370 THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY vnr 



Christian buriul-plutv, \v<uld have taken it fur an 

 appropriately adorned Teocalli. The profess. < I 

 disciple of the God of justice and of meivy might 

 there gloat over the sufferings of his fell<>\vmen 

 depicted as undergoing every extremity of atrocious 

 and sanguinary torture to all eternity, for the 

 logical errors no less than for moral delinquencies 

 while, in the central figure of Satan, 1 occupied in 

 fhumpiug up souls in his capacious and well- 

 toothed jaws, to void them again for the purpose 

 of undergoing fresh suffering, we have the counter- 

 part of the strange Polynesian and Egypt ia 

 dogma that there were certain gods who employe 

 themselves in devouring the ghostly flesh of t In- 

 spirits of the dead. But injustice to the Polynesians, 

 it must be recollected that, after three such opera- 

 tions, they thought the soul was purified and 

 happy. In the view of the Christian theologian 

 the operation was only a preparation for new 

 tortures continued for ever and aye. 



With the growth of civilisation in Europe, and 

 with the revival of letters and <>f srimee in the 



: 



1 Dante's description of Lucifer rn^i^'d in tli>- etenu 

 mastication of Brutus, Cassius, and .Indas I sea riot 

 " Da <>.^iii lioiva dinmijira CO* <lrnti 

 Un peccatore, a ^uisa <li niariulla, 

 Si i !: tiv in- t'acea cosi dolenti. 

 A <|Url dinan/i il nmnlciv era nulla, 



<> '1 ^ralliar, die tal volta 

 Rimanca dclla ]ellc tutta Imilla" 

 is quit-- in liarinoiiy \vitli tlu- Ti.sau jiii-tuiv and i 

 Polnesian in 



