120 ON THE ORIGIN OF CREMATION, 



" ris carcerem effugerit, et exonerata membris raortalibus levi 

 " se igne lustraverit, petere sedes inter astra *." 

 Servius, when explaining the language of Virgil, 



Alia? panduntur manes 



Suspense ad ventos : aliis sub gurgite vasto 

 Infectum eluitiir scelus : aut exuritur isni 



remarks, that he " speaks poetically concerning the purgation 

 " of souls ; for he alludes to what the philosophers said." He 

 then proceeds to shew, that there was a threefold purification 

 of man, by earth, by water, and by air ; that the earthy purifica- 

 tion denoted that which was made by fire, which has its orio-in 

 from earth ; and that this was necessary lor those who had in- 

 dulged in sensual enjoyments f . 



As it was accounted unlawful for Christians to burn their 

 dead, Tertuelian assigns as one reason for their rejection of 

 this practice, that they had already received the benefit of a pu- 

 rification far superior. " Et cremabitur," he inquires, " ex dis- 

 " ciplina castrensi Christianus, cui cremare non licuit, cui 

 " Christus merita ignis indulsit? £" 



It is well known that the Platonists denominated the end of 

 the present state of this world uvavvgao-ig, as believing that it 

 should be purified and refined by fire j and that to this change 

 the Stoics gave the name of ezrvguo-is. As it is equally certain 

 that many of the dogmas of the Oriental, of the Platonic, 



and 



* Qt'iNTiLiAN. Declam.~x. 



•f- Loquitur quidem poetice de purgatione animarum : tangit tamen quod phi- 

 losophy dicunt. Nam triplex est hominis pnrgatio. Aut in terra purgantur : 

 qute nimis oppress® sordide fuerunt, deditse scilicet corporalibus blandiraentis, 

 enim transeunt in corpora terrena ; et hsec igni dicuntur purgari. Ignis enim 

 ex terra est, quo exuruntur omnia, nam ccelestis nihil perurk. Serv. in JE- 

 neid. vi. ver. 742. 



t Tertulltan. de Gorona Militis, p. 292. 



