on this side of Acheron until -a hundred years were completed, and also that souls which were -disembodied by violence or by early death, were destined to live out -their allotted span of earthly existence before they could enter the -inner precincts of Hades. Again the poet represents some few as -suffering eternal torments for their monstrous sins or enjoying immortal -bliss because of their great deserts. And finally, he shows that the -majority of souls must pass through successive lives and deaths, until, -purified from the sin and dross of the body by millennial sojourns in -the world below, and by virtuous lives on earth, they at last find -repose and satisfaction. The popular beliefs which concern details of -the future life we shall leave one side for the moment; let us rather -first observe that Virgil’s ideas as to rewards and punishments in the -next world, as well as his doctrine of successive rebirths and deaths -with their accompanying purifications, rest on a moral basis, so that -the other world is conceived to be a complement of this: life on earth -and life below are opportunities for moral advance without which final -happiness cannot be attained. Whence came these ideas of the future life -and how far were they current in the ancient world of Virgil’s day? - -Naturally it does not follow that, because Rome’s greatest poet chose to -picture souls surviving their corporeal homes, the average man believed -in a future life, but there is abundant evidence that the poet was -appealing to widespread beliefs, when he wrote his apocalyptic book.[4] -In fact from the earliest times known to us, both Greeks and Romans held -to a belief in some kind of extended life for souls after the death of -the body.[5] Both peoples had their cults of the dead, rites of tendance -and of riddance, festivals both public and private, which leave no doubt -that the great majority of men never questioned that the spirits of the -departed existed after this life, and that those spirits were endowed -with power to harm or to bless the living.[6] But beyond this rather -elementary stage of belief the Romans never went of themselves. The -Greeks, however, began early to develop eschatological ideas which had, -and which still have, great importance. - -The eleventh book of the Odyssey, as I have already said, is the oldest -“Descent to Hades” in European literature. The souls of the dead are -there represented as dwelling in the land of shadows, having no life, -but leading an insubstantial existence, without punishment or reward. -Such a future world could have no moral or other value; it could only -hang over men as a gloomy prospect of that which awaited them when the -suns of this world had forever set. But in the seventh and sixth -centuries B.C. other ideas came to the front, which were influential -throughout later history. In those two centuries fall the first period -of Greek individualism and a religious revival--two things not wholly -disconnected. The Orphic sect, which appeared in the sixth century, was -made up of religious devotees who adopted a purified form of the -religion of Dionysus.[7] The center of the Orphic faith and mystic -ceremonial was the myth of the birth, destruction, and rebirth of the -god. According to the story, Dionysus was pursued by the Titans, powers -hostile to Zeus. In his distress the god changed himself into various -creatures, finally taking on the form of a bull, which the Titans tore -in pieces and devoured. But the goddess Athena saved the heart and gave -it to Zeus who swallowed it. Hence sprang the new Dionysus. The Titans -Zeus destroyed with his thunderbolt and had the ashes scattered to the -winds. From these ashes, in one form of the myth, man was made, and -therefore he was thought to unite in his person the sinful Titanic -nature and the divine Dionysiac spark. The parallelism between this -story and the myths of Osiris, Attis, and Adonis is at once evident. -They are all gods who die and live again, and thus become lords of death -and life, through whom man gains assurance of his own immortality. - -Our chief concern with the Orphics here is that they seem to have -introduced among the Greeks the idea that the soul of man was divine, -was a [Greek: daimôn] which had fallen, and for its punishment was -imprisoned in the body as in a tomb. In its corporeal cell it was -condemned to suffer defilement until released by death, when it passed -to Hades. Its lot there depended on its life on earth. As an Orphic -fragment says: “They who are righteous beneath the rays of the sun, when -they die, have a gentler lot in a fair meadow by deep flowing -Acheron.... But they who have worked wrong and insolence under the rays -of the sun are led down beneath Cocytus’s watery plain into chill -Tartarus.”[8] The soul’s sojourn in Hades therefore was a time of -punishment and of purification, even as life itself was a penance for -sin. According to a common belief, at least in Plato’s day, after a -thousand years the soul entered a new incarnation, and so on through ten -rounds of earth and Hades, until at last, freed from sin and earthly -dross by faithful observance of a holy life on earth and by the -purification which it underwent below, it returned to its divine abode; -but those who persisted in sin were condemned to all the punishments -which man’s imagination could devise; the wicked were doomed to lie in -mud and filth, while evil demons rent their vitals. Indeed the horrors -which the medieval Christian loved to depict in order to terrify the -wicked and to rejoice the faithful, were first devised by the Orphics -and their heirs, for exactly the same purpose. - -But what bases did the Orphics find for their belief in the divine -nature of the soul? In their mythology they had said that man was -created out of the ashes of the Titans in which a spark of Dionysus -still remained. But in fact they seem to have rested on faith or -intuition, without working out clearly a philosophic answer. They were -indeed deeply conscious of man’s dual nature; they perceived that on the -one hand he is pulled by his baser instincts and desires, which they -naturally attributed to the body, and that on the other hand he is -prompted by nobler aspirations, which they assigned to his soul. This -higher part of man’s dual self was, for them, the Dionysiac element in -him. And man’s moral obligation they held to be to free this divine -element from the clogging weight of the body, to cease to “blind his -soul with clay.” So far as we are aware, the Orphics were the first -among the Greeks to make the divinity of the soul a motive for the -religious life, and perhaps the first to see that, if the soul is -divine, it may naturally be regarded as eternally so, and therefore as -immortal. What more momentous thoughts as to the soul’s nature and its -destiny could any sect have introduced than these? They were shared by -their contemporaries, the Pythagoreans; in fact it is hard to say with -certainty which sect developed these concepts first.