on THE BURNING OF THE DEAD. 97 



tinguished *. Bartholine has observed, that the ancient 

 Scandinavians were influenced by a similar idea, how much so- 

 ever it is enveloped in the darkness of their mythology. As 

 they believed the principal heaven to be fiery, they adored that 

 sacred fire which it was impious to extinguish. Fire being 

 also considered as eternal, they assured themselves that the 

 soul, which was loosed from the body by means of this ho- 

 noured element, would most certainly, and in the most expe- 

 ditious mode, be conveyed to the seats of the blessed. As 

 Odin had enjoined cremation on his followers, they were per- 

 suaded that the honour, with which the person whose body was 

 burned would be received into heaven, would be exactly in the 

 ratio of the height to which the flame of his funeral pile as- 

 cended. As they denominated the rainbow " the bridge of 

 " the gods," by which it was necessary that men should as- 

 cend into the celestial regions, they affirmed that the red divi- 

 sion consisted of fire f. . 



This learned writer gives it as his opinion, that Odin, whom 

 the northern nations worshipped, was the Sun ; that the souls 

 of heroes were said to be received by him, because they belie- 

 ved that the soul, being of an igneous essence, was a particle 

 derived from their deity ; and that the warrior, who led the 

 Ascb, or Asiatic chiefs into Scandinavia, assumed this name, by 

 which the sun was known in eastern regions, that he might en- 

 sure divine honours to himself. He thinks that it was with 

 this design that he ordered his body to be burned, that his sub- 

 jects, following his example, might be supposed, after death, to 

 be translated by fire to a state of eternal fellowship with the 

 object of their adoration. 



Vol. VIII. P. I. N 6. The 



* V. Scacchii Myrothecium, lib. i. c. 9. p. 46. 



f V. Bartholin, de Causis Contempt. Mort. p. 212, — 274. 



