,ingersoll ,lectures on ,immortality    
,,immortality ,,and ,,the ,,new         
,,theodicy4 ,by ,george ,a4 ,gordon4    
#ahif4         ,,human ,,immortality4   
,two supposed ,objections to the        
,doctrine4 ,by       ,william ,james4   
#ahig4         ,,dionysos ,,and         
,,immortality3 ,the ,greek ,faith in    
,immortality as       affected by the   
rise of ,individualism4 ,by ,benjamin   
,ide ,wheeler4       #ahih4             
,,the ,,conception ,,of ,,immortality4  
,by ,josiah ,royce4 #ahii4              
,,life ,,everlasting4 ,by ,john ,fiske4 
#aijj4         ,,science ,,and          
,,immortality4 ,by ,william ,osler4     
#aijd4         ,,the ,,endless ,,life4  
,by ,samuel ,m4 ,crothers4 #aije4       
,,individuality ,,and ,,immortality4 ,by
 ,wilhelm ,ostwald4 #aijf4         ,,the
 ,,hope ,,of ,,immortality4 ,by ,charles
 ,f4 ,dole4 #aijg4         ,,buddhism   
,,and ,,immortality4 ,by ,william ,s4   
,bigelow4 #aijh4         ,,is           
,,immortality ,,desirable8 ,by ,g4      

,lowes ,dickinson4 #aiji4               
,,egyptian ,,conceptions ,,of           
,,immortality4 ,by ,george ,a4 ,reisner4
 #aiaa4         ,,intimations ,,of      
,,immortality ,,in ,,the ,,sonnets ,,of 
,,shakespeare4 ,by ,george       ,h4    
,palmer4 #aiab4                         
,,metempsychosis4 ,by ,george ,foot     
,moore4 #aiad4         ,,pagan ,,ideas  
,,of ,,immortality ,,during ,,the       
,,early ,,roman ,,empire4 ,by           
,clifford ,herschel ,moore4 #aiah4      
,,pagan ,,ideas ,,of                    
,,immortality ,,during ,,the            
,,early ,,roman ,,empire                
,the ,ingersoll ,lecture1 #aiah         
,pagan ,ideas of                        
,immortality ,during the                
,early ,roman ,empire                   
,by                    ,clifford        
,herschel ,moore1 ,ph4,d41 ,litt4,d4    
,professor of ,latin in ,harvard        
,university                             
,illustration3 colophon                 
,cambridge                              

,harvard ,university ,press             
,london3 ,humphrey ,milford             
,oxford ,university ,press              
#aiah                                   
,,copyright1 #aiah                      
,,harvard ,,university ,,press          
,,the ,,ingersoll ,,lectureship         
,extract from the will of ,miss         
,caroline ,haskell ,ingersoll1 who died 
in         ,keene1 ,county of ,cheshire1
 ,new ,hampshire1 ,jan4 #bf1 #ahic      
,first4 ,in carrying out the wishes of  
my late beloved father1 ,george         
,goldthwait ,ingersoll1 as declared by  
him in his last will and testament1  ,i 
give and bequeath to ,harvard           
,university in ,cambridge1 ,mass41 where
 my  late father was graduated1 and     
which he always held in love and honor1 
the sum of ,five thousand dollars       
7#e1jjj7 as a fund for the              
establishment of a ,lectureship on a    
plan somewhat similar to that of the    
,dudleian lecture1 that is--one lecture 
to be delivered each year1 on any       

convenient day between the last day of  
,may and the first day of  ,december1 on
 this subject1 8the ,immortality of     
,man10 said lecture not to  form a part 
of the usual college course1 nor to be  
delivered by any  ,professor or ,tutor  
as part of his usual routine of         
instruction1 though  any such ,professor
 or ,tutor may be appointed to such     
service4 ,the choice  of said lecturer  
is not to be limited to any one         
religious denomination1  nor to any one 
profession1 but may be that of either   
clergyman or  layman1 the appointment to
 take place at least six months before  
the  delivery of said lecture4 ,the     
above sum to be safely invested and     
three  fourths of the annual interest   
thereof to be paid to the lecturer for  
his services and the remaining fourth to
 be expended in the publishment  and    
gratuitous distribution of the lecture1 
a copy of which is always to  be        
furnished by the lecturer for such      
purpose4 ,the same lecture to be  named 

and known as 8the ,ingersoll lecture on 
the ,immortality of ,man40              
,,pagan ,,ideas ,,of ,,immortality      
,,during ,,the ,,early ,,roman ,,empire 
,i      ,the invitation of the committee
 charged with the administration of the 
,ingersoll lectureship and my own       
inclination have agreed in indicating   
that aspect of the general subject of   
immortality1 which ,i shall try to      
present tonight4 ,i shall not venture on
 this occasion to advance  arguments for
 or against belief in a life after      
death2 my present task  is a humbler    
one3 ,i propose to ask you to review    
with me some of the  more significant   
ideas concerning an existence beyond the
 grave1 which  were current in the      
,greco-,roman world in the time of      
,jesus and during  the earlier          
,christian centuries1 and to consider   
briefly the relation  of these pagan    
beliefs to ,christian ideas on the same 
subject4 ,in  dealing with a topic so   
vast as this in a single hour1 we must  

select  those elements which            
historically showed themselves to be    
fundamental  and vital2 but even then we
 cannot examine much detail4 ,it may    
prove1  however1 that a rapid survey of 
those concepts of the future life1 whose
  influence lasted long during the      
,christian centuries1 and indeed has    
continued to the present day1 may not be
 without profit4    ,the most important 
single religious document from the      
,augustan ,age is  the sixth book of    
,virgil's ,aeneid2 for although the     
,aeneid was written  primarily to       
glorify ,roman imperial aims1 the sixth 
book gives full  expression to many     
philosophic and popular ideas of the    
other world and  of the future life1    
which were current among both ,greeks   
and ,romans4#a  ,it therefore makes a   
fitting point of departure for our      
considerations4  ,in this book1 as you  
will remember1 the poet's hero1 having  
reached  ,italian soil at last1 is led  
down to the lower world by the ,cumaean 

,sybil4 ,this descent to ,hades belongs 
historically to that long series of     
apocalyptic writings which begins with  
the eleventh book of the ,odyssey  and  
closes with ,dante's ,divine ,comedy4   
,warde ,fowler deserves credit for      
clearly pointing out that this visit of 
,aeneas to the world below is the  final
 ordeal for him1 a mystic initiation1 in
 which he receives  8enlightenment for  
the toil1 peril1 and triumph that await 
him in the  accomplishment of his divine
 mission40 ,when the ,trojan hero has   
learned  from his father's shade the    
mysteries of life and death1 and has    
been  taught the magnitude of the work  
which lies before him1 and the great    
things that are to be1 he casts off the 
timidity which he has hitherto  shown   
and1 strengthened by his experiences1   
advances to the perfect  accomplishment 
of his task4#b    ,but we are not       
concerned so much with ,virgil's purpose
 in writing this  apocalyptic book1 as  
with its contents and with the evidence 

it gives as  to the current ideas of the
 other world and the fate of the human  
soul4  ,what then does the poet tell us 
of these great matters8 ,we can hardly  
do  better than to follow ,aeneas and   
his guide on their journey4 ,this side  
of ,acheron they meet the souls of those
 whose bodies are unburied1 and  who    
therefore must tarry a hundred          
years--the maximum of human             
life--before they may be ferried over   
the river which bounds ,hades4 ,when    
,charon has set the earthly visitors    
across that stream1 they find           
themselves in a place where are gathered
 spirits of many kinds1 who have  not   
yet been admitted to ,tartarus or       
,elysium3 first the souls of infants    
and those who met their end by          
violence--men condemned to death though 
innocent1 suicides1 those who died for  
love1 and warriors--all of whom  must   
here wait until the span of life        
allotted them has been completed4       
,these spirits passed1 the mortal       

visitors come to the walls of ,tartarus1
  on whose torments ,aeneas is not      
allowed to look1 for        8,the feet  
of innocence may never pass      ,into  
this house of sin40    ,but the ,sybil1 
herself taught by ,hecate1 reveals to   
him the eternal  punishments there      
inflicted for monstrous crimes4 ,then   
the visitors pass  to ,elysium1 where   
dwell the souls of those whose deserts  
on earth have  won for them a happy lot4
 ,nearby in a green valley1 ,aeneas     
finds the  shade of his own father1     
,anchises1 looking eagerly at the souls 
which are waiting to be born into the   
upper world4 ,in answer to  his son's   
questions1 the heroic shade discloses   
the doctrine of                         
rebirths--metempsychosis--with its      
tenets of penance and of                
purification4#c ,finally1 to fulfill the
 poet's purpose1 ,anchises'  spirit     
points out the souls of the heroes who  
are to come on earth in  due season2 the
 spirits of future ,romans pass before  

