BURIAL 



1004 



BURKE 



a hold on this territory, which was governed 

 until 1361 by members of the royal house of 

 Capet. In 1363, the Capetian line having died 

 out, Philip the Bold was made Duke of Bur- 

 gundy and under his descendants the power of 

 the duchy increased steadily. Much new ter- 

 ritory was added, and finally Duke Charles 

 the Bold became strong enough to defy the 

 king himself. It appeared for a time that 

 Charles might be able to set up an inde- 

 pendent kingdom and wrest still more terri- 

 tory from France, but in 1477 he was killed in 

 battle against the Swiss, and all his territory 

 but the original duchy passed with his daugh- 

 ter's marriage into the control of the House 

 of Hapsburg. Burgundy proper was seized by 

 Louis XI and annexed to France. This old 

 Burgundy forms the present departments of 

 Cote-d'Or, Saone-et-Loire, Yonne, part of Ain 

 and part of Aube. 



BURIAL, ber'eal, a method of disposing of 

 the dead, from Anglo-Saxon and German words 

 meaning to hide in the ground, or to conceal. 

 Different peoples adopt different methods of 

 burial, but all are accompanied by some cere- 

 mony. The savage races usually expose bodies 

 to wild animals or birds of prey; the Hindus 

 formerly threw their dead into the Ganges 

 River, although they are learning European 

 ways, and the Egyptians embalm the bodies 

 and preserve them in costly tombs. However, 

 the two most common methods have been 

 placing the dead in the ground or burning, 

 better known as cremation. Both forms were 

 practiced among the Greeks and Romans, 

 though cremation came to be almost the sole 

 method during the latter years of the Roman 

 republic. 



The method of burying has varied. In some 

 cases, as with the early Babylonians, the bodies 

 were placed on the surface of the ground and 

 mounds were raised over them. The dead 

 were buried in their garments, and their orna- 

 ments, weapons and utensils placed with them. 

 Roman burial ceremonies were extravagantly 

 splendid and long drawn out. The earliest 

 Egyptians placed their dead in tombs, sur- 

 rounded by articles of the toilet, food, and 

 drink, showing their belief in a material after- 

 life. The pyramids of the deserts are tombs 

 of the dead (see PYRAMIDS). 



Among civilized nations of to-day cemeteries 

 are set apart in which are buried the clothed 

 bodies, in wooden, cement or metal boxes, 

 after embalming. After the introduction of 

 the Christian religion the practice of crema- 



tion almost entirely disappeared, because cf 

 the belief in the resurrection of the body. It 

 has lately been revived, however, being con- 

 sidered by vast numbers of people a more 

 sanitary method. It is certain that in many 

 cases the hillside cemetery proves a source of 

 contamination to the water supply of town 

 and country. See EMBALMING; CREMATION. 



Related Subjects. The following articles 

 deal in part with methods of disposing of the 

 dead ; in part with other phases of the subject. 

 But all are of Interest in this connection : 

 Arlington National Mausoleum 



Cemetery Mummy 



Catacombs Sarcophagus 



Coffin Taj Mahal 



Cremation Tomb 



Embalming Towers of Silence 



Epitaph Westminster Abbey 



BURKE, burk, EDMUND (1729-1797), an Eng- 

 lish orator and statesman, accounted the great- 

 est political writer of the eighteenth century. 

 Every American high school student knows 

 of him by reason of his speech On Conciliation 

 with America, by 

 which he sought 

 in vain to induce 

 the British gov- 

 ernment to adopt 

 a conciliatory pol- 

 icy toward its 

 colonies. 



He was born at 

 Dublin, Ireland, 

 and was destined 

 by his lawyer 

 father for the 

 same profession, 

 but he found lit- 

 erature far more 

 to his liking. In London, whither he had gone 

 to study law, he won recognition and several 

 minor political offices by the publication of 

 his Vindication of Natural Society and Origin 

 of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, 

 and finally, in 1766, was elected to Parliament. 

 It was a stirring time in that body, and Burke 

 at once took his place as a foremost figure in 

 all its deliberations a position he held for 

 thirty years. Authorities do not hesitate to 

 declare him the most influential orator the 

 House of Commons has ever known, and his 

 wonderful powers were always employed on 

 the side of justice and right. No hint of scan- 

 dal or of political corruption ever attached 

 itself to his name. 



His great speech On Conciliation with Amer- 

 ica was delivered in 1775, when he was at the 





EDMUND BURKE 

 Goldsmith said of him, "He 

 wound himself into his sub- 

 ject like a serpent." 