[9] - -But the Orphic-Pythagorean confidence in the immortality of the soul -was at the most only an emotional belief. It remained for Plato in the -early fourth century to give that belief a philosophic basis and thereby -to transform it into a reasonable article of religion. This he -fundamentally did, when he brought his concept of the reasoning soul -into connection with his doctrine of “forms” or “ideas.” He maintained -that behind this transient phenomenal world known to us through the -senses, lies another world, the world of ideas, invisible, permanent, -and real, which can be grasped by the reason only. These permanent -ideas, he said, are of various grades and degrees, the supreme idea -being that of the Good and the Beautiful, which is the cause of all -existence, truth, and knowledge; it at once comprehends these things -within itself and is superior to them; it is the Absolute, God.[10] - -But all the ideas, including the Absolute, are, as I have just said, -apprehended not by man’s senses but by his intellect. Therefore, argues -Plato, man’s reasoning soul must have the same nature as the ideas; like -them, it must belong to the world above the senses and with them it must -partake of the Absolute. Moreover, since the ideas are eternal and -immortal, it inevitably follows that man’s reasoning soul has existed -from eternity and will exist forever.[11] - -This is not the occasion to discuss the validity of Plato’s doctrine. -Aristotle stated, once for all, the fundamental objections to his -teacher’s views.[12] But we shall readily grant that, if we accept -Plato’s doctrine, his conclusions as to the immortality of the soul may -logically follow and that no further evidence is needed to convince us. -Yet Plato was not content to let the matter rest on this single -argument, for in other dialogues he adduces proofs which do not seem so -convincing to us as to their author. He attempts to prove immortality -from the self-motion of the soul, again from the dim recollections out -of an earlier existence which enable one to recall axiomatic truths or -to recognize relations, as in mathematics--things which one has never -learned in this present life. On another occasion he argues from the -unchanging nature of the soul and from the soul’s superiority to the -body. But he seems to have thought the most convincing proof was the -fact that the notion of life is inseparable from our concept of the -soul; that is, a dead soul is unthinkable. For all these reasons, -therefore, he argued that the soul must be immortal.[13] - -Whatever we may think of Plato’s different proofs, they have furnished -the armories of apologists almost down to our own day. In antiquity they -were constantly repeated, in whole or in part, not only by devoted -members of the Academy and later by the Neoplatonists, but by the -Eclectics and others, like Cicero in the first book of his Tusculan -Disputations, and at the close of Scipio’s Dream; they were borrowed by -the Stoics, and some eight hundred years after Plato had first -formulated them, they were employed by St. Augustine in his tract _De -Immortalitate Animae_. The religious intuition of the Orphic and -Pythagorean then was given a rational basis by Plato, and thus -supported, proved so convincing to antiquity that Plato’s views were the -most important of all in supporting belief in the soul’s immortality. -They were in large measure taken up by the Christian church, and, as has -been often shown, the doctrine of a spiritual immortality apart and free -from the body, was of immense service to primitive Christianity, when -the hope of the early return of Christ to found a new kingdom on earth -faded before the lengthening years. - -To Plato himself his belief in immortality was of the greatest moment, -for the whole fabric of his ethical and political philosophy is built -against the background of that doctrine. And indeed we should all grant -much validity to the argument that the human reason, though weak and -limited, is one with the divine and infinite reason; otherwise the human -could have no understanding of the divine. But when it is further argued -that if the human reason is of the same nature with the divine, it must -be eternal and immortal, we may reply that, even so, we are not -convinced that the individual soul must therefore have a conscious and -separate existence through all eternity; its identity may be lost by -absorption into the universal reason, the supreme idea. This is a matter -on which Plato nowhere delivers a clear opinion, but his thought is so -plainly centered on the individual soul that we can hardly believe that -it was possible for him to conceive of the soul’s personality ever being -lost in the Absolute. - -Although Plato and his greatest pupil, Aristotle, regarded man’s -reasoning soul as spiritual, something distinct from matter, few ancient -thinkers were able to rise to the concept of the immateriality of man’s -reasoning nature. The Stoics, who in their eclectic system borrowed from -both Plato and Aristotle, as well as from many other predecessors, held -to a strict materialism which they took from Heraclitus. But to their -material principle they applied a concept which they took from -Aristotle, for they recognized in all things the existence of an active -and a passive principle, and they said that by the action of the former -on the latter, all phenomena were produced. The active principle they -called reason, intelligence, the cause of all things. It was the -world-reason which, according to their view, permeated every part of -the cosmos, causing and directing all things. To express their concept -of its nature, they often named it Fire, the most powerful and active of -the elements, or rather the primordial element; again they often called -it God, for they did not hesitate to speak of this immanent principle as -a person. Furthermore, since man is a part of the cosmos, the -world-reason expresses itself in him. Indeed man’s reason, the directing -element of the human soul, is itself a part of the world-reason, or in -Epictetus’ striking phrase, man is “a fragment of God.”