,aeneas in long  array2 and at the      
climax he sees the soul of ,augustus1   
that prince who  was destined in the    
fullness of time to bring back the      
,golden ,age and to  impose peace on the
 wide world4 ,this prophetic revelation 
ended1 ,aeneas  enlightened and         
strengthened for his task1 returns to   
the upper world4    ,this book seems at 
first a strange compound indeed of      
popular belief1  philosophy1 and        
theology1 which is not without its      
contradictions4 ,on  these1 however1 we 
need not pause2 but for our present     
interest we must  ask what are the main 
ideas on which this apocalypse is based4
 ,first of  all1 a future life is taken 
for granted by the poet2 otherwise the  
book  could never have been written4    
,secondly1 we notice that1 according to 
ancient popular belief1 the souls of    
those who had not received the  proper  
burial rites1 were doomed to wander on  
this side of ,acheron until  a hundred  
years were completed1 and also that     

souls which were  disembodied by        
violence or by early death1 were        
destined to live out  their allotted    
span of earthly existence before they   
could enter the  inner precincts of     
,hades4 ,again the poet represents some 
few as  suffering eternal torments for  
their monstrous sins or enjoying        
immortal  bliss because of their great  
deserts4 ,and finally1 he shows that the
  majority of souls must pass through   
successive lives and deaths1 until1     
purified from the sin and dross of the  
body by millennial sojourns in  the     
world below1 and by virtuous lives on   
earth1 they at last find  repose and    
satisfaction4 ,the popular beliefs which
 concern details of  the future life we 
shall leave one side for the moment2 let
 us rather  first observe that ,virgil's
 ideas as to rewards and punishments in 
the  next world1 as well as his doctrine
 of successive rebirths and deaths  with
 their accompanying purifications1 rest 
on a moral basis1 so that  the other    

world is conceived to be a complement of
 this3 life on earth  and life below are
 opportunities for moral advance without
 which final  happiness cannot be       
attained4 ,whence came these ideas of   
the future life  and how far were they  
current in the ancient world of         
,virgil's day8    ,naturally it does not
 follow that1 because ,rome's greatest  
poet chose to  picture souls surviving  
their corporeal homes1 the average man  
believed  in a future life1 but there is
 abundant evidence that the poet was    
appealing to widespread beliefs1 when he
 wrote his apocalyptic book4#d  ,in fact
 from the earliest times known to us1   
both ,greeks and ,romans held  to a     
belief in some kind of extended life for
 souls after the death of  the body4#e  
,both peoples had their cults of the    
dead1 rites of tendance  and of         
riddance1 festivals both public and     
private1 which leave no doubt  that the 
great majority of men never questioned  
that the spirits of the  departed       

existed after this life1 and that those 
spirits were endowed  with power to harm
 or to bless the living4#f ,but beyond  
this rather  elementary stage of belief 
the ,romans never went of themselves4   
,the  ,greeks1 however1 began early to  
develop eschatological ideas which had1 
and which still have1 great importance4 
,the eleventh book of the ,odyssey1 as  
,i have already said1 is the oldest     
8,descent to ,hades0 in ,european       
literature4 ,the souls of the dead are  
there represented as dwelling in the    
land of shadows1 having no life1  but   
leading an insubstantial existence1     
without punishment or reward4  ,such a  
future world could have no moral or     
other value2 it could only  hang over   
men as a gloomy prospect of that which  
awaited them when the  suns of this     
world had forever set4 ,but in the      
seventh and sixth  centuries ,b4,c4     
other ideas came to the front1 which    
were influential  throughout later      
history4 ,in those two centuries fall   

the first period  of ,greek             
individualism and a religious           
revival--two things not wholly          
disconnected4 ,the ,orphic sect1 which  
appeared in the sixth century1 was  made
 up of religious devotees who adopted a 
purified form of the  religion of       
,dionysus4#g ,the center of the ,orphic 
faith and mystic  ceremonial was the    
myth of the birth1 destruction1 and     
rebirth of the  god4 ,according to the  
story1 ,dionysus was pursued by the     
,titans1 powers  hostile to ,zeus4 ,in  
his distress the god changed himself    
into various  creatures1 finally taking 
on the form of a bull1 which the ,titans
 tore  in pieces and devoured4 ,but the 
goddess ,athena saved the heart and gave
  it to ,zeus who swallowed it4 ,hence  
sprang the new ,dionysus4 ,the ,titans  
,zeus destroyed with his thunderbolt and
 had the ashes scattered to the  winds4 
,from these ashes1 in one form of the   
myth1 man was made1 and  therefore he   
was thought to unite in his person the  

sinful ,titanic  nature and the divine  
,dionysiac spark4 ,the parallelism      
between this  story and the myths of    
,osiris1 ,attis1 and ,adonis is at once 
evident4  ,they are all gods who die and
 live again1 and thus become lords of   
death  and life1 through whom man gains 
assurance of his own immortality4       
,our chief concern with the ,orphics    
here is that they seem to have          
introduced among the ,greeks the idea   
that the soul of man was divine1  was a 
,greek3 daimn which had fallen1 and for 
its punishment was  imprisoned in the   
body as in a tomb4 ,in its corporeal    
cell it was  condemned to suffer        
defilement until released by death1 when
 it passed  to ,hades4 ,its lot there   
depended on its life on earth4 ,as an   
,orphic  fragment says3 8,they who are  
righteous beneath the rays of the sun1  
when  they die1 have a gentler lot in a 
fair meadow by deep flowing             
,acheron4444 ,but they who have worked  
wrong and insolence under the rays  of  

the sun are led down beneath ,cocytus's 
watery plain into chill  ,tartarus40#h  
,the soul's sojourn in ,hades therefore 
was a time of  punishment and of        
purification1 even as life itself was a 
penance for  sin4 ,according to a common
 belief1 at least in ,plato's day1 after
 a  thousand years the soul entered a   
new incarnation1 and so on through ten  
rounds of earth and ,hades1 until at    
last1 freed from sin and earthly  dross 
by faithful observance of a holy life on
 earth and by the  purification which it
 underwent below1 it returned to its    
divine abode2  but those who persisted  
in sin were condemned to all the        
punishments  which man's imagination    
could devise2 the wicked were doomed to 
lie in  mud and filth1 while evil demons
 rent their vitals4 ,indeed the horrors 
which the medieval ,christian loved to  
depict in order to terrify the  wicked  
and to rejoice the faithful1 were first 
devised by the ,orphics  and their      
heirs1 for exactly the same purpose4    

