The Hebrew Diy corresponds more closely to the Greek "Along than is. It signifies hidden, unknown, boundless in time, and undefined in space. The composition -בֵּית עוֹלָם :of the phrase is the same in both languages oikos "Aidov—the house of Olam—the house of Hades—the invisible state, the abode of unseen spirits. These terms suggest conceptions of vastness, of dread sublimity, while the inquiring word sheol calls up the unknown world, and presents it to the mind as That undiscovered country, from whose bourn No traveller returns. The expression olkos "Aιdov must have been common in the most ancient Greek. Its antiquity is proved by the ellipsis, els "Audov, which afterward came into such frequent use by the poets. Hence we conclude that it must have been an early Orientalism, derived from this very phrase with which we have compared it. Had it not been so very common in classical Greek, some critics would doubtless have pronounced it a Hebraism. LIX. Similar Views of a Future State, and Similar Fears of Hell in all Ages. PAGE 61, LINE 11. ὅσα "Αιδην τε καὶ τὰ τούτων ἐχόμενα τῶν ὀνομάτων ἐπονομάζοντες σφόδρα φοβοῦνται καὶ ὀνει ροπολοῦσι ζῶντες διαλυθέντες τε τῶν σωμάτων—“ which, under the name of Hades and similar titles, men greatly fear (valde horrent) and dream about, both when living and when separated from the body." This may be compared with a similar passage from the Republic: Ev yàp iσ0ɩ, & Σώκρατες, ὅτι ἐπειδάν τις ἐγγὺς ἡ τοῦ οἴεσθαι τελευτήσειν, εἰσέρχεται αὐτῷ δέος καὶ φροντίς. οἵτε γὰρ λεγόμενοι μῦθοι περὶ τῶν ἐν "Αιδου, ὡς τὸν ἐνθάδε ἀδικήσαντα δεῖ ἐκεῖ διδόναι δίκην, στρέφουσι τὴν ψυχήν. . . . . ὁ μὲν οὖν εὑρίσκων ἑαυτοῦ ἐν τῷ βίῳ πολλὰ ἀδικήματα, ἐκ τῶν ὕπο νων, ὥσπερ οἱ παῖδες, θαμὰ ἐγειρόμενος, δειμαίνει, καὶ ζῇ μetà kakñs έλπídos-"For be well assured, O Socrates, that when any one is near that time in which he thinks he is going to die, there enter into him fear and anxiety. For then the old stories about hell, how that the man who has here been guilty of wrong must there suffer punishment, torture his soul. Wherefore he who, in the retrospect of his life, finds many crimes, like frightened children starting from their sleep, is terrified, and lives in evil forebodings." Republic, 330, E. Nothing could give us a surer glimpse into the ancient conscience than such a passage as this. We are very apt to think that the fears of the future world are almost wholly derived from the Bible, and that the ancient mythology respecting Hades was the mere picture of the poet, without possessing any very strong hold upon the common mind. This declaration, however, of the aged Cephalus, is undoubtedly meant by the writer to be characteristic of the class and age to which the speaker belonged. In this most dramatic of all the dialogues of Plato, nothing of the kind would have been put in the mouth of such a character, had it not truly expressed a sentiment deeply grounded in the popular creed and feeling. It testifies more strongly to the ancient universal belief in a retributive hell and a coming judgment, than all the abstract reasonings of our philosopher, and all the mythological allusions of the poets. The doctrine of a hell for the wicked, as we have else ere observed,* *is one of the oldest articles in the religious creed of all ages and nations. Such incidental pas * See the Biblical Repository, No. xix., Art. 3d, where this and kindred topics are dwelt upon at some length; also a discourse delivered at Burlington, Vermont, 1839, entitled Natural Religion, the Remains of Primitive Revelation. sages as these refute all the reasonings of Warburton, in his attempt to prove that the doctrine of future punishment exerted but little influence in the ancient systems of legis. lation and religion. The very efforts of the Epicureans to ridicule the vulgar fears, and to make light of the terrors of the unseen Hades, show how deeply these awful truths, whatever may have been their origin, had penetrated the human soul. Even the style in which Lucretius speaks of them betrays a secret trepidation, and instead of philosophic indifference, manifests that bitter hatred which, as in the case of most modern infidels, proceeds from a mind once deeply troubled, anxious, and yet unable to shake off those fears which its philosophy affects to despise. This exhibition of a soul ill at ease, and of an interested hostility to the very idea of future retribution, is apparent in those lines in which he thus sets forth that monster of horrid aspect, with whose gloomy frown the timid Epicurean was ever haunted: Humana ante oculos quom vita jaceret In terris, obpressa gravi sub Religione; Horribili super adspectu mortalibus instans.