[14] At this -point the Stoic and the Platonist were in accord, although the paths of -thought which they had travelled were very different. Yet the Stoic -could not agree with the Platonist that the individual soul survived -forever, since he held to a cyclical theory of the cosmos, according to -which this present universe was temporal. It had been created by the -eternal fire, by the world-reason, from itself, and it was destined in -due season to sink back again into universal fire. Meantime, according -to the views of most Stoics, the souls of the just would survive this -body, ascending to the spheres above the world, where they would dwell -until absorbed once more into the divine element from which they sprang. -To the souls of the wicked only a short period at most of post-corporeal -existence was granted--brevity of life or annihilation was their -punishment.[15] - -Strictly speaking, the prospect of the limited existence after death, -which the Stoics held out as virtue’s reward, should have had little -value for the philosophic mind, especially as their philosophy offered -no warrant that personality would survive at all. But it would seem that -men at every period of human history have had immortal longings in them -so strong that they have eagerly embraced the assurance of even a brief -respite from annihilation; certain it is that to many Greeks and Romans -the Stoic doctrine of a limited existence after death was a strong -incentive to virtue and a consolation in the midst of this world’s -trials. - -But no doctrine of the post-corporeal existence of the soul has ever had -the field entirely to itself. We know that in antiquity even the Stoic -conception of the soul’s limited survival, to say nothing of Platonic -beliefs in actual immortality, met with much opposition and denial among -the intellectual classes. The Epicureans, with their thorough-going -atomistic materialism, would not allow that the soul had any existence -apart from the body; on the contrary, they held that the soul came into -being at the moment of conception, grew with the body, and, at the -body’s death, was once more dissolved into the atoms from which it -first was formed. Epicurean polemics were directed against both popular -superstitions and Platonic metaphysics; the attacks had the advantage of -offering rational, and for the day scientific, explanations of natural -phenomena, which fed human curiosity as to the causes of things, and -which, if accepted, might logically lead to that freedom from the soul’s -perturbation which was the aim of the teaching. Moreover, the noble -resignation, the high moral and humane zeal, which characterized the -Epicurean School at its best, as well as its easy decline into -hedonistic appeals, made it popular, especially in the last two -centuries before our era. But the very fire and passion of Lucretius, -its most gifted Latin exponent, give us the impression that after all -most men were not moved to find the peace which the poet promised them, -if they would but accept the doctrine of the soul’s dissolution at the -moment of death. - -The Sceptics also, who claimed not an inconsiderable number of -intellectuals, doubted the possibility of a future life, or found -themselves unable to decide the matter at all. Like Tennyson’s Sage they -would declare: - - “Thou canst not prove that thou art body alone, - Nor canst thou prove that thou art spirit alone, - Nor canst thou prove that thou art both in one: - Thou canst not prove that thou art immortal, no, - Nor yet that thou art mortal.” - -Indeed it is true that of all the philosophic sects at the beginning of -our era, only those which were imbued with Platonic and -Orphic-Pythagorean ideas, had confidence in the soul’s immortality. The -Stoic position we have already discussed. Some scholars, following -Rohde,[16] claim that there was little belief in any kind of a future -life among the educated classes at the time we are considering; this I -hold to be an error, although it is certain that the Epicureans and -Sceptics had a large following. In any case we need to remind ourselves -that the intellectuals are always a small minority, whose views may not -represent in any way popular beliefs. - -We are, however, not without evidence that there were doubters among the -common people. Flippant epigrams and epitaphs show that men could at -least assume a cynicism toward life and a light-heartedness toward death -which equal Lucian’s. More than once we can read funerary inscriptions -to this effect: “I was nothing, I am nothing. Do thou who art still -alive, eat, drink, be merry, come.”[17] Or sentiments like this: “Once I -had no existence; now I have none. I am not aware of it. It does not -concern me.”[18] Again we find the denial: “In Hades there is no boat, -no Charon, no Aeacus who holds the keys, no Cerberus. All of us, whom -death has taken away are rotten bones and ashes; nothing more.”[19] The -sentiments are perhaps as old as thinking man. They have at times -touches of humor which call forth a smile, as in the anxious inquiries -of Callimachus’ epigram: “Charidas, what is below?” “Deep darkness.” -“But what of the paths upward?” “All a lie.” “And Pluto?” “Mere talk.” -“Then we’re lost.”[20] - -Such expressions, of course, must not be given too much weight in our -reckoning. The longing for annihilation, which appeals at times to most -weary mortals, also led to dedications “to eternal rest” or “to eternal -sleep.”