"it was imagined that the deceased paffed the "reft of their life under ground." Among other abfurdities flowing from this notion, he fays that, though the bodies were buried, they ftill imagined them to be apud inferos; and whereas they could not conceive the mind to exift of itself, they gave it a form or figure.

I think, however, that the notion of there being fomething in man diftinct from his body, and the caufe of his feeling, thinking, willing, and his other mental operations and affections, might very well occur in thofe rude ages without fuch a step as this; though no doubt the cuftom above mentioned would much contribute to it. Nothing is more common than to obferve how very ready all illiterate persons are to afcribe the cause of any difficult appearance to an invifible agent, diftinct from the fubject on which the operation is exerted. This led the Jews (after the heathens) to the idea of madmen being poffeffed of dæmons, and it is peculiarly remarkable how very ready mankind have always been to afcribe the unknown caufe of extraordinary appearances to fomething to which they can give the name of Spirit, after this term had been once applied in a fimilar manner. Thus that which ftruck an animal dead over fermenting liquor was first called the gas, or Spirit of the liquor, while the fermented liquor itself alfo, being poffeffed of very active powers, was thought to contain another kind of fpirit; and many times do we

hear

hear ignorant perfons, on seeing a remarkable experiment in philosophy, especially if air, or any invifible fluid, be concerned in it, perfectly fatisfied with faying that is the Spirit of it. Now, though the idea of a fpirit, as a diftinct fubftance from the body, did not perhaps immediately occur in all these cafes, their conceptions might afford a foundation for fuch an hypothefis,

It would be moft natural, however, at first, to afcribe the cause of thought to fomething that made a vifible difference between a living and a dead man; and breathing being the most obvious difference of this kind, thofe powers would be afcribed to his breath: and accordingly we find, that in the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages, the name of the foul is the fame with that of breath. From whence we may fafely infer, that originally it was confidered as nothing else, and hence the custom of receiving the parting breath of dying perfons, as if to catch their departing fouls. And though, to appearance, the breath of a man mixes with the reft of the air, yet, the nature of air being very little known, it was not at all extraordinary, that it should have been confidered as not really mixing with the atmosphere, but as afcending by its levity to the higher regions above the clouds. And men having got this idea, the notion of its having come down from above the clouds, where God was fuppofed to refide, would naturally enough follow.

But

But living bodies differ from dead ones by their warmth as well as by the circumftance of breathing. Hence might come the idea of the principle of life and thought being a kind of vital fire; and as flame always afcends, men would, of course, imagine that the foul of man, when fet loofe from the body, would afcend to the region of fire, which was fuppofed to be above the atmosphere. From thefe leading ideas it could not be difficult for the imagination of fpeculative men to make out a complete system of pre-existence and tranfmigration; and there being fo much of fancy in it, it is ftill lefs to be wondered at, that it fhould have been diverfified fo much as we find it to have been in different countries, and different schools of philosophy,

Diseases and other evils having their feat in the body, the matter of which it is compofed might eafily be conceived to be the fource of thofe and all other evils; a difordered mind being, in many cafes, the evident effect of a difordered body; and they who were difpofed to believe in a benevolent deity, would by this means eafily make out to themselves a reafon for the origin of evil, without reflecting any blame upon God on that account. They would afcribe it to the untractable nature of matter.,

Laftly, what could be more natural to account for the ethereal foul being confined to fuch a body or clog, as the fuppofition of its being a punishment for offences committed in a pre-existent state?

But

But the notion of a proper immaterial being, without all extension, or relation to place, did not appear till of late years in comparifon; what the ancients meant by an immaterial fubftance being nothing more than an attenuated matter, like air, ether, fire, or light, confidered as fluids, beyond which their idea of incorporeity did not go. Pfellus fays, that the antient Heathens, both Greeks and other, called only the groffer bodies, τα παχύτερα των owμalwr corporeal. Le Clerc's Index Philologicus, MATERIA.

Indeed, the vulgar notion of a foul, or Spirit, wherever it has been found to exift, has been the fame in all ages; and in this refpect even the learned of antient times are only to be confidered as the vulgar. We gather from Homer, that the belief of his time was, that the ghoft bore the shape of, and exactly resembled, the deceased person to whom it had belonged, that it wandered upon the earth, near the place where the body lay, till it was buried, at which time it was admitted to the fhades below. In both thefe ftates it was poffeffed of the intire conscious ness, and retained the friendships and enmities of the man. But in the cafe of deified perfons, it was fuppofed that, befides this ghoft, there was fomething more ethereal or divine belonging to them, like another better Jelf, that afcended to the upper regions, and was affociated with the immortal gods.

We

We learn from Offian, that it was the opinion of the times in which he lived, that the fouls of heroes went immediately after death to the hills of their country, and the scenes which they had frequented in the most happy times of their lives. It was thought too, that dogs and horses faw the ghofts of the deceased. They also imagined that the ghosts fhrieked near the place where a death was to happen foon after; from which circumftances, as well as feveral others, it is evident that, in their idea, the foul was material, fomething like the dwλor of the Greeks. Fingal, p. 21, 35.

All the Pagans of the Eaft, fays Loubiere, (quoted by Mr. Locke, Essay, vol. II, p. 162) do truly believe that "there remains fome

thing of a man after his death which fub"fifts independently and separately from his "body. But they give extention and figure

to that which remains, and attribute to it all "the fame members, all the fame substances, "both folid and liquid, which your bodies "are composed of. They only suppose that "fouls are of a matter fubtle enough to escape "being feen or handled."

When it had been imagined that the vital and thinking powers of man refided in a diftinct principle or fubftance, it would be natural to afcribe fuch a principle to every thing that had motion, and especially a regular motion, and that had any remarkable influences, good or bad, particularly to fuch refplendent bodies as the fun, moon, ftars, and planets. Accordingly,

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