OR THE BURNING OP THE DEAD. 91 



had a law, that no one should build a house without providing 

 a repository for his dead*. The disastrous consequences of 

 this unnatural approximation, as they were strangers to the art 

 of embalming, might be felt for a considerable time, before in- 

 dividuals could find it possible to release themselves from the 

 fetters of custom, strengthened by superstition. But as men 

 advanced in civilization, this strange practice would become 

 matter of cognisance to those whose office obliged them to 

 watch over the public weal ; and we may naturally enough 

 suppose, that the prohibition of domestic sepulture would be 

 an intermediate step between the observation of this custom, 

 and the enactment of that law which forbade the Romans ei- 

 ther to bury, or to burn, the bodies of the dead within the city. 

 It may be observed by the way, indeed, that they, with many 

 other ancient nations, as well as the Chinese, have manifested 

 much more common sense and delicacy in this respect than 

 the nations of modern Europe, notwithstanding their boasted 

 refinement. 



2. Those who wished to preserve the remains of the dead as 

 long as possible, in token of regard for their memory, might 

 prefer this mode to inhumation. Knowing that, in conse- 

 quence of interment in the common way, the bones themselves 

 gradually moulder into dust, till every vestige of the person be 

 lost, they might in some instances adopt the plan of calcina- 

 tion, as a means of partially preserving them. There can be no 

 doubt that this was the most eligible mode, where embalming 

 was not used, when it was meant to transport the remains of the 

 dead from one place to another. As the Greeks ascribe the 

 introduction of cremation to Hercules, they in effect assign, as 

 the reason of his burning the body of Argius, that he was un- 



M 2 ' der 



* V. Potters Archseol. ii. p. 218. Lond. edit. 1751. 