,but what bases did the ,orphics find   
for their belief in the divine  nature  
of the soul8 ,in their mythology they   
had said that man was  created out of   
the ashes of the ,titans in which a     
spark of ,dionysus  still remained4 ,but
 in fact they seem to have rested on    
faith or  intuition1 without working out
 clearly a philosophic answer4 ,they    
were  indeed deeply conscious of man's  
dual nature2 they perceived that on the 
one hand he is pulled by his baser      
instincts and desires1 which they       
naturally attributed to the body1 and   
that on the other hand he is  prompted  
by nobler aspirations1 which they       
assigned to his soul4 ,this  higher part
 of man's dual self was1 for them1 the  
,dionysiac element in  him4 ,and man's  
moral obligation they held to be to free
 this divine  element from the clogging 
weight of the body1 to cease to 8blind  
his  soul with clay40 ,so far as we are 
aware1 the ,orphics were the first      
among the ,greeks to make the divinity  

of the soul a motive for the  religious 
life1 and perhaps the first to see that1
 if the soul is  divine1 it may         
naturally be regarded as eternally so1  
and therefore as  immortal4 ,what more  
momentous thoughts as to the soul's     
nature and its  destiny could any sect  
have introduced than these8 ,they were  
shared by  their contemporaries1 the    
,pythagoreans2 in fact it is hard to say
 with  certainty which sect developed   
these concepts first4#i    ,but the     
,orphic-,pythagorean confidence in the  
immortality of the soul  was at the most
 only an emotional belief4 ,it remained 
for ,plato in the  early fourth century 
to give that belief a philosophic basis 
and thereby  to transform it into a     
reasonable article of religion4 ,this he
  fundamentally did1 when he brought his
 concept of the reasoning soul  into    
connection with his doctrine of 8forms0 
or 8ideas40 ,he maintained  that behind 
this transient phenomenal world known to
 us through the  senses1 lies another   

world1 the world of ideas1 invisible1   
permanent1  and real1 which can be      
grasped by the reason only4 ,these      
permanent  ideas1 he said1 are of       
various grades and degrees1 the supreme 
idea  being that of the ,good and the   
,beautiful1 which is the cause of all   
existence1 truth1 and knowledge2 it at  
once comprehends these things  within   
itself and is superior to them2 it is   
the ,absolute1 ,god4#aj    ,but all the 
ideas1 including the ,absolute1 are1 as 
,i have just said1  apprehended not by  
man's senses but by his intellect4      
,therefore1 argues  ,plato1 man's       
reasoning soul must have the same nature
 as the ideas2 like  them1 it must      
belong to the world above the senses and
 with them it must  partake of the      
,absolute4 ,moreover1 since the ideas   
are eternal and  immortal1 it inevitably
 follows that man's reasoning soul has  
existed  from eternity and will exist   
forever4#aa    ,this is not the occasion
 to discuss the validity of ,plato's    

doctrine4  ,aristotle stated1 once for  
all1 the fundamental objections to his  
teacher's views4#ab ,but we shall       
readily grant that1 if we accept        
,plato's doctrine1 his conclusions as to
 the immortality of the soul may        
logically follow and that no further    
evidence is needed to convince us4  ,yet
 ,plato was not content to let the      
matter rest on this single  argument1   
for in other dialogues he adduces proofs
 which do not seem so  convincing to us 
as to their author4 ,he attempts to     
prove immortality  from the self-motion 
of the soul1 again from the dim         
recollections out  of an earlier        
existence which enable one to recall    
axiomatic truths or  to recognize       
relations1 as in mathematics--things    
which one has never  learned in this    
present life4 ,on another occasion he   
argues from the  unchanging nature of   
the soul and from the soul's superiority
 to the  body4 ,but he seems to have    
thought the most convincing proof was   

the  fact that the notion of life is    
inseparable from our concept of the     
soul2 that is1 a dead soul is           
unthinkable4 ,for all these reasons1    
therefore1 he argued that the soul must 
be immortal4#ac    ,whatever we may     
think of ,plato's different proofs1 they
 have furnished  the armories of        
apologists almost down to our own day4  
,in antiquity they  were constantly     
repeated1 in whole or in part1 not only 
by devoted  members of the ,academy and 
later by the ,neoplatonists1 but by the 
,eclectics and others1 like ,cicero in  
the first book of his ,tusculan         
,disputations1 and at the close of      
,scipio's ,dream2 they were borrowed by 
the ,stoics1 and some eight hundred     
years after ,plato had first  formulated
 them1 they were employed by ,st4       
,augustine in his tract ,de             
,immortalitate ,animae4 ,the religious  
intuition of the ,orphic and            
,pythagorean then was given a rational  
basis by ,plato1 and thus  supported1   

proved so convincing to antiquity that  
,plato's views were the  most important 
of all in supporting belief in the      
soul's immortality4  ,they were in large
 measure taken up by the ,christian     
church1 and1 as has  been often shown1  
the doctrine of a spiritual immortality 
apart and free  from the body1 was of   
immense service to primitive            
,christianity1 when  the hope of the    
early return of ,christ to found a new  
kingdom on earth  faded before the      
lengthening years4    ,to ,plato himself
 his belief in immortality was of the   
greatest moment1  for the whole fabric  
of his ethical and political philosophy 
is built  against the background of that
 doctrine4 ,and indeed we should all    
grant  much validity to the argument    
that the human reason1 though weak and  
limited1 is one with the divine and     
infinite reason2 otherwise the human    
could have no understanding of the      
divine4 ,but when it is further argued  
that if the human reason is of the same 

nature with the divine1 it must  be     
eternal and immortal1 we may reply that1
 even so1 we are not  convinced that the
 individual soul must therefore have a  
conscious and  separate existence       
through all eternity2 its identity may  
be lost by  absorption into the         
universal reason1 the supreme idea4     
,this is a matter  on which ,plato      
nowhere delivers a clear opinion1 but   
his thought is so  plainly centered on  
the individual soul that we can hardly  
believe that  it was possible for him to
 conceive of the soul's personality ever
 being  lost in the ,absolute4          
,although ,plato and his greatest pupil1
 ,aristotle1 regarded man's  reasoning  
soul as spiritual1 something distinct   
from matter1 few ancient  thinkers were 
able to rise to the concept of the      
immateriality of man's  reasoning       
nature4 ,the ,stoics1 who in their      
eclectic system borrowed from  both     
,plato and ,aristotle1 as well as from  
many other predecessors1 held  to a     

strict materialism which they took from 
,heraclitus4 ,but to their  material    
principle they applied a concept which  
they took from  ,aristotle1 for they    
recognized in all things the existence  
of an active  and a passive principle1  
and they said that by the action of the 
former  on the latter1 all phenomena    
were produced4 ,the active principle    
they  called reason1 intelligence1 the  
cause of all things4 ,it was the        
world-reason which1 according to their  
view1 permeated every part of  the      
cosmos1 causing and directing all       
things4 ,to express their concept  of   
its nature1 they often named it ,fire1  
the most powerful and active of  the    
elements1 or rather the primordial      
element2 again they often called  it    
,god1 for they did not hesitate to speak
 of this immanent principle as  a       
person4 ,furthermore1 since man is a    
part of the cosmos1 the  world-reason   
expresses itself in him4 ,indeed man's  
reason1 the directing  element of the   

human soul1 is itself a part of the     
world-reason1 or in  ,epictetus'        
striking phrase1 man is 8a fragment of  
,god40#ad ,at this  point the ,stoic and
 the ,platonist were in accord1 although
 the paths of  thought which they had   
travelled were very different4 ,yet the 
,stoic  could not agree with the        
,platonist that the individual soul     
survived  forever1 since he held to a   
cyclical theory of the cosmos1 according
 to  which this present universe was    
temporal4 ,it had been created by the   
eternal fire1 by the world-reason1 from 
itself1 and it was destined in  due     
season to sink back again into universal
 fire4 ,meantime1 according  to the     
views of most ,stoics1 the souls of the 
just would survive this  body1 ascending
 to the spheres above the world1 where  
they would dwell  until absorbed once   
more into the divine element from which 
they sprang4  ,to the souls of the      
wicked only a short period at most of   
post-corporeal  existence was           

granted--brevity of life or annihilation
 was their  punishment4#ae    ,strictly 
speaking1 the prospect of the limited   
existence after death1  which the       
,stoics held out as virtue's reward1    
should have had little  value for the   
philosophic mind1 especially as their   
philosophy offered  no warrant that     
personality would survive at all4 ,but  
it would seem that  men at every period 
of human history have had immortal      
longings in them  so strong that they   
have eagerly embraced the assurance of  
even a brief  respite from annihilation2
 certain it is that to many ,greeks and 
,romans  the ,stoic doctrine of a       
limited existence after death was a     
strong  incentive to virtue and a       
consolation in the midst of this world's
  trials4    ,but no doctrine of the    
post-corporeal existence of the soul has
 ever had  the field entirely to itself4
 ,we know that in antiquity even the    
,stoic  conception of the soul's limited
 survival1 to say nothing of ,platonic  

