114 ON THE ORIGIN OF CREMATION, 



These incidental intimations of the sentiments of the an- 

 cients, coincide with the information which the accurate £u- 

 stathius has given us on this subject. " It was a custom," he 

 observes, " among the Greeks to burn their dead, which cus- 

 " torn still remains among some northern barbarians : and thev 

 " Jo this to indicate, that the spiritual part of man, being 

 " carried upwards as in a chariot of fire, rises with heavenly 

 " objects, but that the earthly remains behind V 



The Jews, as Grotius has remarked, at least as early as the 

 age of Justin Martyr, had adopted the idea that the souls of 

 the dead lingered about their bodies-, and were subject to the 

 power of demons. This opinion, he adds, passed to the Chri- 

 stians, as appears from the reasoning of Justin with the Jew 

 Trypho, concerning the Witch of Endor, who, he thinks, really 

 raised the Prophet Samuel f. Justin, indeed, in another 

 place, appeals to necromancy (ntivopayTaai), as a proof of the 

 separate existence of the soul X- 



The same idea, that the soul for a considerable time after 

 death retains some intercourse with the mortal part, is expres- 

 sed by some later Jewish writers. They hold, that for twelve 

 months after this event, the soul is more or less with the body, 

 hovering over it : and hence some have been induced to go and 

 dwell among the tombs, and inquire at spirits ||. Others, how- 

 ever, greatly limit this time : " For three days," they say, " the 

 " soul goes to the grave, thinking that the body may return ; 



" but 



* 'Or* ijCej vjv 'EAAjjit* xxiuv rut Hfcgsvj. o oi x.x\ iis \xi TSUfttykm tio-< rSv fio^uay (ix&a,?uv. 

 jtojovh Ss rovTO ixttvoi, 7rpl> holism rov to fti» «<av tov avd^6>7rov avulpc^riSiv aa-Trtp iv oy^^uii 

 r£ 7rvpi, irgiHrptt^cLt rcTg iv^ccyeif. to Se yww, kutu fi&vtu. Eustath. in Iliad. A. ver. 52. 



f Grot, in Matt. viii. 28. X Apol. ii. p. 65. ed. Lut. Par. 1615. 



J) Nishmat Chajim, Par. ii. c. 22. p. 81. T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 18, 2. 



