ON THE NATURE AND 



made to develope a very important and correct doctrine ; for it was believed, 

 in most countries, that this hell, hades, or invisible vi^orld, is divided into 

 two very distinct and opposite regions by a broad and impassable gulf ; 

 that the one is a seat of happiness, a paradise, or elysium, and the other 

 a seat of misery, a Gehenna, or Tartarus ; and that there is a supreme 

 magistrate, and an impartial tribunal belonging to the infernal shades, be- 

 fore which the ghost must appear, and by which he is sentenced to the one 

 or the other, according to the deeds done in the body. 



Egypt is generally said to have been the inventress of this important 

 and valuable part of the common tradition ; and, undoubtedly, it is, to be 

 found in the earliest records of Egyptian history : but from the wonderful 

 conformity of its outlines to the parallel doctrines of Scriptures, it is pro- 

 bable that it has a still higher origin, and that it constituted a part of the 

 patriarchal or antediluvian creed, retained in a few channels, though for- 

 gotten or obliterated in others ; and, consequently, that it was a divine 

 communication in a very early age. 



Putting by all traditionary information, however, there were many philo- 

 sophers of Greece who attempted to reason upon the subject, and seemed 

 desirous of abiding by the result of their own argument. Of these the 

 principal are Socrates, Plato, and Epicurus. The first is by far the most 

 entitled to our attention for the simplicity and clearness of his conception, 

 and the strength of his belief. Unfortunately we have no satisfactory relic 

 to the great chain of induction by which he was led to so correct and happy 

 a conclusion ; for we must not confound his ideas with those of Plato, 

 who has too frequently intermixed his own with them. From the lucid and 

 invaluable memorabilia of his disciple Xenophon, however, we have 

 historical grounds for affirming that whatever may have been the train of 

 his reasoning, it led him to a general assurance that the human soul is allied 

 to the Divine Being, yet not by a participation of essence, but by a simi- 

 larity of nature ; and hence that the existence of good men will be continued 

 after death in a state in which they will be rewarded for their virtue. Upon 

 the future condition of the wicked, Socrates appears to have said but 

 little ; he chiefly speaks of it as being less happy than that of the virtuous : 

 and it has hence been conceived that, as he thought the sole hope of im- 

 mortality ta the good man was founded upon his becoming assimulated to 

 the divine nature, he may have imagined that the unassimilated soul of the 

 wicked would perish with its body ; and the more so, as he allowed the 

 same common principle or faculty of reasoning, though in a subordinate 

 degree, to all other animals as to man ; and hence again, gave sufficient 

 proof that he did not regard this principle as necessarily incorruptible. 

 To me, however, this opinion seems rather to have been of a contrary 

 kind, importing future existence and punishment. 



Upon this sublime subject, indeed, he appears at times to have been not 

 altogether free from anxiety : but it is infinitely to his credit, and evinces 

 a testimony in favour of the doctrine itself far more powerful than the 

 force of argument, and even breathing of divine mspiration that, in his 

 last moments, he triumphed in the persuasion of its truth, and had scarcely 

 a doubt upon his mind. When the venerable sage, at this time in hi& 

 seventieth year, took the poisoned cup to which he had been condemned 

 by an ungrateful country, he alone stood unmoved while his friends were 

 weeping around him : he upbraided their cowardice, and entreated them 

 to exercise a manliness worthy of the patrons of virtue. ''It- would, in- 

 deed j" said he, " be inexcusable in me to despise death if I were not? 