beliefs in actual immortality1 met with 
much opposition and denial among  the   
intellectual classes4 ,the ,epicureans1 
with their thorough-going  atomistic    
materialism1 would not allow that the   
soul had any existence  apart from the  
body2 on the contrary1 they held that   
the soul came into  being at the moment 
of conception1 grew with the body1 and1 
at the  body's death1 was once more     
dissolved into the atoms from which it  
first was formed4 ,epicurean polemics   
were directed against both popular      
superstitions and ,platonic metaphysics2
 the attacks had the advantage of       
offering rational1 and for the day      
scientific1 explanations of natural     
phenomena1 which fed human curiosity as 
to the causes of things1 and  which1 if 
accepted1 might logically lead to that  
freedom from the soul's  perturbation   
which was the aim of the teaching4      
,moreover1 the noble  resignation1 the  
high moral and humane zeal1 which       
characterized the  ,epicurean ,school at

 its best1 as well as its easy decline  
into  hedonistic appeals1 made it       
popular1 especially in the last two     
centuries before our era4 ,but the very 
fire and passion of ,lucretius1  its    
most gifted ,latin exponent1 give us the
 impression that after all  most men    
were not moved to find the peace which  
the poet promised them1  if they would  
but accept the doctrine of the soul's   
dissolution at the  moment of death4    
,the ,sceptics also1 who claimed not an 
inconsiderable number of  intellectuals1
 doubted the possibility of a future    
life1 or found  themselves unable to    
decide the matter at all4 ,like         
,tennyson's ,sage they  would declare3  
8,thou canst not prove that thou art    
body alone1      ,nor canst thou prove  
that thou art spirit alone1      ,nor   
canst thou prove that thou art both in  
one3      ,thou canst not prove that    
thou art immortal1 no1      ,nor yet    
that thou art mortal40    ,indeed it is 
true that of all the philosophic sects  

at the beginning of  our era1 only those
 which were imbued with ,platonic and   
,orphic-,pythagorean ideas1 had         
confidence in the soul's immortality4   
,the  ,stoic position we have already   
discussed4 ,some scholars1 following    
,rohde1#af claim that there was little  
belief in any kind of a future  life    
among the educated classes at the time  
we are considering2 this ,i  hold to be 
an error1 although it is certain that   
the ,epicureans and  ,sceptics had a    
large following4 ,in any case we need to
 remind ourselves  that the             
intellectuals are always a small        
minority1 whose views may not  represent
 in any way popular beliefs4    ,we are1
 however1 not without evidence that     
there were doubters among the  common   
people4 ,flippant epigrams and epitaphs 
show that men could at  least assume a  
cynicism toward life and a              
light-heartedness toward death  which   
equal ,lucian's4 ,more than once we can 
read funerary inscriptions  to this     

effect3 8,i was nothing1 ,i am nothing4 
,do thou who art still  alive1 eat1     
drink1 be merry1 come40#ag ,or          
sentiments like this3 8,once ,i  had no 
existence2 now ,i have none4 ,i am not  
aware of it4 ,it does not  concern      
me40#ah ,again we find the denial3 8,in 
,hades there is no boat1  no ,charon1 no
 ,aeacus who holds the keys1 no         
,cerberus4 ,all of us1 whom  death has  
taken away are rotten bones and ashes2  
nothing more40#ai ,the  sentiments are  
perhaps as old as thinking man4 ,they   
have at times  touches of humor which   
call forth a smile1 as in the anxious   
inquiries  of ,callimachus' epigram3    
8,charidas1 what is below80 8,deep      
darkness40  8,but what of the paths     
upward80 8,all a lie40 8,and ,pluto80   
8,mere talk40  8,then we're lost40#bj   
,such expressions1 of course1 must not  
be given too much weight in our         
reckoning4 ,the longing for             
annihilation1 which appeals at times to 
most  weary mortals1 also led to        

dedications 8to eternal rest0 or 8to    
eternal  sleep40#ba ,but after all the  
number of such epitaphs is comparatively
  small4 ,in the nature of the case many
 funerary inscriptions give no          
testimony for or against a belief in    
immortality2 but large numbers  show    
confidence1 or a hope1 in a future life4
          ,,ii      ,the time has now   
come for us to return from our rather   
long historical  survey to ,virgil's    
,apocalypse1 and to listen to the words 
with which  ,anchises' shade taught his 
eager son3        8,know first that     
heaven and earth and ocean's plain1     
,the moon's bright orb1 and stars of    
,titan birth      ,are nourished by one 
,life2 one primal ,mind1      ,immingled
 with the vast and general frame1       
,fills every part and stirs the mighty  
whole4      ,thence man and beast1      
thence creatures of the air1      ,and  
all the swarming monsters that be found 
,beneath the level of the marbled sea2  
,a fiery virtue1 a celestial power1     

,their native seeds retain2 but bodies  
vile1      ,with limbs of clay and      
members born to die1      ,encumber and 
o'ercloud2 whence also spring           
,terrors and passions1 suffering and    
joy2      ,for from deep darkness and   
captivity      ,all gaze but blindly on 
the radiant world4      ,nor when to    
life's last beam they bid farewell      
,may sufferers cease from pain1 nor     
quite be freed      ,from all their     
fleshly plagues2 but by fixed law1      
,the strange1 inveterate taint works    
deeply in4      ,for this1 the          
chastisement of evils past      ,is     
suffered here1 and full requital paid4  
,some hang on high1 outstretched to     
viewless winds2      ,for some their    
sin's contagion must be purged      ,in 
vast ablution of deep-rolling seas1     
,or burned away in fire4 ,each man      
receives      ,his ghostly portion in   
the world of dark2      ,but thence to  
realms ,elysian we go free1      ,where 
for a few these seats of bliss abide1   

,till time's long lapse a perfect orb   
fulfills1      ,and takes all taint     
away1 restoring so      ,the pure1      
ethereal soul's first virgin fire4      
,at last1 when the millennial aeon      
strikes1      ,god calls them forth to  
yon ,lethaean stream1      ,in numerous 
host1 that thence1 oblivious all1       
,they may behold once more the vaulted  
sky1      ,and willingly to shapes of   
flesh return40#bb    ,these words       
express the commingled beliefs of       
,orphic1 ,pythagorean1  ,platonist1 and 
,stoic4 ,how extensively such beliefs   
were held by ,virgil's  contemporaries  
we cannot say with accuracy1 but certain
 it is that this  book and this passage 
would never have made the religious     
appeal which  they made in antiquity1 if
 they had not corresponded to widespread
  convictions4    ,but ,virgil's sixth  
book contains much more than the        
eschatological views  of philosophic    
schools2 it reflects to an extraordinary
 degree popular  ideas and practices4 ,i

 have already referred to the fact that 
it  represents a mystic initiation of   
,virgil's hero as preparation for his   
holy task4 ,now we know that at all     
times the convictions of the majority   
of men are founded not on the arguments 
which thinkers can supply1 but  on      
hopes1 intuitions1 and emotional        
experiences4 ,such were the grounds  on 
which the ,orphic built his hope of the 
purified soul's ultimate  happiness4    
,more popular than ,orphism were the    
,greek mysteries1 of which  the most    
important were those celebrated annually
 at ,eleusis in ,attica4  ,there the    
story of the rape of ,proserpina1 of    
,demeter's search for her  daughter1 and
 of the daughter's recovery1 formed the 
center of a mystic  ceremonial4         
,originally these mysteries were no     
doubt agricultural rites  intended to   
call to life the dead grain in the      
spring4 ,but before the  seventh        
century1 ,b4,c41 the festival had been  
transformed2 the miracle of  the        

