OR THE BURNING OF THE DEAD. 111 
“ We were prepared to grasp the burning irons in our hands, 
“« and to pass through the fire, and to adjure the gods.” Pa- 
cuymergs has remarked, that uvdgos, or the burning share, was 
said to be ays, or holy, because it had been blessed by the 
priest *. ; 
8. It was believed by some, that by the action of fire, the 
soul was completely loosed from all its corporeal bonds. Trr- 
TULLIAN charges some philosophers with holding, that even af- 
ter death, certain souls continued in a state of connection with 
the bodies which they had formerly animated : “ Ita argumenta- 
“ tiones emendicant, ut velint credi etiam post mortem quasdam 
“ animas adherere corporibus }.” He asserts, that PLaro was of 
this opinion. But the passage to which he refers, can only be 
viewed as a proof that Prato believed the immortality of the 
soul. It is the apologue introduced by him in his Republic, 
conceming Hervs the Armenian, who is said to have revived, 
when he was laid on the funeral-pile, twelve days after he fell 
in battle t. ~Macrosius, however, gives the same account of 
the doctrine of this philosopher. For, according to him, Pate 
asserts tha the souls of those who die by violence wander long 
+ ie - around, 
ede ; 
° Ap. Du Ca 3, voc. Ferrum Candens. 
As the Greek word ve has been deduced from the Hebrew sik, ur, pro- 
peny de 
count of the natural subserviency of fire to purification, as well as the ri- 
tual use of it with this view, it is possible that the verb purgo may have been 
formed quasi mig ayo, as originally signifying to lead, or make to pass through 
the fire. Perhaps the language of the ancient Latin poet Navius, in the use 
of the phrase puriter facere, may be considered as favourable to this etymon of pu- 
_ rus; Sequere me, puriter volo factas, igne atque aqua volo hunc accipere.. 
_ Ap. Non. Marcexy. Gothofred. 775. 
+ De Anima, p. 501. edit. Paris. 1616.. 
t Puar. Republic. lib. x. vol. ii. p. 614. 
