What is it that arms the Hindoo widow with invincible firmness, like that which martyrs have displayed at the stake, and that actually makes her a willing victim on the blazing pyre of her lamented husband? It is the belief which she cherishes, that by this means she shall be able to regain his society, and meet him in the spacious halls of Brahma to spend happier days together than ever they passed on earth.* Why should the savage tribes of India, and the untutored inhabitants of other climes, follow the death of a lamented chief by the sacrifice of human life?+ It is because they imagine that the victims of their superstition will accompany him into the land of the dead, and there administer to his comfort and dignity, in the character of domestics and obsequious attendants on his person. In like manner the Brazilians, and

* The practice of self-destruction, with a view to retrieve the loss occasioned by the death of friends, appears to have been common in former times. Socrates, in his discourse on the immortality of the soul, argues against the fear of death by referring to it as a notorious fact. "Are there not numbers (says he), who, upon the death of their lovers, wives, and children, voluntarily put an end to life, and transmit themselves into another world on the presumption of meeting and of living there with the objects of their affection?" Plat. Phæd.

+ This sanguinary rite seems to have been practised in the earliest days. See Homer's Iliad, lib. xxiii.

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opinions are expressed through the medium of fictitious personages, he represents Cato the elder as kindling into ecstacy, and breaking forth into rapturous language in the anticipation of escaping from a depraved and disordered world, and joining his beloved son in the society of virtuous and congenial intelligences. The vision of Scipio, in which he has ingeniously allegorized some of the most important opinions of the Platonic and Pythagorean schools, contains much beautiful illustration of the same subject. Scipio is there represented to meet with his grandsire Africanus in the abode of blessed spirits, which is described to be a spacious and splendid residence, placed in the highest regions of space, from which all sublunary objects dwindle into insignificance, and are scarcely discernible to the human eye. The astonished youth listens to an admonitory and prophetic discourse concerning his own destiny, and is informed, amongst other things, that death is only the escape of the soul from the prison-house of its body, and that the great and renowned of the virtuous were possessing, not as on earth a mortal existence, but the reality and plenitude of life. In confirmation of this statement, his attention is arrested by the appearance of his venerated parent, who affectionately embraces him, and recommends

*Cicero de Suec.

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the practice of virtue as the only means of securing an admission into the society of the just, who were freed from the shackles of mortality, and were dwelling in the world whose glories shone around him.*

But if the notion of perpetuated friendship be supported by the joint testimony of pagan poets and sages, it has always been no less agreeable to the current of popular feeling and opinion. Hence the tendency to give credit to alleged apparitions, and to conceive of departed friends as mingling with the living objects, and as deeply interested in the scenes which were once known to engage their affections. The rude ancestors of our sea-girt isle abandoned themselves to the bewitching power of this sentiment, and peopled their mountains, clouds, and solitary retreats with the shades of the heroic dead. The lover heard the voice of his lamented mistress whisper to him in the breeze, and the warrior listened to that of renowned heroes, addressing him in the responsive echo which issued from the glen and rocky cavern. The supposed presence of beloved and disembodied spirits awoke the harp of the bard to sounds of sweet and plaintive melody, and inspired the chief and his warlike vassals with

* Cicero Frag. Somnium Scipionis.

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the soul of wild eloquence and romantic enterprise, And the muse still indulges the conceptions and visions of the "olden times," and assures

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the spirits of the dead descend,
To watch the silent slumbers of a friend;
To hover round his evening walk unseen,
And hold sweet converse on the dusky green;
To hail the spot where first their friendship grew,
And heaven and nature opened to their view!
Oft, when he trims his cheerful hearth, and sees
A smiling circle emulous to please;
There may these gentle guests delight to dwell,
And bless the scene they loved in life so well!"

With these sentiments on the subject of perpetuated intercourse, the opinions and feelings of the heathen in modern times perfectly harmonize. It is an indisputable fact, that there prevails almost universally among the tribes of the pagan world, however sunk in ignorance, and however widely separated from one another, a settled persuasion that death does not make an irreparable breach in the friendships of social life. It is, on the contrary, most firmly believed, that the stroke of mortality eventually cements and improves the attachments subsisting among them. Many of their superstitious customs and funeral rites are the consequences of this fondly cherished hope.

What is it that arms the Hindoo widow with invincible firmness, like that which martyrs have displayed at the stake, and that actually makes her a willing victim on the blazing pyre of her lamented husband? It is the belief which she cherishes, that by this means she shall be able to regain his society, and meet him in the spacious halls of Brahma to spend happier days together than ever they passed on earth.* Why should the savage tribes of India, and the untutored inhabitants of other climes, follow the death of a lamented chief by the sacrifice of human life? It is because they imagine that the victims of their superstition will accompany him into the land of the dead, and there administer to his comfort and dignity, in the character of domestics and obsequious attendants on his person. In like manner the Brazilians, and

* The practice of self-destruction, with a view to retrieve the loss occasioned by the death of friends, appears to have been common in former times. Socrates, in his discourse on the immortality of the soul, argues against the fear of death by referring to it as a notorious fact. "Are there not numbers (says he), who, upon the death of their lovers, wives, and children, voluntarily put an end to life, and transmit themselves into another world on the presumption of meeting and of living there with the objects of their affection?" Plat. Phæd.

+ This sanguinary rite seems to have been practised in the earliest days. See Homer's Iliad, lib. xxiii.

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