reviving vegetation1 of the grain which 
dies and lives again1 here1  as so many 
times elsewhere1 had become the symbol  
and assurance of human  immortality4#bc 
,before admission to the annual         
celebration the would-be initiate was   
duly purified4 ,during the celebration  
the initiated1 by their own acts1       
recalled ,demeter's hunt for her        
daughter1 roaming the shore with        
lighted torches2 like the goddess1 they 
fasted and then broke their fast  by    
drinking a holy potion of meal and      
water2 in the great hall of  initiation 
they witnessed a mystic drama1 perhaps  
saw holy objects  exhibited and         
explained4 ,in any case they underwent  
an emotional  experience which so       
confirmed their intuitional belief in   
immortality1  that they were confident  
of peace and happiness in this life and 
of  blessedness in the life to come1    
where they would join in the sacred     
dance1 while the uninitiated would be   
wretched4 ,many are the expressions  of 

this ecclesiastical confidence4 ,the    
,homeric hymn of ,demeter promised3     
8,blessed is he among mortal men who has
 seen these rites40#bd ,pindar1  early  
in the fifth century1 wrote3 8,happy he 
who has seen these things  and then goes
 beneath the earth1 for he knows the end
 of life and its  ,zeus-given           
beginning40#be ,sophocles said3 8,thrice
 blessed are they who  have seen these  
rites1 and then go to the house of      
,hades1 for they alone  have life there1
 but all others have only woe40#bf ,at  
the close of the  fifth century         
,aristophanes made his chorus of mystae 
sing3 8,for we alone  have a sun and a  
holy light1 we who have been initiated1 
and who live  honorably toward friends  
and strangers1 reverencing the gods40#bg
 ,in  the third century of the          
,christian era1 an official of the      
mysteries set  up an inscription which  
declares3 8,verily glorious is that     
mystery  vouchsafed by the blessed gods1
 for death is no ill for mortals1 but   

rather a good40#bh    ,it is difficult  
for us now to appreciate the widespread 
influence of  these ,eleusinian         
mysteries4 ,they had many branches2 at  
,eleusis they  continued to be          
celebrated until #cif ,a4,d41 when      
,alaric the ,goth  destroyed ,demeter's 
ancient shrine4 ,other ,greek mysteries 
also  flourished in the ,mediterranean  
world3 those of ,samothrace2 the        
mysteries of ,bacchus1 whose excesses   
brought down the displeasure of the     
,roman ,senate in #ahf ,b4,c42 and in   
later times the mysteries of ,hecate or 
,diana4 ,all had this in common1 that   
they gave the initiate assurance of  a  
happy immortality4    ,under the ,roman 
,empire the longing for religious       
satisfaction through  mystic rites and  
revelations found new and exotic sources
 of  gratification4 ,slaves1 traders1   
and finally soldiers from ,hellenized   
,egypt1 ,syria1 and ,asia ,minor1       
carried their gods throughout the       
,mediterranean world1 and even beyond1  

to the ,atlantic ,ocean1 to  ,hadrian's 
,wall in ,britain1 to the ,rhine and    
,danube1 and to the borders  of the     
,african desert4 ,the invasion of the   
,west by these oriental gods  began in  
#bjd ,b4,c41 when1 in answer to the     
,roman ,senate's invitation1 the        
,asiatic ,great ,mother of the ,gods    
took up her residence in ,rome4 ,many   
other divinities came during the        
succeeding centuries2 but three         
remained most prominent3 the ,great     
,mother of the ,gods1 whom ,i have just 
mentioned1 with her attendant ,attis2   
,egyptian ,isis and her associate       
divinities1 who were worshipped in ,rome
 as early as ,cicero's day2 and  the    
,persian ,mithras1 whose cult became    
influential in the ,west toward  the    
close of the first century of our       
era4#bi ,these religions added to  their
 exotic charm that spell which great age
 casts over men's  imaginations4        
,osiris1 the husband of ,isis1 had been 
lord of the dead in  ,egypt for more    

than two thousand years2 ,attis and the 
,great ,mother  belonged to an          
immemorial antiquity2 while ,mithras had
 his origin in the  remoter ,east1 at a 
period to which neither ,greek nor      
,roman knowledge  ran4 ,moreover1 ,attis
 and ,osiris1 like ,dionysus and        
,persephone among the  ,greeks1 or the  
,semitic ,adonis and ,tammuz1 were gods 
who died and lived  again1 and who      
therefore became warrants of man's      
immortality4 ,mithras  belonged to      
another class of divinities4 ,he was    
held to be the  benefactor and constant 
supporter of mankind4 ,according to the 
sacred  legend1 he had himself wrestled 
with the powers of darkness and had     
established civilization on earth1      
before he ascended to heaven1 whence  he
 was believed to aid his faithful       
followers in their constant struggle    
against the servants of ,ahriman1 the   
lord of wickedness4    ,the devotees of 
these gods formed sacred communities1   
admission to which  was obtained by     

secret initiation2 the rituals were     
mysteries in which  the devotee had     
pictured to him1 or himself acted out1  
the sacred drama1  whereby he received  
assurance of divine protection here and 
of a happy  immortality hereafter4 ,the 
initiate1 moreover1 was believed to     
experience a new birth and to enter into
 union with his god1 so that he  became 
,osiris-,serapis1 or ,attis1 or         
,mithras1 even as the ,dionysiac        
devotee became a ,bacchus4    ,to the   
question how the comforting assurance of
 present safety and of  future          
immortality was given the initiate1 we  
can return no more  satisfactory answer 
than we can make in the case of the     
,greek mysteries2  yet we may get some  
hint from the words which the ,latin    
writer1  ,apuleius1 puts into the mouth 
of his hero1 ,lucius1 who was initiated 
into the rites of ,isis4 ,this is all   
that he might tell3 8,i approached  the 
bounds of death4 ,i trod the threshold  
of ,proserpina4 ,i was carried  through 

all the elements and returned again to  
the upper air4 ,at dead of  night ,i saw
 the sun glowing with a brilliant light4
 ,the gods of heaven  and of hell ,i    
approached in very person and worshipped
 face to  face40#cj ,obscure as these   
words are1 much is plain4 ,in some way  
the  devotee was made to believe that   
he1 like ,virgil's hero1 had passed     
through the world of the dead and had   
been born again into a new life2  he had
 touched the elements--earth1 air1      
water1 and fire1 the very  foundations  
of the visible cosmos2 he had seen the  
sun which ever shines  on the           
consecrated2 and he had been granted the
 beatific vision4  ,therefore he knew   
that his salvation was secure forever4  
,furthermore in these mystery religions 
preparation for the emotional           
experiences of initiation was made by   
means of lustral baths1 fasting1        
abstinence1 and penance2 once           
consecrated1 the devotee supported his  
religious life by following a prescribed

 regimen and by participating in        
frequent holy offices2 degrees of       
initiation and grades of office marked  
his advance in faithful proficiency2    
while magic words and formulae1         
committed to memory1 assured him a safe 
passage from this world to the  next4   
,the oriental mysteries enjoyed a       
widespread popularity1 except in        
,greece1 under the ,roman ,empire down  
to the latter half of the third         
century4 ,then they began to lose their 
hold in the ,roman provinces  before the
 growing power of ,christianity2 yet in 
the city of ,rome they  stubbornly held 
their ground until the end of the fourth
 century4 ,the  first ,st4 ,peter's was 
built hard beside a shrine of the ,great
 ,mother of  the ,gods2 there for       
three-quarters of a century the old and 
the new  mysteries strove in conscious  
rivalry1 until at last ,cybele was      
forced  to yield to ,christ4    ,the    
last centuries before the birth of      
,jesus and the opening centuries  of our

 era were marked by an increasing       
religious longing and unrest1  first    
among the ,greeks and then among the    
,romans4 ,there was a weariness  and a  
dissatisfaction with the inherited forms
 of religious expression2  and many felt
 a sense of separation from ,god1 of a  
gulf between the  human and the divine1 
which they hoped might be bridged by a  
direct  revelation1 by a vision1 which  
would grant immediate knowledge of ,god4
  ,these eager desires led in part to an
 increase in superstition and           
credulity1 over which we need not now   
pause2 in part to the resort to  the    
oriental mysteries of which ,i have just
 spoken2 and in part to a  revival of   
,pythagorean mysticism and of mystic    
,platonism among the  intellectuals1 who
 no longer felt that the reason and the 
will gave them  the assurance which they
 required4    ,the later mystic         
philosophies laid much stress on an     
ascetic discipline  in this life1 to    
secure the soul's purification1 and all 