—Lib. i., 63. The same thing is manifested when (to use Plato's comparison), like a child who has awaked from some dream of terror, he seems to exult in the timid hope of deliverance from the fears of a future hell: Et metus ille foras præceps Acheruntis agundus, Such strong language most clearly shows, that the doctrine and fears against which it was directed were no light or laughing matter, either to the poet or to those for whom he wrote We have every reason, therefore, for believing that much the same views of death, and the same apprehensions of future retribution as now prevail, have ever existed among mankind; coming not from reason or philosophy, but handed down by tradition from some revelation made in the most ancient time. In all ages, too, and in all creeds, the representations of the nature of this future punishment have been of the most terrific kind, as though the imagination, for this purpose, had been taxed to its utmost powers. Fire, and chains, and utter darkness, and similitudes of ever-ungratified desire and of ever-raging passion, have always formed a part of the dread machinery of Hades. The religious poet Pindar describes it as that from which the eye of the soul turns away, as from scenes too full of horror to contemplate for a moment: τοὶ δ ̓ ἀπροσόρατον ἐκχέοντι πόνον* and, in reference to it, a still more religious poet, even the inspired prophet and leader of Israel, asks with dread solemnity," Who knoweth the power of thine anger?" Or, as it has been most admirably paraphrased, Thy dreadful wrath exceeds our thought, And burns beyond our fear. Leaving out of the account the solemn confirmation of the doctrine which may be derived from the fearful imagery employed by our Saviour, and taking into view only the heathen world, we may well ask the question, Whence came all this? The great problem is for them to solve who assert that the doctrine of future punishment is contrary to the Scriptures, the reason, and the feelings. Whence, then, came it, in the face of all these opposing influences? Men are not fond of what is irrational for its own sake, and they certainly do not love their own misery. Whence, then, came this трɩyéρwv μv0oç,‡ these fears of Hades, of † Psalm xc., 11. * Pind., Olymp. Carm., ii., E., d. Tartarus, of Gehenna, and those other names which, as Plato says in the passage before us, men have applied to this state? Why, if this be all false, and without foundation in any view of the moral government of God, have the human race thus ever tortured themselves for naught? Why have they indulged in these terrific inventions of fancy, handing down, from age to age, and from generation to generation, a useless, yet most tormenting anxiety? And above all, how is it, if sin be such a trifle, that men, by these inventions, have ever persevered in passing a sentence so unjustly severe on their own depravity? Compare the Gorgias, 525, C.; Phadon, 114, A.; Republic, 616, A. LX. The Word "Ayios. Exceeding Spirituality of some of Plato's Views. Many of his Thoughts capable of being fairly accommodated to a Spiritual Sense higher than the Author himself had intended to convey. Difference in this respect between his Writings and those of all other Philosophers, Ancient or Modern. PAGE 61, LINE 17. καὶ μετέβαλε τόπον ἅγιον ὅλον 18 transferred, or passes into a place all holy." Purity, or holiness, is generally given as the primary sense of the Greek ayios and of the Hebrew wp or p. This, however, besides being incapable of accounting for the other meanings, some of which are almost directly opposite, does of itself require some ultimate, and, at the same time, more simple conception into which it may be resolved. This more simple and primary idea is that of separation,* or of *This will account for those other senses of the root which seem almost the opposite of holy, since it may also refer to that which is purely wicked, or separated from all good. Hence üyoç, or äyoç, may signify an abominable crime. So, also, ayɩoç may sometimes denote |