CHAP. XVI. BURIAL RITES REFUSED. 429 



of which the accused had been guilty ; and when 

 the devotion of friends, aided by liberal donations 

 in the service of religion, and the influential 

 prayers of the priests, had sufficiently softened 

 the otherwise inexorable nature of the Gods, the 

 period of this state of purgatory was doubtless 

 shortened ; and Diodorus shows that grandchil- 

 dren, who had the means and inclination, might 

 avail themselves of the same method of satisfying 

 their creditors and the Gods. But still the fear 

 of that cruel degradation, however short the pe- 

 riod, was not without a salutary effect. Those, 

 too, who had led a notoriously wicked life, could 

 not expect any dispensation, since the credit of 

 the priesthood, even if they were corrupt enough 

 to court the wealthy, would have suffered when 

 the case was flagrant ; and in justice to them we 

 may believe that, until society had undergone those 

 changes, to which all nations are subject at their 

 fall, the Egyptian priests were actuated by really 

 virtuous feelings, both in their conduct and the 

 object they had in view. 



The disgrace of being condemned at this public 

 ordeal was in itself a strong inducement to every 

 one to abstain from crime : not only was there 

 the fear of leaving a bad name, but the dread of 

 exposure ; and we cannot refuse to second the 

 praises of Diodorus in favour of the authors of so 

 wise an institution. 



The form of the ritual read by the priest in 

 pronouncing the acquittal of the dead is preserved 

 in the tombs, usually at the entrance passage j in 



