when he comes to the condition of infants, passes it over in these words:" But of children who died "in their infancy, he reported certain other things 66 NOT WORTHY TO BE REMEMBERED Erus's account of what he saw in another world, was a summary of what the Egyptians taught in their Mysteries concerning that matter. And I make no doubt but the thing not worthy to be remembered, was the doctrine of infants in purgatory: which appears to have given Plato much scandal, who did not, at that time at least, reflect upon its original and use. But here let us take notice, for the honour of HUMANITY, that while Pagans both old and new could be shocked at this punishment, modern papists, to the eternal disgrace of SUPERSTITION, can condemn unbaptised Infants, without remorse, to infinitely greater. But now, as to the FALSELY CONDEMNED, we must seek another solution: Hos juxta, falso damnati crimine mortis ; This designment appears both iniquitous and absurd. The falsely accused † are not only in a place of punishment, but, being first delivered under this single predicament, they are afterwards distinguished into two sorts; some as blameable, others as innocent. To clear up this confusion, it will be necessary to * Τῶν δὲ εὐθὺς γενομένων, καὶ ὀλίγον χρόνον βιένων περὶ ἄλλα ἔλεγεν ΟΥΚ ΑΞΙΑ ΜΝΗΜΗΣ. De rep. lib. x. p. 615. Serr. edit. 66 † Servius, on the place, characterizes them in this mannerqui sibi per simplicitatem adesse nequiverunt." transcribe transcribe an old story, told by Plato, in his Gorgias: "This law, concerning mortals, was enacted in " the time of Saturn, and is yet, and ever will be, in "force amongst the Gods; that he who had lived a રે just and pious life, shall, at his death, be carried "into the islands of the blessed, and there possess all "kinds of happiness, untainted with the evils of "mortality: but that he who had lived unjustly and impiously, shall be thrust into a place of punish 66 ment, the prison of divine justice, called Tartarus. "Now the judges, with whom the execution of this "law was intrusted, were, in the time of Saturn, and "under the infancy of Jove's government, living men, 66 sitting in judgment on the living; and passing sentence on them, upon the day of their decease. This gave occasion to unjust judgments: on which account, Pluto, and those to whom the care of the happy islands was committed, went to Jupiter, and "told him, that men came to them wrongfully judged, "both when acquitted, and when condemned. To "which the Father of the Gods thus replied: I will put a stop to this evil. These wrong judgments are "partly occasioned by the corporeal covering of the persons judged; for they are tried while living: now many have their corrupt minds hid under a "fair outside, adorned with birth and riches; and, "when they come to their trial, have witnesses at "hand, to testify for their good life and conversation; "this perverts the process, and blinds the eyes of justice. Besides, the judges themselves are encum"bered with the same corporeal covering; and eyes. "and ears, and an impenetrable tegument of flesh, "hinder the mind from a free exertion of its faculties. "All these (as well their own covering, as the covering K 2 " of "of "of those they judge) are bars and obstacles to right judgment. In the first place then, says he, we are "to provide that the foreknowledge which they now "have of the day of death, be taken away; and this "shall be given in charge to Prometheus; and then "provide, that they who come to judgment, be quite "naked*; for from henceforth they shall not be tried, till they come into the other world. And as "they are to be thus stripped, it is but fit their judges "should await them there in the same condition; that, 66 at the arrival of every new inhabitant, soul may "look on soul, and all family relation, and every worldly ornament being dropt and left behind, RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT may at length take place. I, therefore, who foresaw all these things before you felt them, have taken care to constitute my own sons to be the judges: two of them, Minos " and Rhadamanthus, are Asiatics; the third, Æacus, an European. These, when they die, shall have "their tribunal erected in the shades, just in that 66 .66 66 part of the highway, where the two roads divide, "the one leading to the happy islands, the other to "Tartarus. Rhadamanthus shall judge the Asiatics, "and acus the Europeans; but to Minos I give "the superior authority of hearing appeals, when 66 any thing obscure or difficult shall perplex the "others' judgments; that every one may have his "abode assigned him with the utmost equity †." The This evidently