CHAP. XVI. THE FEAR OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 4,39 



*' It is necessary, indeed, always to believe in the 

 ancient and sacred discourses, which announce to 

 us that the soul is immortal, and that it has judges 

 of its conduct, and suffers the greatest punishment 

 when it is liberated from the body." 



Tiie commission of secret crimes might not ex- 

 pose them to the condemnation of the world ; they 

 might obtain the credit of a virtuous career, en- 

 joying throughout life an unsullied reputation ; 

 and many an unknow^n act of injustice might es- 

 cape those who applauded them on the day of their 

 funeral. But the all-scrutinising eye of the Deity 

 was known to penetrate into the innermost 

 thoughts of the heart ; and they believed that 

 whatever conscience told them they had done 

 amiss was recorded against them in the book of 

 Thoth, out of which they would be judged accord- 

 ing to their works. The sculptured walls of every 

 sepulchre reminded them of this solemn ceremony ; 

 the rewards held out to the virtuous were re- 

 puted to exceed all that man could imagine or 

 desire ; and the punishments of the wicked were 

 rendered doubly odious by the notion of a trans- 

 migration of the soul* into the most hateful and 

 disgusting animals. The idea of the punishment 

 was thus brought to a level with their comprehen- 

 sion. They were not left to speculate on, and 

 consequently to call in question, the kind of pu- 

 nishment they were to suffer, since it was not pre- 

 sented to them in so fanciful and unintelligible a 



* Vide supra, p. 183. Vol. L (2ci Series) p. 310. and Plate 87. 



F F 4 



