The history of ancient Europe - 1801 Author:William Russell Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: him with as much funeral pomp as they thought pro- LETTER . .Nor were the Egyptian monarchs, as already observed, exempted from that awful jury. On the day ap... more »pointed for the royal funeral, a court of inquest, according to law, was held. There all complaints and Accusations against the deceased monarch, were re- 324. Id. ibid. Diodorus tells us, on the authority of the Egyptians, that from this custom of giving sentence upon the actions of the dead, and the ceremonies with which the Egyptian funerals were accompanied, the Greeks borrowed their doctrine of a fu'ure state of rewards and punishments (Bibliotb. lib i p. 82 — 84.). And all modern writers have considered his report as infallible evidence. But if we reflect, that the belief of the immortality of the soul was universal in the heathen world, as it is at this day among savage nations, we shall find no reason for subscribing to such an opinion. The belief of a future state is necessarily involved in that of the immortality of the soul ; and as soon as society was established, moral distinctions formed, and civil and criminal laws instituted, the notion of rewards and punishments, in an after-state, would naturally become, as we find it, part of the popular creed in every country. They who question what I have affirmed, that the belief of the immortality of the soul, and of a future state, is now held by the most savage nations, may consult Hist. Gen. ties Voyages, passim ; but especially tom. xv. init. Robertson's Hist. of America, book iv. Hutchin- son's Hist . afMassackusett's-Bay, chap. vi. and the authors there cited. That it was universally taught among ancient nations, and consequently believed by the body of the people, I shall afterwards have occasion to prove. I shall, therefore, only here remark, that Diod...« less