taught that the  great end of man was to
 attain to the knowledge of ,god1       
wherein lay  man's supreme happiness4   
,such knowledge1 it was thought1 could  
come only  through a revelation4 ,here  
these philosophies agreed with the      
teaching  of the oriental mysteries1 and
 indeed with popular belief as well4 ,on
  the question of the immortality of the
 soul1 however1 the later mystics       
brought forward no new arguments4       
,plotinus1 the greatest of the          
,neoplatonists1 virtually repeats the   
proofs adduced by the founder of  the   
,academy4#ca ,undoubtedly during the    
opening centuries of the  ,christian era
 there was a growing belief in the      
soul's immortality1 or  at least an     
increasing hope of a future life1 but   
such hopes and  beliefs1 outside        
,christianity1 were not based on new    
arguments4 ,plato  had once for all in  
antiquity1 supplied the philosophic     
grounds for  confidence4 ,only in modern
 times have new arguments of any weight 

been  adduced4           99       99    
99       99       99    ,let us now     
pause to summarize the results of the   
considerations which  have thus far     
occupied us4 ,we may fairly say that1 in
 spite of popular  doubt1 intellectual  
scepticism1 and philosophic denial1     
beliefs in some  kind of existence      
beyond the grave were widespread in the 
,greco-,roman  world at the beginning of
 our era4 ,for many1 probably for most1 
belief  did not advance beyond inherited
 intuitions1 fears1 or hopes1 which were
  fostered by tendance of the dead1     
prescribed by immemorial custom4 ,many1 
both the simple and the learned1 found  
their assurance in diverse forms  of    
,greek mysteries2 others1 again1        
strengthened to endure the buffetings   
of this life by the resolute doctrines  
of ,stoicism1 were satisfied with  the  
extended1 though limited1 future        
existence vouchsafed the virtuous2      
while the later ,platonists1 returning  
to the mystic ,orphic-,pythagorean      

elements which had influenced the       
founder of their school1 offered  their 
disciples arguments in favor of a       
genuine immortality4 ,under the  ,empire
 the supports of faith became more      
numerous and appealing4 ,at the  lowest 
end of the scale were charlatans1 as    
there had been since ,plato's  day1#cb  
who imposed on the fears and hopes of   
their victims for their  own mercenary  
ends4 ,higher were those inspiring      
,eastern mysteries which  were carried  
to the remotest provinces1 binding their
 devotees by  initiation1 ritual        
service1 and a prescribed regimen1 more 
constantly to  a religious life than    
,greek mysteries had ever done2 and the 
great end  of all was the assurance that
 the souls of the faithful should not   
die1  but should mount to the upper     
heavens to be at one with ,god4    ,the 
last vital philosophy of antiquity was  
,neoplatonism1 on which we  have just   
touched2 the chief aim of the           
,neoplatonist also was to secure  union 

with the ,divine1 and his greatest      
article of faith was the soul's         
immortality4 ,if this theosophic        
philosophy seem to any of poor account1 
,i would remind him that by ,origen and 
,augustine ,neoplatonism was brought    
into ,christian thought1 where it has   
been operative ever since4              
,,iii      ,in view of the facts with   
which we have been occupied we shall not
 make  the error of thinking that       
,christianity brought the hope of       
immortality  among men1 for1 as we have 
seen1 hope--nay1 sure confidence1 in the
  soul's survival was widespread        
throughout the ancient world when ,jesus
  began his ministry4 ,what can we say  
of early ,christian teaching1 and how   
was it related to its pagan environment8
    ,christianity grew out of ,judaism4 
,now it is a striking fact that the     
,jews were later than most of the       
peoples about them in conceiving of     
individual immortality4#cc ,clinging to 
monotheism and absorbed in the  life of 

their nation1 they had cut themselves   
off from some of the ideas  developed by
 their neighbors4 ,to follow out the    
intricate and uncertain  history of     
eschatological ideas among the ,jews    
would be too difficult  here4 ,we may   
simply say that when ,jesus began his   
ministry a  considerable part of the    
,jews had abandoned the expectation of a
  material kingdom of ,god and looked   
forward to a spiritual kingdom on a     
transformed earth or in heaven4 ,in this
 kingdom those would share1 who  through
 ,god's grace and their own             
righteousness had won a place therein2  
but the wicked were either to be        
punished forever or to be utterly       
destroyed4 ,to these ideas ,jesus'      
teaching was closely related1 although  
he gave a nobler meaning to ,jewish     
doctrine1 and he did not limit the  hope
 of a future existence so narrowly as   
some would do4 ,moreover1 he  adopted   
from the law the teaching which made    
salvation and future  happiness depend  

on a love for ,god and for one's        
fellow-men1 which would  result in an   
unselfish life of righteousness4        
,salvation1 he taught1 was  a present   
experience1 open to every man who       
conformed to the  requirement4    ,after
 the crucifixion of ,jesus1 the         
,apostles and their successors          
naturally made his person1 death1 and   
resurrection the great means  through   
which his followers secured salvation4  
,paul1 moreover1 taught  that through   
faith--using the word in a somewhat     
unusual sense--the  believer secured the
 actual presence of ,christ within him1 
entered into  a mystic union with the   
divine ,saviour1 by which the man was   
freed from  sin and reborn into a new   
spiritual life2 this new life was       
confirmed by  the indwelling ,holy      
,spirit which completed the man's moral 
regeneration4 ,in the ,fourth ,gospel we
 find a similar doctrine of a  mystic   
union with ,christ1 secured by belief in
 ,him as the incarnate  ,word--a belief 

which brought about a spiritual rebirth 
and therewith  gave a present warrant of
 eternal life4#cd    ,it is unnecessary 
for our present purpose to examine the  
beliefs of the  earliest ,christians as 
to the resurrection or the second coming
 of  ,christ1 which they expected to    
take place within their own time--these 
beliefs and many others the ,apostolic  
,church derived naturally from  their   
,jewish tradition and from the teachings
 of ,jesus4 ,i shall ask you  rather to 
focus your thought on the fundamental   
ideas of this early  ,christianity3 that
 is to say1 on the revelation of ,god1  
the punishment  of sin by suffering or  
annihilation1 the mystic union with the 
,divine1  and a happy immortality as a  
reward for faith and righteousness4     
,were  these ideas foreign to the       
peoples of the ,mediterranean area8 ,no1
 our  survey has reminded us that on the
 contrary they were familiar over wide  
stretches of the ,greco-,roman world4   
,do not misunderstand me here4 ,of      

course ,i am not making the elementary  
blunder of saying that because certain  
beliefs of the ,christians and the      
,pagans were similar1 they therefore    
were identical1 or that they were       
derived from one another1 or that the   
many factors of which they were         
composed were the same4 ,no one with any
 knowledge of the history of  religious 
thought could maintain that4 ,but the   
point which ,i do wish to  emphasize is 
this1 viz43 that the eschatological     
ideas widely current in  the            
,mediterranean world were such that     
,christianity found a favorable         
environment when it began its           
proselyting work4 ,this seems to me one 
of  the most significant facts in the   
relation of early ,christianity to      
paganism4 ,the ,christian teachings as  
to the means by which the assurance  of 
a happy immortality was to be secured   
could hardly seem very strange  at first
 hearing to any one who was familiar    
with mystery religions or  with much of 

