94 ON THE ORIGIN OF CREMATION, 



plied with the customs of other nations, as to erect a funeral 

 pile at the entrance of the tomb, which they might burn in ho- 

 nour of the dead, containing nothing save spices and odorife- 

 rous woods, or having an image of the deceased prince substi- 

 tuted for the body. It cannot reasonably be thought, that 

 they would have accounted that an honour to their kings, 

 which was deemed a disgrace to every other person. Not on- 

 ly in the more early period of their history *, but even towards 

 the dissolution of the monarchy, the burning of the dead body was 

 viewed as a sort of posthumous punishment, expressive of the 

 greatest contempt and detestation. For Josiah, we are in- 

 formed, " burned the bones of the priests of Baal upon their 

 " altars \. n 



4. It tended greatly to facilitate the reception of this custom, 

 that it seemed the most certain plan for protecting the dead 

 body from those indignities to which it might otherwise have 

 been subjected. It is highly probable, indeed, that the danger 

 to which the bodies of departed relations was exposed, of be- 

 ing disfigured or devoured by beasts of prey, first suggest- 

 ed the idea of covering their graves with heaps of stones ; and 

 that this course had been followed in a very early stage of so- 

 ciety. But when war had begun to extend its cruel ravages, 

 when man had become as unfeeling to his fellows as the tyger 

 or the hyaena, when his ferocity reached even beyond the hal- 

 lowed precincts of the tomb ; it would be found necessary 

 to devise some more effectual plan for securing rest to the 

 dead. 



It has been observed, accordingly, in another dissertation, 

 that, as Pliny informs us, the Romans adopted cremation in 

 consequence of being engaged in distant wars ; and also, that 



Sylla, 



* Josh. vii. 25. f 2 CJiron. xxxiv. 5. 



