Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/832

810 in early ages they buried their dead. Cremation became general at the end of the republic, i. e., shortly before the birth of Christ. Under the emperors it was almost universal, but it gradually disappeared as Christianity gained sway. The Roman burial rites were very rigorous and voluminous. The ceremonial of a modern funeral is as nothing compared with the Roman ceremonial. There were the musicians, the players, the imitator (who personated the dead), the images of the deceased, the train of slaves and freedmen, the relatives tearing their garments and covering themselves with dust, the funeral oration, and the final obsequies at the pyre. This pyre was built in the form of an altar of four sides. On it was placed the corpse upon a couch. The eyes of the deceased were opened, the near relatives kissed the body with tears; and then, turning away their faces, they applied the torch, while upon the burning mass were cast perfumes of myrrh and cassia, the clothes and ornaments of the dead, and offerings of various kinds. At an officer's funeral the soldiers made a circuit three times round the pyre, the ensigns reversed, the trumpets braying, and the weapons clashing. If he had been very popular, the soldiers cast their weapons upon the burning mass as loving offerings to their dead commander. The ashes were then gathered and put into an urn. Thus preserved, they were deposited in one of those tombs which still adorn the stately roads of Rome. Often lamps were kept perpetually burning in the tomb, while flowers and chaplets were brought thither, that the dead might be reminded of the loving memory of the living.

This mention of the burning of the body in ancient times leads naturally to the question of cremation, which is attracting attention to-day, not so much in lands of sparse population as in lands such as England, Belgium, and Italy, where the population is dense and the available space small. In the large cities of such lands, cities which have been populous for hundreds of years, it is not a matter of mere sentiment; it is a matter of almost life and death to the inhabitants. And few persons will, I think, deny that cremation will be eventually adopted in place of earth-burial. This on grounds which will suggest themselves to all. It was, in fact, Christianity that caused the reintroduction of earth-burial, for Christianity taught the resurrection of the body. This is the reason why the Churches have always opposed cremation. But it is seen now, apart from any theological argument, that there can not be a bodily resurrection, as the same particles of matter form, in the course of time, parts of various bodies, decaying nature ever springing up to blooming life.

The objects of interest lying about the funeral pyres and burial mounds of the human race in its long, long march are so