the religious philosophy current in the 
pagan world during  the early ,christian
 centuries4 ,closer examination would   
reveal  fundamental differences between 
,christian belief and the pagan hope4   
,but  it is not insignificant that      
,christianity spread most rapidly at    
first  in ,syria and ,asia ,minor1      
countries long familiar with those      
mystic  religions1 which had promised   
what the nobler faith supplied4         
,,iv      ,although we now have examined
 the conditions which1 to my mind1 are  
the  most significant in the relation of
 pagan ideas of immortality to those  of
 early ,christianity1 there yet remain  
matters which1 if less  important1 are  
still of more than merely curious       
interest4 ,we shall now  look at some of
 these questions4    ,what notions of   
heaven and of hell did the ,greeks and  
,romans have8 ,this  inquiry is often   
made4 ,the reply is easily given4 ,man  
has always painted  hell and paradise   
after his own conception of suffering   

and of  happiness1 just as truly as he  
has made ,god after his own image4      
,consequently the ancient's ideas of the
 future life ranged all the way  from   
the grossest materialistic concepts to  
highly spiritualized  beliefs4 ,plato in
 the ,republic makes ,adeimantus say    
that some seem to  think that an        
immortality of drunkenness is virtue's  
highest meed4#ce  ,but ,socrates        
conceived the future state to be        
something very different2  a place in   
which he could hold high discourse with 
the great ones of the  past4#cf ,in     
general1 however1 punishment and rewards
 were of a material  sort1 for such are 
most easily imagined and understood4    
,has it been  otherwise with            
,christians8 ,the answer is to be found 
in ,christian  apocalypses1 medieval    
monuments1 renaissance art1 and in our  
own minds4  ,of course there developed  
in ,greek thought what we might call an 
orthodox geography and scheme for the   
other world1 of which ,virgil gives  us 

a just picture4 ,interesting as it might
 prove to examine the details  of this  
picture1 we will rather turn to other   
matters4    ,when ,christianity spread  
among the ,gentiles1 it at once came    
under  influences which inevitably left 
their marks in its thought and          
practice4 ,let me offer two             
illustrations4    ,early in the hour ,i 
spoke of ,aeneas' journey through the   
lower world as  an initiation by which  
he was enlightened and strengthened for 
the great  task that lay before him2 and
 we have now seen that in all the       
mysteries1 both ,greek and oriental1    
there were initiatory rites1 in  which  
the novice symbolically died to the old 
life and was born again  into a new     
existence4 ,moreover1 through his       
emotional experience he  received       
assurance that his salvation was secure 
forever4 ,the idea of  the new birth    
belongs to ,christianity also from the  
first4 ,paul held  that it was brought  
about by faith2 the author of the       

,fourth ,gospel  taught that it was     
secured by love and belief4 ,baptism in 
primitive  ,christianity was at first   
symbolical--an act of ritual            
purification1  which was believed to    
indicate the remission of sins and the  
bestowal of  the ,holy ,spirit4#cg ,but 
by the second century ,christianity had 
become a  mystery in the ,greek sense1  
into which the novice1 after a period of
  preparation1 was duly initiated by    
baptism2 and indeed the act was         
believed to have a magic power to secure
 immortality1 closely parallel  to that 
of the pagan initiation4#ch ,we all know
 that the  ecclesiastical confidence    
which such belief inspires is far from  
unknown  today4    ,again you will      
recall that when ,anchises' shade was   
instructing ,aeneas  in the meaning of  
life and death1 he said3        8,nor   
when to life's last beam they bid       
farewell      ,may sufferers cease from 
pain1 nor quite be freed      ,from all 
their fleshly plagues2 but by fixed law1

      ,the strange1 inveterate taint    
works deeply in4      ,for this1 the    
chastisement of evils past      ,is     
suffered here1 and full requital paid4  
,some hang on high1 outstretched to     
viewless winds2      ,for some their    
sin's contagion must be purged      ,in 
vast ablution of deep-rolling seas1     
,or burned away in fire4 ,each man      
receives      ,his ghostly portion in   
the world of dark40    ,thus the sojourn
 of the soul in the world below for the 
thousand years  which must elapse before
 it could be born again1 was a period of
  cleansing from ancient sin4 ,this idea
 of purification we have already  seen  
to be as old as the ,orphics2 it was    
made an important element by  ,plato2   
and indeed all who held to the doctrine 
of rebirths regarded the  periods       
between earthly existences as times of  
moral punishment and  cleansing4 ,there 
were certain analogies in ,mithraism4   
,orthodox  ,christianity could not adopt
 the doctrine of metempsychosis1        

although  some ,gnostics found this     
possible1 by rejecting the resurrection 
of the  body4 ,but beyond question the  
,greek doctrine of post-mortem purgation
  from sin1 combining with ideas        
inherited from the ,old ,testament1 has 
been influential in the development of a
 ,christian belief in  purification1    
especially by fire1 in an intermediate  
state between death  and paradise4 ,the 
doctrine of purgatory1 in somewhat      
different forms1  has been held by both 
the ,eastern and the ,western ,churches4
 ,although  this doctrine did not become
 a definite part of the theology of the 
,western ,church until the time of      
,gregory the ,great 7#eij-fjd71         
nevertheless traces of it can be found  
in the earlier ,church writers4  ,origen
 held that even the perfect must pass   
through fire after  death2#ci ,st4      
,augustine was less confident1 but he   
thought it not past  belief that        
imperfect souls might be saved by       
cleansing flames4#dj ,the  ,western     

,church1 from ,st4 ,thomas ,aquinas in  
the thirteenth to ,bellarmino  in the   
sixteenth century held the doctrine that
 the cleansing fire was  as material as 
that of any ,stoic2 but today that view 
has in large part  been abandoned4#da   
,these two illustrations must suffice to
 suggest the ways in which  ,christian  
thought was influenced by its pagan     
environment4    ,finally we will        
consider an example of parallelism      
between pagan and  ,christian ideas4 ,it
 is evident that the ,greeks1 who made  
such large use  of successive rebirths1 
following periods of punishment and     
purification below1 thought of these    
repeated lives and deaths as  forming a 
moral series1 so that moral progress1 or
 degeneracy1 at one  stage was          
inseparably connected with both the     
preceding and the  following stages4 ,to
 them life here and life in the other   
world were  indissolubly bound together4
 ,this was also as true of ,stoicism    
with its  limited reward for            

uprightness1 as it was of ,platonism4   
,the ,greek  mysteries1 which did not   
concern themselves with metempsychosis1 
by the  fifth century before our era    
likewise made future happiness depend in
  part at least on righteousness in this
 life2 the oriental mysteries too  made 
this existence the condition of the     
next4 ,in short1 we may say that        
wherever men believed in any kind of a  
future existence1 they almost           
universally held to the common belief   
that future happiness was to be  the    
reward of a virtuous life on earth4 ,but
 this is one of the  fundamental        
principles of ,christianity4 ,paganism1 
therefore1 was in  accord on this point 
with its enemy1 and thereby favored the 
propagation  of the new religion2       
moreover1 the superior ethical demands  
of  ,christianity and its humanitarian  
principles no doubt found a ready       
response1 especially in enlightened     
circles4    ,so we have returned to that
 which seems to me most important in the

  relations of paganism and of early    
,christianity4 ,in many ways paganism   
provided an environment favorable for   
the spread of the religion which  ,jesus
 founded4 ,the two were at many points  
irreconcilable1 and the  former has not 
always benefited the latter by its      
influence2 but it is a  grave historical
 error not to recognize the areas in    
which the thought  of the two ran       
parallel4 ,is the nobler faith the      
poorer because its  paths were made     
broad by the pagan in his search after  
,immortality8          ,,notes      #a4 
,eduard ,norden1 ,aeneis1 ,buch ,,vi1   
,leipzig1 #aijc1 is most useful for  its
 commentary1 especially on religious and
 philosophic matters4    #b4 ,w4 ,warde 
,fowler1 ,the ,religious ,experience of 
the ,roman ,people1  ,macmillan ,co41   
#aiaa1 pp4 #dai ff4    ,so ,dante's     
journey through ,hell1 ,purgatory1 and  
,paradise secured his  conversion and   
salvation1 bringing him finally to      
freedom and to  knowledge4 ,paradiso1   