[21] But after all the number of such epitaphs is comparatively -small. In the nature of the case many funerary inscriptions give no -testimony for or against a belief in immortality; but large numbers -show confidence, or a hope, in a future life. - - - - -II - - -The time has now come for us to return from our rather long historical -survey to Virgil’s Apocalypse, and to listen to the words with which -Anchises’ shade taught his eager son: - - “Know first that heaven and earth and ocean’s plain, - The moon’s bright orb, and stars of Titan birth - Are nourished by one Life; one primal Mind, - Immingled with the vast and general frame, - Fills every part and stirs the mighty whole. - Thence man and beast, thence creatures of the air, - And all the swarming monsters that be found - Beneath the level of the marbled sea; - A fiery virtue, a celestial power, - Their native seeds retain; but bodies vile, - With limbs of clay and members born to die, - Encumber and o’ercloud; whence also spring - Terrors and passions, suffering and joy; - For from deep darkness and captivity - All gaze but blindly on the radiant world. - Nor when to life’s last beam they bid farewell - May sufferers cease from pain, nor quite be freed - From all their fleshly plagues; but by fixed law, - The strange, inveterate taint works deeply in. - For this, the chastisement of evils past - Is suffered here, and full requital paid. - Some hang on high, outstretched to viewless winds; - For some their sin’s contagion must be purged - In vast ablution of deep-rolling seas, - Or burned away in fire. Each man receives - His ghostly portion in the world of dark; - But thence to realms Elysian we go free, - Where for a few these seats of bliss abide, - Till time’s long lapse a perfect orb fulfills, - And takes all taint away, restoring so - The pure, ethereal soul’s first virgin fire. - At last, when the millennial aeon strikes, - God calls them forth to yon Lethaean stream, - In numerous host, that thence, oblivious all, - They may behold once more the vaulted sky, - And willingly to shapes of flesh return.”[22] - -These words express the commingled beliefs of Orphic, Pythagorean, -Platonist, and Stoic. How extensively such beliefs were held by Virgil’s -contemporaries we cannot say with accuracy, but certain it is that this -book and this passage would never have made the religious appeal which -they made in antiquity, if they had not corresponded to widespread -convictions. - -But Virgil’s sixth book contains much more than the eschatological views -of philosophic schools; it reflects to an extraordinary degree popular -ideas and practices. I have already referred to the fact that it -represents a mystic initiation of Virgil’s hero as preparation for his -holy task. Now we know that at all times the convictions of the majority -of men are founded not on the arguments which thinkers can supply, but -on hopes, intuitions, and emotional experiences. Such were the grounds -on which the Orphic built his hope of the purified soul’s ultimate -happiness. More popular than Orphism were the Greek mysteries, of which -the most important were those celebrated annually at Eleusis in Attica. -There the story of the rape of Proserpina, of Demeter’s search for her -daughter, and of the daughter’s recovery, formed the center of a mystic -ceremonial. Originally these mysteries were no doubt agricultural rites -intended to call to life the dead grain in the spring. But before the -seventh century, B.C., the festival had been transformed; the miracle of -the reviving vegetation, of the grain which dies and lives again, here, -as so many times elsewhere, had become the symbol and assurance of human -immortality.[23] - -Before admission to the annual celebration the would-be initiate was -duly purified. During the celebration the initiated, by their own acts, -recalled Demeter’s hunt for her daughter, roaming the shore with -lighted torches; like the goddess, they fasted and then broke their fast -by drinking a holy potion of meal and water; in the great hall of -initiation they witnessed a mystic drama, perhaps saw holy objects -exhibited and explained. In any case they underwent an emotional -experience which so confirmed their intuitional belief in immortality, -that they were confident of peace and happiness in this life and of -blessedness in the life to come, where they would join in the sacred -dance, while the uninitiated would be wretched. Many are the expressions -of this ecclesiastical confidence. The Homeric hymn of Demeter promised: -“Blessed is he among mortal men who has seen these rites.”[24] Pindar, -early in the fifth century, wrote: “Happy he who has seen these things -and then goes beneath the earth, for he knows the end of life and its -Zeus-given beginning.”[25] Sophocles said: “Thrice blessed are they who -have seen these rites, and then go to the house of Hades, for they alone -have life there, but all others have only woe.”[26] At the close of the -fifth century Aristophanes made his chorus of mystae sing: “For we alone -have a sun and a holy light, we who have been initiated, and who live -honorably toward friends and strangers, reverencing the gods.”[27] In -the third century of the Christian era, an official of the mysteries set -up an inscription which declares: “Verily glorious is that mystery -vouchsafed by the blessed gods, for death is no ill for mortals, but -rather a good.”[28] - -It is difficult for us now to appreciate the widespread influence of -these Eleusinian mysteries. They had many branches; at Eleusis they -continued to be celebrated until 396 A.D., when Alaric the Goth -destroyed Demeter’s ancient shrine. Other Greek mysteries also -flourished in the Mediterranean world: those of Samothrace; the -mysteries of Bacchus, whose excesses brought down the displeasure of the -Roman Senate in 186 B.C.; and in later times the mysteries of Hecate or -Diana. All had this in common, that they gave the initiate assurance of -a happy immortality. - -Under the Roman Empire the longing for religious satisfaction through -mystic rites and revelations found new and exotic sources of -gratification. Slaves, traders, and finally soldiers from Hellenized -Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor, carried their gods throughout the -Mediterranean world, and even beyond, to the Atlantic Ocean, to -Hadrian’s Wall in Britain, to the Rhine and Danube, and to the borders -of the African desert. The invasion of the West by these oriental gods -began in 204 B.C., when, in answer to the Roman Senate’s invitation, the -Asiatic Great Mother of the Gods took up her residence in Rome. Many -other divinities came during the succeeding centuries; but three -remained most prominent: the Great Mother of the Gods, whom I have just -mentioned, with her attendant Attis; Egyptian Isis and her associate -divinities, who were worshipped in Rome as early as Cicero’s day; and -the Persian Mithras, whose cult became influential in the West toward -the close of the first century of our era.