refers to the old Egyptian custom, when the judges beheld and examined their kings naked; &τw xj i "Agxwin δικασὴς ὢν ἐν τοῖς παλαιοτέροις χρόνοις, γυμνὸν ἐθεώρει τὸν βασιλία. Horapollinis Hierogl. lib. i. cap. 40. † Ἦν εν νόμω δε περὶ ἀνθρώπων ἐπὶ Κρόνε, καὶ ἀεὶ καὶ νῦν ἔτι ἐςὶν ἐν θεοῖς, τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὸν μὲν δικαίως τὸν βίον διελθόντα καὶ ὁσίως, ἐπειδὰν τελευτήση, The matter now begins to clear up; and we see plainly, that the circumstance of the falsely condemned alludes to this old fable: so that by falso damnati crimine mortis (if it be the true reading) VIRGIL did not mean, as one would suppose, innocentes addicti morti ob injustam calumniam, but homines indigne et perperam adjudicati; not men falsely condemned, but wrongfully judged, whether to acquittal or conviction; but condemnation being oftenest the sentence of justice, the greater part is put figuratively for the whole. He τελευτήσῃ, εἰς μακάρων νήσες ἀπιόλα, οἰκεῖν ἐν πάσῃ εὐδαιμονίᾳ ἐκτὸς κακῶν· τὸν δὲ ἀδίκως καὶ ἀθέως, εἰς τὸ τῆς τίσεώς τε καὶ δίκης δεσμωτήριον, ὁ δὲ τάξαςον καλέσιν, ἰέναι. Τέτων δὲ δικαςαὶ ἐπὶ Κρόνε, καὶ ἔτι νεως. τὸ Διὸς τὴν ἀρχὴν ἔχοντα, ζῶντες ἦσαν ζώνων, ἐκείνη ἡμέρᾳ δικάζοντες τ μέλλισεν τελευτῶν κακῶς ἐν αἱ δίκαι ἐκρίνοντο. Ὅτε ἐν Πλέτων καὶ οἱ ἐπιμεληταὶ ἐκ μακάρων νήσων ἰόντες, ἔλεγον πρὸς τὸν Δία, ὅτι φοιῷεν σφιν ἄνθρωποι ἐκαλέρωσε ἀνάξιον, εἶπεν ἦν ὁ Ζεὺς, ̓Αλλ' ἐγὼ (ἔφη) παύσω τῦτο γινόμενον· νῦν μὲν γὰρ κακῶς αἱ δίκαι δικάζονται. ἀμπεχόμενοι γὰρ (ἔφη) οι κρινόμενοι κρίνονται· ζῶντες γὰρ κρίνονται, Πολλοὶ ἦν ψυχὰς πονηρὰς ἔχοντες, ημφιεσμένοι εἰσὶ σώματά τε καλὰ, καὶ γένη καὶ πλέτες· καὶ ἐπειδὰν ἡ κρίσις ἦν ἔρχονται αὑτοῖς πολλοὶ μάρτυρες, μαρτυρήσαντες ὡς δικαίως βεβιώκασιν. Οἱ ἐν δικαςαὶ ὑπό τε τέτων ἐκπλήτονται, καὶ ἅμα καὶ αὐτοὶ ἀμπεχόμενοι δικάζεσι, πρὸ τῆς ψυχῆς τῆς αὐτῶν ὀφθαλμὸς καὶ ὦτα καὶ ὅλον τὸ σῶμα προκεκαλυμμένοι· ταῦτα δὲ αὐτοῖς πάνα ἐπιπροσθεν γίγνεται, καὶ τὰ αὐτῶν ἀμφιέσματα, καὶ τὰ τῶν κρινομένων. Πρῶτον μὲν ἦν (ἔφη) παυσέον ἐςὶ προειδότας αὐτὸς τὸν θάνατον· νῦν γὰρ προΐσασι· τῦτο μὲν ἦν καὶ δὴ εἴρηται τῷ Προμηθεῖ, ὅπως ἂν παύσῃ αὐτῶν· ἔπεια γυμνὸς κριτέον απάλλων τέτων. τεθνεῶτας γὰρ δεῖ κρίνεσθαι· καὶ τὸν κριλὴν δεῖ γυμνὸν εἶναι, τεθνεῶτα, αὐτῇ τῇ ψυχῇ αὐτὴν τὴν ψυχὴν θεωρενα, ἐξαίφνης ἀποθανόνος ἑκάτε, ἔρημον πάλων τῶν συγ[ενῶν· καλαλιπόνα ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς πάλα ἐκεῖνον τὸν κόσμον, ἵνα δικαία ἡ κρίσις *. Ἐγὼ μὲν ἔν ταῦτα ἔγνωκως πρότερον ἡ ὑμεῖς, ἐποιησάμην δικατὰς ὑιεῖς ἐμαιλ. δύο μὲν ἐκ τῆς ̓Ασίας, Μίνω τε καὶ ̔Ραδαμάνθυν ̓ ἕνα δὲ ἐκ τῆς Εὐρώπης, Αἰακόν· Οὗτοι ἦν ἐπειδὰν τελευ]ήσωσι, δικάσεσιν ἐν τῷ λειμῶν, ἐν τῇ τριόδῳ, ἐξ ἧς φέρελον τῷ ὁδὼς ἡ μὲν εἰς μακάρων νήσεις, ἡ δ ̓ εἰς τάρβαρον· καὶ τὰς μὲν ἐκ τῆς ̓Ασίας Ραδαμάνθυς κρινεί, τὸς δὲ ἐκ τῆς Εὐρώπης Αἰακός. Μίνω δὲ πρεσβεῖα δώσω, ἐπιδιακρίνειν, ἐὰν ἢ ἀποῤῥηλόν τι τῷ ἑτέρῳ, ἵνα ὡς δικαιοτάτη ή κρίσις ή περὶ τῆς πορείας τοῖς ἀνθρώποις. Tom. i. p. 523. Serr. Edit. Κ 3 He who thinks this too licentious a figure, will perhaps be inclined to believe, that the poet might write, Hos juxta, falso damnati TEMPORE mortis : which not only points up to the fable, but hints at the original of it; and besides, agrees best with the context. But as the words tempore mortis are only to be explained by this passage of Plato, a transcriber might be easily tempted to change them to something more intelligible. One difficulty only remains; and that, to confess the truth, hath arisen rather from a mistake of Virgil,than of his reader. We find these people yet unjudged, already fixed, with other criminals, in the assigned district of purgatory. But they are misplaced, through an oversight of the poet; which, had he lived to perfect the Æneis, he would probably have corrected: for the fable tells us they should be stationed on the borders of the three divisions,. in that part of the high road, which dividing itself in two, leads, the one to Tartarus, the other to Elysium, thus described by the poet : Hic locus est, partes ubi se via findit in ambas, Dextera, quæ Ditis magni sub monia tendit: Hic iter Elysium nobis; at læva malorum Exercet pœnas, & ad impia Tartara mittit. It only remains to consider the origin or moral of the fable; which, I think, was this: it was an Egyptian custom, as we are told by Diodorus Siculus, for judges to sit on every man's life, at the time of his interment; to examine his past actions, and to condemn and acquit according to the evidence before them. These judges were of the priesthood; and so, it is probable, taught,. like the priests of the church of Rome, that their decrees were ratified in the other world. Partiality and corruption 5 |