divine wrath, which was to be appeased by purification and sacrifice. Human beings were slain on altars to appease the wrath of God and to lessen the mortality from plague. Such religious customs have disappeared almost completely with the advancing culture of man, but traces of them survive and become apparent on occasions. Quite recently, when the King of England, Edward VII., was afflicted with an abdominal suppuration, he was given the assistance of the most highly skilled modern surgery, but at the same time special services were held in the churches to aid the cure of the royal invalid. Every one has now come to regard such events as mere relics of old customs without intrinsic importance. Hygiene in the kitchen and the prevention of disease are no longer under the control of religion, but are regulated on scientific knowledge obtained by the experimental method. I need pay no further attention to these matters. However, religion is still occupied with the problem of death. The solutions which as yet it has offered cannot be regarded as satisfactory. A future life has no single argument to support it, and the non-existence of life after death is in consonance with the whole range of human knowledge. On the other hand, resignation as preached by Buddha will fail to satisfy humanity, which has a longing for life, and is overcome by the thought of the inevitability of death. It was to be expected that in such a state of affairs philosophers would have sought an issue from the dilemma. Certainly many philosophical theories have been propounded to explain life and death. As the subject is of extreme importance I shall reserve a chapter for it. CHAPTER VIII ATTEMPTS IN SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY TO REMEDY THE ILLS ARISING FROM THE DISHARMONIES OF THE HUMAN CONSTITUTION Some philosophical systems are in intimate union with death SYSTEMS of philosophy are closely attached to religious doctrine. Buddhism, for instance, originated in a philosophic theory which acquired a religious character in the hands of the followers of Buddha. Similarly, many systems of philosophy are merely religious dogmas which it has been attempted to support by rational argument apart from supernatural revelation. The idea of life beyond the grave has long since furnished one of the principal bases of various philosophic doctrines, the ultimate object of which was to solve the problem of death. Ancient philosophy is full of such. Plato describes the tragic death of his master Socrates, and in connection with it expresses very clearly his ideas upon death. He puts these words in the mouth of Socrates in the "Phaedo": "Fa from being depressed by the death of a friend, I felt, on the contrary, that he was to be envied; as I witnessed his attitude, and listened to his words, and noticed the courage with which he faced death, I became convinced that he did. not quit this life without some divine support that drew him towards another world in which he would find the most perfect happiness man could wish." Plato attributes to Socrates a very definite view as to future retribution: "In truth," said Socrates, "if I did not expect to find in another life gods at once good and wise, and men better than those of this life, it would be foolish of me not to be disturbed by the approach of death. But I know that I look to finding myself among just men. I do not fear to die, because I am confident that something still remains after this life, and that, according to the old belief, the good will be treated better than the bad." As such views were not derived from a body of revealed truth, it was necessary to support them by reasoning. Plato therefore went on to try to convince us of the immortality of the soul by speculative hypotheses. He recalled the Pythagorean doctrine of metempsychosis, and suggested that the souls who had abandoned themselves to injustice, tyranny, and plunder would pass into the bodies of wolves and hawks and falcons, for souls of that nature could not go elsewhere; while the souls of those who had practised the social and civic virtues known as temperance or justice, would inhabit the bodies of peaceful and gentle creatures such as bees and ants, or would even enter other human bodies and again become good men. Plato referred also to the law of contrasts in support of his theory. "As the most strong often springs from the feeblest, or the most swift from the slow, so life gives rise to death, and from death life springs." "From that which is dead," said Socrates, "is born all that lives and has life. And so our souls after death pass to the infernal regions." "As we must grant that the dead are born from the living as much as the living from the dead, it is plain that the souls of dead men exist somewhere, whence they may return to life." By such arguments Plato tried to prove the immortality of the soul, the fundamental basis of his philosophy, and put them in the mouth of his master Socrates on his deathbed. In the dialogue he tried to refute all kinds of objections. But, in spite of the assurance with which he formulated his doctrine, there may be seen underlying the argument a note of doubt, and it is just this that distinguishes philosophy from religion. It is evident that the whole of Plato's system was the result of an effort to solve the problem of death. Again and again he said that the true philosopher lived only to be ready to die; that being so, he declared it to be childish for men at the last to shrink from what they had so long been making ready for. It was himself that Plato wished to convince of a future life. "I do not seek," he said, "to persuade all those who are here of the truth of what I say, although to do so would greatly please me; what I aim at is to convince myself. Behold me, dear friend, in pursuit of an argument that, as you see, interests me deeply; if what I say turns out to be true, it is good to have believed it, and if there be nothing after death, at least I have gained this, that while I am still with you, I am not borne down with grief." The doubt which was only latent in Plato was much more active in some other ancient philosophers. Aristotle * at one time admitted that part of the soul was immortal, * Zeller, “Die Philosophie der Griechen," vol. II., Part 2, pp. 462, 465. Tübingen, 1862. but that the other part was mortal. The two parts came together at the beginning of a life and separated at its end. Later on, however, Aristotle abandoned this theory of the immortality of the personal consciousness, and argued strongly against the Platonic theory of the immortality of the soul, although, however, he still believed in the indestructibility of the “rational spirit,” an immortal principle. The Stoics still further developed such a conception. They held that besides the individual soul there was a universal soul, a presiding influence in which all others had their being. Cicero, again, discussing old age and death, tried to establish belief in a future life. "I am convinced," said Cicero to Scipio and Laelius, “that your illustrious fathers, who were so dear to me, are still full of life, and of the only life worthy of the name; for the body is, as it were, our prisonhouse, within which we must accomplish the tasks laid on us by necessity. When I think of the activity of the human spirit, its vast memory, its prevision, its store of art and knowledge, and experience, I am convinced in the depths of my being that an existence with such qualities cannot be mortal. The soul is continually active, and its activity comes not to it from without; the soul is a self-supporting activity, and cannot come to an end. Moreover, as the soul is a simple substance, unalloyed by any mixture of materials, it can neither be divided nor made to perish." By such arguments Cicero sought to prove the immortality of the soul. "I will tell you," he said, "why old age, so far from being grievous to me, is full of delight." But in the end, he himself saw the weakness of his proof, and the note of scepticism appeared in him more strongly than in his predecessors, so that he came to say as follows: "If I am deceived as to the immortality of the soul, I am |