[29] These religions added to -their exotic charm that spell which great age casts over men’s -imaginations. Osiris, the husband of Isis, had been lord of the dead in -Egypt for more than two thousand years; Attis and the Great Mother -belonged to an immemorial antiquity; while Mithras had his origin in the -remoter East, at a period to which neither Greek nor Roman knowledge -ran. Moreover, Attis and Osiris, like Dionysus and Persephone among the -Greeks, or the Semitic Adonis and Tammuz, were gods who died and lived -again, and who therefore became warrants of man’s immortality. Mithras -belonged to another class of divinities. He was held to be the -benefactor and constant supporter of mankind. According to the sacred -legend, he had himself wrestled with the powers of darkness and had -established civilization on earth, before he ascended to heaven, whence -he was believed to aid his faithful followers in their constant struggle -against the servants of Ahriman, the lord of wickedness. - -The devotees of these gods formed sacred communities, admission to which -was obtained by secret initiation; the rituals were mysteries in which -the devotee had pictured to him, or himself acted out, the sacred drama, -whereby he received assurance of divine protection here and of a happy -immortality hereafter. The initiate, moreover, was believed to -experience a new birth and to enter into union with his god, so that he -became Osiris-Serapis, or Attis, or Mithras, even as the Dionysiac -devotee became a Bacchus. - -To the question how the comforting assurance of present safety and of -future immortality was given the initiate, we can return no more -satisfactory answer than we can make in the case of the Greek mysteries; -yet we may get some hint from the words which the Latin writer, -Apuleius, puts into the mouth of his hero, Lucius, who was initiated -into the rites of Isis. This is all that he might tell: “I approached -the bounds of death. I trod the threshold of Proserpina. I was carried -through all the elements and returned again to the upper air. At dead of -night I saw the sun glowing with a brilliant light. The gods of heaven -and of hell I approached in very person and worshipped face to -face.”[30] Obscure as these words are, much is plain. In some way the -devotee was made to believe that he, like Virgil’s hero, had passed -through the world of the dead and had been born again into a new life; -he had touched the elements--earth, air, water, and fire, the very -foundations of the visible cosmos; he had seen the sun which ever shines -on the consecrated; and he had been granted the beatific vision. -Therefore he knew that his salvation was secure forever. - -Furthermore in these mystery religions preparation for the emotional -experiences of initiation was made by means of lustral baths, fasting, -abstinence, and penance; once consecrated, the devotee supported his -religious life by following a prescribed regimen and by participating in -frequent holy offices; degrees of initiation and grades of office marked -his advance in faithful proficiency; while magic words and formulae, -committed to memory, assured him a safe passage from this world to the -next. - -The oriental mysteries enjoyed a widespread popularity, except in -Greece, under the Roman Empire down to the latter half of the third -century. Then they began to lose their hold in the Roman provinces -before the growing power of Christianity; yet in the city of Rome they -stubbornly held their ground until the end of the fourth century. The -first St. Peter’s was built hard beside a shrine of the Great Mother of -the Gods; there for three-quarters of a century the old and the new -mysteries strove in conscious rivalry, until at last Cybele was forced -to yield to Christ. - -The last centuries before the birth of Jesus and the opening centuries -of our era were marked by an increasing religious longing and unrest, -first among the Greeks and then among the Romans. There was a weariness -and a dissatisfaction with the inherited forms of religious expression; -and many felt a sense of separation from God, of a gulf between the -human and the divine, which they hoped might be bridged by a direct -revelation, by a vision, which would grant immediate knowledge of God. -These eager desires led in part to an increase in superstition and -credulity, over which we need not now pause; in part to the resort to -the oriental mysteries of which I have just spoken; and in part to a -revival of Pythagorean mysticism and of mystic Platonism among the -intellectuals, who no longer felt that the reason and the will gave them -the assurance which they required. - -The later mystic philosophies laid much stress on an ascetic discipline -in this life, to secure the soul’s purification, and all taught that the -great end of man was to attain to the knowledge of God, wherein lay -man’s supreme happiness. Such knowledge, it was thought, could come only -through a revelation. Here these philosophies agreed with the teaching -of the oriental mysteries, and indeed with popular belief as well. On -the question of the immortality of the soul, however, the later mystics -brought forward no new arguments. Plotinus, the greatest of the -Neoplatonists, virtually repeats the proofs adduced by the founder of -the Academy.[31] Undoubtedly during the opening centuries of the -Christian era there was a growing belief in the soul’s immortality, or -at least an increasing hope of a future life, but such hopes and -beliefs, outside Christianity, were not based on new arguments. Plato -had once for all in antiquity, supplied the philosophic grounds for -confidence. Only in modern times have new arguments of any weight been -adduced. - - * * * * * - -Let us now pause to summarize the results of the considerations which -have thus far occupied us. We may fairly say that, in spite of popular -doubt, intellectual scepticism, and philosophic denial, beliefs in some -kind of existence beyond the grave were widespread in the Greco-Roman -world at the beginning of our era. For many, probably for most, belief -did not advance beyond inherited intuitions, fears, or hopes, which were -fostered by tendance of the dead, prescribed by immemorial custom. Many, -both the simple and the learned, found their assurance in diverse forms -of Greek mysteries; others, again, strengthened to endure the buffetings -of this life by the resolute