98 ON THE ORIGIN OF CREMATION, 



6. The reception of this mode has been also ascribed to the 

 influence of the ancient tradition, that the world should be de- 

 stroyed by means of fire. The very ingenious and learned 

 physician quoted above, observes, in that light and rather af- 

 fected sort of style which characterizes his writings ; " Such as 

 " by tradition or rational conjecture held any hint of the final 

 " pyre of all things, or that this element must at least be too 

 " hard for all the rest, might conceive most naturally of the 

 " fiery dissolution *." 



That this tradition was not only known to some of the Greek 

 philosophers, but even received by some of them, is unques- 

 tionable. Plato, when giving an account of the conference 

 which Solon had with the Egyptian priests at Sais, acknow- 

 ledges that they spoke in the most contemptuous terms of the 

 learning of the Greeks, asserting that they were always chil- 

 dren, that there was no old man among them, as they still pos- 

 sessed juvenile minds. " For, (said one of the senior priests,) 

 " you have no ancient doctrine from old tradition, nor any dis- 

 " cipline that has become hoary with age :" adding, " The 

 " greatest dissolutions of the world have originated, and will 

 u originate, from fire and water *j\" Solon having proposed 

 some queries in regard to Deucalion, Pyrrha, Piiaeton, &c. 

 the priest proceeded to describe the dissolution by fire, in re- 

 ference to the mythological account of Phaeton having set the 

 world on fire. " This (he said) has indeed the air of a fable ; 

 " but the truth is, there shall be a great parallax," or " change, 

 " in heaven and in earth ; and in a short time the dissolution 

 " of terrestrial things shall be effected by much fire ^." 



This 



* Brown's Hydriotaphia, p. 3. 



1" TloXXxt ol KXTot. ttoXXx $6opctl yiyovxo-iv ctvS^&iTrav, xxi itrortai, ttv(\ f/Av ol voxri f&iytrxi. 

 Tragus, Oper. iii. p. 22, 



J TSra ftviev fclv <r%qfiei s;£«v Xiyirttt, to a uXrifcs iri, tZu tti^i yq> kxi kxt ovpctvov Iovtui waf- 

 ?aAA«|<?> "■*' oi» fn.xx.pav wovwv yivopzvti rav iTct yijj irvp\ jraAAaT' <pt)ot>d. Ibid. 