,,xxxi1 #he-hg and ,,xxxiii entire4     
#c4 ,metempsychosis was the subject of  
the ,ingersoll lecture by ,professor    
,george ,foot ,moore in #aiad4          
,therefore that theme is not discussed  
here4    #d4 ,cf4 ,friedlnder1 ,roman   
,life and ,manners1 ,routledge1 ,london1
 #aiaj1  iii1 chap4 ,,ii4    #e4 ,on the
 pre-,hellenic periods1 see             
,schuchhardt1 ,schliemann's             
,excavations1 ,new ,york1 #ahia1 passim2
 ,lagrange1 ,la ,crte ,ancienne1        
,paris1 #aijh1 chap4 ,,ii2 ,baikie1 ,the
 ,sea-,kings of ,crete1 ,london1 #aiaj1 
chap4 ,,xi4    #f4 ,cf4 ,fairbanks1     
,greek ,religion1 ,new ,york1 #aiaj1 pp4
 #afh-ahh2  ,stengel1 ,griechische      
,kultusaltertmer1 #b;d ed41 ,munich1    
#ahih1  #hj2  ,wissowa1 ,religion und   
,kultus der ,rmer1 #b;d ed41 ,munich1   
#aiab1  #cf2 ,w4  ,warde ,fowler1       
,religious ,experience of the ,roman    
,people1 ,london1 #aiaa1  passim2 and   
especially ,lecture ,,xvii1             
8,mysticism--,ideas of the ,future      

,life20 ,c4 ,pascal1 ,le ,credenze      
d',oltretomba1 #b vols41 #aiab4    #g4  
,b4 ,i4 ,wheeler1 ,dionysos and         
,immortality1 ,ingersoll ,lecture for   
#ahih-ii4 ,the classic work on ,orphism 
is ,rohde1 ,psyche3 ,seelencult und     
,unsterblichkeitsglaube der ,griechen1  
#c;d ed41 ,tbingen1 #aijc1 vol4 ii4     
#h4 ,frg4 #aed ,abel4    #i4 ,apparently
 ,orphism was already established at    
,croton in southern  ,italy when        
,pythagoras arrived there about #ecj    
,b4,c42 but the matter is  very         
uncertain4 ,it is clear that ,orphism   
and ,pythagoreanism soon  coalesced1    
even if they were originally distinct4  
#aj4 ,rep41 vi1 #ejh f4 ,it should be   
said that the identity of ,plato's      
supreme idea with ,god is denied by some
 ,platonists2 but cf4 ,phil4 #bb;,c2    
,tim4 #bh;,a-#bi;,e1 #eg;,a1 #ib;,c4    
#aa4 ,the doctrine of ideas is developed
 in the ,phaedo1 ,phaedrus1  ,meno1     
,symposium1 and especially in the       
,republic4 ,in the ,sophist  and the    

,parmenides1 ,plato criticizes his own  
views acutely4    #ab4 ,metaphys41 i1   
#i2 vi1 #h2 xii1 #aj2 xiii1 #c4    #ac4 
,phaedrus1 #bde 7cf4 ,laws1 x1 #hid;,b  
ff41 xii1 #iff;,e72 ,phaedo1 #gb  ff41  
#hf1 #aje2 ,meno1 #ha ff4    #ad4       
,diss41 i1 #ad1 #f2 ii1 #h1 #aa4    #ae4
 ,cf4 ,e4 ,v4 ,arnold1 ,roman ,stoicism1
 ,university ,press1 ,cambridge         
7,eng471 #aiaa1 chap4 ,,xi4    #af4     
,rohde1 ,psyche1 ii#c1 #cgi ff4    #ag4 
,,cil41 ii1 #adcd2 cf4 #ahgg1 #bbfb4    
#ah4 ,,cil41 v1 #aici4    #ai4 ,,cil41  
vi1 #adfgb  ,ins4 ,graec41 xiv1 #agdf4  
#bj4 ,call41 ,epig41 #ac1 #c ff4    #ba4
 ,,cil41 iii1 #ehbe2 vi1 #ibhj1 #ajhdh2 
x1 #fgjf2 etc4    #bb4 ,aen41 vi1       
#gbc-gea4 ,translation by ,theodore ,c4 
,williams1 ,houghton  ,mifflin ,company1
 ,boston1 #aijh4    #bc4 ,on these      
mysteries1 see ,rohde1 ,psyche1 i#c1 pp4
 #bgh ff42 ,farnell1  ,cults of the     
,greek ,states1 iii1 #abf-bac2 ,a4      
,mommsen1 ,feste der ,stadt  ,athen1 pp4
 #bjd-bgg1 #dje-dba4    #bd4 #dhj f4    

#be4 ,frg4 #acg4    #bf4 ,frg4 #gec4    
#bg4 #ded ff4    #bh4 ,eph4 ,arch41 iii 
7#ahhc71 p4 #ha1 #h4    #bi4 ,on these  
and other oriental gods1 see ,f4        
,cumont1 ,the ,oriental  ,religions in  
,roman ,paganism1 ,chicago1 #aiaa2 also 
,g4 ,showerman1 ,the  ,great ,mother of 
the ,gods1 #aija2 ,hepding1 ,attis1     
#aijc2 ,w4 ,budge1  ,osiris and the     
,egyptian ,resurrection1 #b vols41      
#aiaa2 ,g4 ,a4 ,reisner1  ,the ,egyptian
 ,conception of ,immortality1 ,ingersoll
 ,lecture for #aiaa2 ,f4  ,cumont1      
,textes et ,monuments relatifs aux      
,mystres de ,mithra1 #b vols41          
#ahid-aijj2 ,id41 ,les ,mystres de      
,mithra1 #b ed41 #aijb2 ,english        
translation1 #aiaj4    #cj4 ,apuleius1  
,metamorphoses1 xi1 #bc4    #ca4 ,enn41 
iv1 #g4    #cb4 ,cf4 ,plato1 ,rep41 #cfd
 ,b ff42 ,demosth41 xviii1 #bei2 ,apul41
 ,met41  viii1 #bd ff4    #cc4 ,r4 ,h4  
,charles1 ,a ,critical ,history of the  
,doctrine of a ,future ,life  in        
,israel1 in ,judaism1 and in            

,christianity1 ,london1 #ahii1 is a     
convenient book1 but one which must be  
used with caution4    #cd4 ,a4 ,harnack1
 ,lehrbuch der ,dogmengeschichte1 i1    
#dth ed41 #aiji2  ,english translation  
from the third ,german edition1 #aija2  
,g4 ,b4 ,stevens1  ,the ,theology of the
 ,new ,testament1 #aijc2 ,h4 ,holtzmann1
 ,lehrbuch der  neutestamentlichen      
,theologie1 #b vols41 #b;d ed41 #aiaa4  
#ce4 ,rep41 ii1 #cfc ,d4    #cf4 ,apol41
 #da4    #cg4 ,it should be said that   
even in the earliest period ,christian  
baptism  had certain magical notions    
attached to it2 not1 however1 the belief
  that it secured immortality4    #ch4  
,cf4 ,hatch1 ,the ,influence of ,greek  
,ideas and ,usages on the ,christian    
,church1 ,x1 ,b2 ,anrich1 ,das antike   
,mysterienwesen in seinem ,einfluss auf 
das ,christentum1 #ahid1 pp4 #afh ff41  
especially #agi ff4    #ci4 ,hom4 in    
,num41 xxv2 in ,ps4 xxxvi1 #c4    #dj4  
,c4 ,d41 xx1 #be2 xxi1 #ac 7where       
,virgil's verses given above are        

quoted71 #bf2 de octo ,dulcitii         
,quaest41 ,qu4 i1 #ac2 ,enchiridion1    
lxix4    #da4 ,st4 ,thomas1 ,opera      
7,venice1 #agei71 xii1 p4 #ege1         
,distinctio xxi1  ,quaes4 #a1 ,sol4 #c2 
xiii1 p4 #cdg ff41 ,distinctio xliv1    
,quaes4 #c1  ,art4 #d1 ,quaestiunc4 #c2 
,bellarmino1 de ,purgatorio1 ,,ii1      
x-xii4