doctrines of Stoicism, were satisfied with -the extended, though limited, future existence vouchsafed the virtuous; -while the later Platonists, returning to the mystic Orphic-Pythagorean -elements which had influenced the founder of their school, offered -their disciples arguments in favor of a genuine immortality. Under the -Empire the supports of faith became more numerous and appealing. At the -lowest end of the scale were charlatans, as there had been since Plato’s -day,[32] who imposed on the fears and hopes of their victims for their -own mercenary ends. Higher were those inspiring Eastern mysteries which -were carried to the remotest provinces, binding their devotees by -initiation, ritual service, and a prescribed regimen, more constantly to -a religious life than Greek mysteries had ever done; and the great end -of all was the assurance that the souls of the faithful should not die, -but should mount to the upper heavens to be at one with God. - -The last vital philosophy of antiquity was Neoplatonism, on which we -have just touched; the chief aim of the Neoplatonist also was to secure -union with the Divine, and his greatest article of faith was the soul’s -immortality. If this theosophic philosophy seem to any of poor account, -I would remind him that by Origen and Augustine Neoplatonism was brought -into Christian thought, where it has been operative ever since. - - - - -III - - -In view of the facts with which we have been occupied we shall not make -the error of thinking that Christianity brought the hope of immortality -among men, for, as we have seen, hope--nay, sure confidence, in the -soul’s survival was widespread throughout the ancient world when Jesus -began his ministry. What can we say of early Christian teaching, and how -was it related to its pagan environment? - -Christianity grew out of Judaism. Now it is a striking fact that the -Jews were later than most of the peoples about them in conceiving of -individual immortality.[33] Clinging to monotheism and absorbed in the -life of their nation, they had cut themselves off from some of the ideas -developed by their neighbors. To follow out the intricate and uncertain -history of eschatological ideas among the Jews would be too difficult -here. We may simply say that when Jesus began his ministry a -considerable part of the Jews had abandoned the expectation of a -material kingdom of God and looked forward to a spiritual kingdom on a -transformed earth or in heaven. In this kingdom those would share, who -through God’s grace and their own righteousness had won a place therein; -but the wicked were either to be punished forever or to be utterly -destroyed. To these ideas Jesus’ teaching was closely related, although -he gave a nobler meaning to Jewish doctrine, and he did not limit the -hope of a future existence so narrowly as some would do. Moreover, he -adopted from the law the teaching which made salvation and future -happiness depend on a love for God and for one’s fellow-men, which would -result in an unselfish life of righteousness. Salvation, he taught, was -a present experience, open to every man who conformed to the -requirement. - -After the crucifixion of Jesus, the Apostles and their successors -naturally made his person, death, and resurrection the great means -through which his followers secured salvation. Paul, moreover, taught -that through faith--using the word in a somewhat unusual sense--the -believer secured the actual presence of Christ within him, entered into -a mystic union with the divine Saviour, by which the man was freed from -sin and reborn into a new spiritual life; this new life was confirmed by -the indwelling Holy Spirit which completed the man’s moral -regeneration. In the Fourth Gospel we find a similar doctrine of a -mystic union with Christ, secured by belief in Him as the incarnate -Word--a belief which brought about a spiritual rebirth and therewith -gave a present warrant of eternal life.[34] - -It is unnecessary for our present purpose to examine the beliefs of the -earliest Christians as to the resurrection or the second coming of -Christ, which they expected to take place within their own time--these -beliefs and many others the Apostolic Church derived naturally from -their Jewish tradition and from the teachings of Jesus. I shall ask you -rather to focus your thought on the fundamental ideas of this early -Christianity: that is to say, on the revelation of God, the punishment -of sin by suffering or annihilation, the mystic union with the Divine, -and a happy immortality as a reward for faith and righteousness. Were -these ideas foreign to the peoples of the Mediterranean area? No, our -survey has reminded us that on the contrary they were familiar over wide -stretches of the Greco-Roman world. - -Do not misunderstand me here. Of course I am not making the elementary -blunder of saying that because certain beliefs of the Christians and the -Pagans were similar, they therefore were identical, or that they were -derived from one another, or that the many factors of which they were -composed were the same. No one with any knowledge of the history of -religious thought could maintain that. But the point which I do wish to -emphasize is this, viz.: that the eschatological ideas widely current in -the Mediterranean world were such that Christianity found a favorable -environment when it began its proselyting work. This seems to me one of -the most significant facts in the relation of early Christianity to -paganism. The Christian teachings as to the means by which the assurance -of a happy immortality was to be secured could hardly seem very strange -at first hearing to any one who was familiar with mystery religions or -with much of the religious philosophy current in the pagan world during -the early Christian centuries. Closer examination would reveal -fundamental differences between Christian belief and the pagan hope. But -it is not insignificant that Christianity spread most rapidly at first -in Syria and Asia Minor, countries long familiar with those mystic -religions, which had promised what the nobler faith supplied. - - - - -IV - - -Although we now have examined the conditions which, to my mind, are the -most significant in the relation of pagan ideas of immortality to those -of early Christianity, there yet remain matters which, if less -important, are still of more than merely curious interest. We shall now -look at some of these questions. - -What notions of heaven and of hell did the Greeks and Romans have? This -inquiry is often made. The reply is easily given. Man has always painted -hell and paradise after his own conception of suffering and of -happiness, just as truly as he has made God after his own image. -Consequently the ancient’s ideas of the future life ranged all the way -from the grossest materialistic concepts to highly spiritualized -beliefs. Plato in the Republic makes Adeimantus say that some seem to -think that an immortality of drunkenness is virtue’s highest meed.[35] -But Socrates conceived the future state to be something very different; -a place in which he could hold high discourse with the great ones of the -past.[36] In general, however, punishment and rewards were of a material -sort, for such are most easily imagined and understood. Has it been -otherwise with Christians? The answer is to be found in Christian -apocalypses, medieval monuments, renaissance art, and in our own minds. -Of course there developed in Greek thought what we might call an -orthodox geography and scheme for the other world, of which Virgil gives -us a just picture. Interesting as it might prove to examine the details -of this picture, we will rather turn to other matters. - -When Christianity spread among the Gentiles, it at once came under -influences which inevitably left their marks in its thought and -practice. Let me offer two illustrations. - -Early in the hour I spoke of Aeneas’ journey through the lower world as -an initiation by which he was enlightened and strengthened for the great -task that lay before him; and we have now seen that in all the -mysteries, both Greek and oriental, there were initiatory rites, in -which the novice symbolically died to the old life and was born again -into a new existence. Moreover, through his emotional experience he -received assurance that his salvation was secure forever. The idea of -the new birth belongs to Christianity also from the first. Paul held -that it was brought about by faith; the author of the Fourth Gospel -taught that it was secured by love and belief. Baptism in primitive -Christianity was at first symbolical--an act of ritual purification, -which was believed to indicate the remission of sins and the bestowal of -the Holy Spirit.[37] But by the second century Christianity had become a -mystery in the Greek sense, into which the novice, after a period of -preparation, was duly initiated by baptism; and indeed the act was -believed to have a magic power to secure immortality, closely parallel -to that of the pagan initiation.[38] We all know that the -ecclesiastical confidence which such belief inspires is far from unknown -today. - -Again you will recall that when Anchises’ shade was instructing Aeneas -in the meaning of life and death, he said: - - “Nor when to life’s last beam they bid farewell - May sufferers cease from pain, nor quite be freed - From all their fleshly plagues; but by fixed law, - The strange, inveterate taint works deeply in. - For this, the chastisement of evils past - Is suffered here, and full requital paid. - Some hang on high, outstretched to viewless winds; - For some their sin’s contagion must be purged - In vast ablution of deep-rolling seas, - Or burned away in fire. Each man receives - His ghostly portion in the world of dark.” - -Thus the sojourn of the soul in the world below for the thousand years -which must elapse before it could be born again, was a period of -cleansing from ancient sin. This idea of purification we have already -seen to be as old as the Orphics; it was made an important element by -Plato; and indeed all who held to the doctrine of rebirths regarded the -periods between earthly existences as times of moral punishment and -cleansing. There were certain analogies in Mithraism. Orthodox -Christianity could not adopt the doctrine of metempsychosis, although -some Gnostics found this possible, by rejecting the resurrection of the -body. But beyond question the Greek doctrine of post-mortem purgation -from sin, combining with ideas inherited from the Old Testament, has -been influential in the development of a Christian belief in -purification, especially by fire, in an intermediate state between death -and paradise. The doctrine of purgatory, in somewhat different forms, -has been held by both the Eastern and the Western Churches. Although -this doctrine did not become a definite part of the theology of the -Western Church until the time of Gregory the Great (590-604), -nevertheless traces of it can be found in the earlier Church writers. -Origen held that even the perfect must pass through fire after -death;[39] St. Augustine was less confident, but he thought it not past -belief that imperfect souls might be saved by cleansing flames.[40] The -Western Church, from St. Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth to Bellarmino -in the sixteenth century held the doctrine that the cleansing fire was -as material as that of any Stoic; but today that view has in large part -been abandoned.[41] - -These two illustrations must suffice to suggest the ways in which -Christian thought was influenced by its pagan environment. - -Finally we will consider an example of parallelism between pagan and -Christian ideas. It is evident that the Greeks, who made such large use -of successive rebirths, following periods of punishment and -purification below, thought of these repeated lives and deaths as -forming a moral series, so that moral progress, or degeneracy, at one -stage was inseparably connected with both the preceding and the -following stages. To them life here and life in the other world were -indissolubly bound together. This was also as true of Stoicism with its -limited reward for uprightness, as it was of Platonism. The Greek -mysteries, which did not concern themselves with metempsychosis, by the -fifth century before our era likewise made future happiness depend in -part at least on righteousness in this life; the oriental mysteries too -made this existence the condition of the next. In short, we may say that -wherever men believed in any kind of a future existence, they almost -universally held to the common belief that future happiness was to be -the reward of a virtuous life on earth. But this is one of the -fundamental principles of Christianity. Paganism, therefore, was in -accord on this point with its enemy, and thereby favored the propagation -of the new religion; moreover, the superior ethical demands of -Christianity and its humanitarian principles no doubt found a ready -response, especially in enlightened circles. - -So we have returned to that which seems to me most important in the -relations of paganism and of early Christianity. In many ways paganism -provided an environment favorable for the spread of the religion which -Jesus founded. The two were at many points irreconcilable, and the -former has not always benefited the latter by its influence; but it is a -grave historical error not to recognize the areas in which the thought -of the two ran parallel. Is the nobler faith the poorer because its -paths were made broad by the pagan in his search after Immortality? - - - - -NOTES - - -1. Eduard Norden, _Aeneis_, _Buch VI_, Leipzig, 1903, is most useful for -its commentary, especially on religious and philosophic matters. - -2. W. Warde Fowler, _The Religious Experience of the Roman People_, -Macmillan Co., 1911, pp. 419 ff. - -So Dante’s journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise secured his -conversion and salvation, bringing him finally to freedom and to -knowledge. _Paradiso_, XXXI, 85-87 and XXXIII entire. - -3. Metempsychosis was the subject of the Ingersoll lecture by Professor -George Foot Moore in 1914. Therefore that theme is not discussed here. - -4. Cf. Friedländer, _Roman Life and Manners_, Routledge, London, 1910, -iii, chap. II. - -5. On the pre-Hellenic periods, see Schuchhardt, _Schliemann’s -Excavations_, New York, 1891, passim; Lagrange, _La Crète Ancienne_, -Paris, 1908, chap. II; Baikie, _The Sea-Kings of Crete_, London, 1910, -chap. XI. - -6. Cf. Fairbanks, _Greek Religion_, New York, 1910, pp. 168-188; -Stengel, _Griechische Kultusaltertümer_, 2d ed., Munich, 1898, § 80; -Wissowa, _Religion und Kultus der Römer_, 2d ed., Munich, 1912, § 36; W. -Warde Fowler, _Religious Experience of the Roman People_, London, 1911, -passim; and especially Lecture XVII, “Mysticism--Ideas of the Future -Life;” C. Pascal, _Le Credenze d’Oltretomba_, 2 vols., 1912. - -7. B. I. Wheeler, _Dionysos and Immortality_, Ingersoll Lecture for -1898-99. The classic work on Orphism is Rohde, _Psyche: Seelencult und -Unsterblichkeitsglaube der Griechen_, 3d ed., Tübingen, 1903, vol. ii. - -8. _Frg._ 154 Abel. - -9. Apparently Orphism was already established at Croton in southern -Italy when Pythagoras arrived there about 530 B.C.; but the matter is -very uncertain. It is clear that Orphism and Pythagoreanism soon -coalesced, even if they were originally distinct. - -10. _Rep._, vi, 508 f. It should be said that the identity of Plato’s -supreme idea with God is denied by some Platonists; but cf. _Phil._ 22C; -_Tim._ 28A-29E, 57A, 92C. - -11. The doctrine of ideas is developed in the _Phaedo_, _Phaedrus_, -_Meno_, _Symposium_, and especially in the _Republic_. In the _Sophist_ -and the _Parmenides_, Plato criticizes his own views acutely. - -12. _Metaphys._, i, 9; vi, 8; xii, 10; xiii, 3. - -13. _Phaedrus_, 245 (cf. _Laws_, x, 894B ff., xii, 966E); _Phaedo_, 72 -ff., 86, 105; _Meno_, 81 ff. - -14. _Diss._, i, 14, 6; ii, 8, 11. - -15. Cf. E. V. Arnold, _Roman Stoicism_, University Press, Cambridge -(Eng.), 1911, chap. XI. - -16. Rohde, _Psyche_, ii^3, 379 ff. - -17. _CIL._, ii, 1434; cf. 1877, 2262. - -18. _CIL._, v, 1939. - -19. _CIL._, vi, 14672 = _Ins. Graec._, xiv, 1746. - -20. Call., _Epig._, 13, 3 ff. - -21. _CIL._, iii, 5825; vi, 9280, 10848; x, 6706; etc. - -22. _Aen._, vi, 723-751. Translation by Theodore C. Williams, Houghton -Mifflin Company, Boston, 1908. - -23. On these mysteries, see Rohde, _Psyche_, i^3, pp. 278 ff.; Farnell, -_Cults of the Greek States_, iii, 126-213; A. Mommsen, _Feste der Stadt -Athen_, pp. 204-277, 405-421. - -24. 480 f. - -25. _Frg._ 137. - -26. _Frg._ 753. - -27. 454 ff. - -28. _Eph. Arch._, iii (1883), p. 81, 8. - -29. On these and other oriental gods, see F. Cumont, _The Oriental -Religions in Roman Paganism_, Chicago, 1911; also G. Showerman, _The -Great Mother of the Gods_, 1901; Hepding, _Attis_, 1903; W. Budge, -_Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection_, 2 vols., 1911; G. A. Reisner, -_The Egyptian Conception of Immortality_, Ingersoll Lecture for 1911; F. -Cumont, _Textes et Monuments relatifs aux Mystères de Mithra_, 2 vols., -1894-1900; Id., _Les Mystères de Mithra_, 2 ed., 1902; English -translation, 1910. - -30. Apuleius, _Metamorphoses_, xi, 23. - -31. _Enn._, iv, 7. - -32. Cf. Plato, _Rep._, 364 B ff.; _Demosth._, xviii, 259; Apul., _Met._, -viii, 24 ff. - -33. R. H. Charles, _A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life -in Israel, in Judaism, and in Christianity_, London, 1899, is a -convenient book, but one which must be used with caution. - -34. A. Harnack, _Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte_, i, 4th ed., 1909; -English translation from the third German edition, 1901; G. B. Stevens, -_The Theology of the New Testament_, 1903; H. Holtzmann, _Lehrbuch der -neutestamentlichen Theologie_, 2 vols., 2d ed., 1911. - -35. _Rep._, ii, 363 D. - -36. _Apol._, 41. - -37. It should be said that even in the earliest period Christian baptism -had certain magical notions attached to it; not, however, the belief -that it secured immortality. - -38. Cf. Hatch, _The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages on the Christian -Church_, X, B; Anrich, _Das antike Mysterienwesen in seinem Einfluss auf -das Christentum_, 1894, pp. 168 ff., especially 179 ff. - -39. _Hom. in Num._, xxv; _in Ps._ xxxvi, 3. - -40. _C. D._, xx, 25; xxi, 13 (where Virgil’s verses given above are -quoted), 26; _de octo Dulcitii Quaest._, _Qu._ i, 13; _Enchiridion_, -lxix. - -41. St. Thomas, _Opera_ (Venice, 1759), xii, p. 575, _Distinctio_ xxi, -_Quaes._ 1, _Sol._ 3; xiii, p. 347 ff., _Distinctio_ xliv, _Quaes._ 3, -_Art._ 4, _Quaestiunc._ 3; Bellarmino, _de Purgatorio_, II, x-xii. - - - - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pagan Ideas of Immortality During the -Early Roman Empire, by Clifford Herschel Moore - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAGAN IDEAS OF IMMORTALITY *** - -***** This file should be named 53829-0.txt or 53829-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/8/2/53829/ - -Produced by Sonya Schermann, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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