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self, in conclusion, of a singular story respecting a man named Aridæus, a native of Cilicia, but well known to persons with whom they were all acquainted. This man had been born to a large estate, but soon lost it by a course of profligacy, and was plunged, at once, into all the evils of abject poverty. In this condition, stung with self-reproach for his folly, he suddenly resolved that he would be rich again, and, in the pursuit of that object, would employ any means, however despicable, which afforded any prospect of adding to his gains. He was not very successful in heaping up riches, but won for himself, certainly, abundant infamy by his shameful life. The response of an oracle, which he consulted about this time, brought him into still greater disrepute; for, having asked if he should be more fortunate for the time to come, he was answered that he "would do better after he died." This strange prophecy was verified not long after that. Having fallen from a certain height upon his head, he was apparently killed; but, on the third day, just as his friends were putting him into the grave, he came to life again. All of a sudden, from having been so profligate and unprincipled, he reformed and became henceforth a pattern of every virtue. His friends were astonished, and wished to know the cause of this change in his character. He related to them the following account of what befell him during the time of his supposed death.

His spirit was separated from the body, and his sensations as that took place, were such as a person has who is thrown suddenly into the water, and is on the point of being drowned. Recovering from this shock, he seemed to breathe in every part, and to look around him on every side, his soul being opened as if it were all one eye. Instead of the familiar objects of this world, he saw at first nothing but stars of immense size, and remote from each other, shooting forth rays of light upon which his soul was borne gently and rapidly forward, as on the surface of a quiet sea. He passed over, in his narrative, many of the sights which he saw; but spoke especially of the appearance of the souls of men as they entered into that world from this, and of their condition there. On

issuing from the body they assumed, at first, a shape like a globular flame; and that gently and gradually dissolving, they took then a spiritual form, having such a resemblance to the persons in this life as to admit of their being recognized by each other. The conduct of the different souls, as they arrived there, was by no means the same. Some of them, those who were good, mounted up at once, in an easy, gentle manner, into the higher regions of space, where they appeared with a serene aspect, and testified, by abundant tokens, the happiness which they enjoyed. The wicked, on the contrary, were immediately seized with a tumultuous motion, which hurried them hither and thither, and deprived them for a time of all power of self-control.1

Among the throng of the happy, he saw the spirit of one of his relatives, though he was not entirely certain, as the person had died in childhood. This spirit came to him and attended him as a guide, in order to explain to him the different objects which he saw. He received a new name, that of Thespesius instead of Aridæus, as he had been called on earth; and he was told that he had come thither by a special permission of the gods; for he was still allied to matter, as could be seen from the dark figure which followed him; whereas the others there were transparent, and cast no shadow. But though the souls of the dead were all distinguished by this sign, they were not equally transparent; some of them exhibiting a mild, uniform splendor, like the pure lustre of the full moon; others being disfigured with stains, or slight bruises; and others still, covered with black spots, like adders, and loathsome to the sight.

The process of dealing with transgressors, in that world,

1 This dissimilarity in the motions of the different souls is intended no doubt to be significant of their moral state and character. Those who disengage themselves most readily from the body, and mount upward so instinctively, are the good who have subdued their passions, and from an affinity of nature, seek at once the higher regions, which are most remote from matter and its contaminations. The confused motion of the others, on the contrary, who are whirled with such fury hither and thither, indicates the moral disorder of their souls. They are the wicked, who have allowed their passions to control them, who are destitute of all power of calm and considerate action. Similar views are expressed by Plato in Tim. 44, A.; de Legg. 2. 672, B, and Tim. 43, A.

mons.

was then explained to Thespesius. Adrastea, or Nemesis, is the great minister of justice, who presides over this department of the divine government. Such is her power, that no one, small or great, can elude her vigilance, or defy her sumUnder her are placed three subordinate ministers or agents. The first of these is termed Pœna, or punishment, who executes her office mainly in the present life, and is the author of the pains and penalties which are the more immediate effects of guilt. She is active, overtakes the sinner speedily, but treats him mildly, so that much remains unremoved, from which he needs to be purified. The second is Dike, or justice, whose inflictions are immensely more severe, and experienced by the soul after death. She receives those who have been but partially punished in this world, and scourges them for a longer or shorter time, according to the measure of their guilt and the depth of the stains from which their souls are to be freed. But the most terrible of these ministers is Erinnys, or Fury, to whom it belongs to punish those who remain still incorrigible after the other appointed means of correction have been employed in vain. It is her task to consummate what the others have begun. Accordingly, she is represented as scourging her victims from place to place, inflicting on them innumerable tortures, allowing them whithersoever they flee no refuge or respite from her inappeasable rage, and finally plunging them headlong into an abyss whose horrors no language can describe.

The souls of men being there stripped of every disguise, expose to view their true color and complexion, as derived from the passions which they have been accustomed to entertain and cherish. Observe, said the guide to Thespesius, the different hues which they exhibit. In that dark, sordid appearance, you see the taint of avarice and fraud. That sanguinary, flame-like dye betokens cruelty and vindictiveness. Those livid spots denote, that the souls disfigured by them were the slaves of sensuality and lust. The stain which appears in others, resembling so much the black fluid which the cuttle-fish discharges, is the sign of malignity and envy.

From the situation in which he saw many who had been known to him here, Thespesius was led to reflect on the

false manner in which men are liable to judge of each other. Some who had been accounted very wicked in this world were found, from circumstances of palliation there brought to light for the first time, to be far less deserving of punishment, than others who had passed for very virtuous men, and been honored with the highest human praise. But nothing of this kind filled him with greater surprise and horror than to see his own father, emerging from a deep abyss, all covered with the scars and gashes of the scourging which he had received, and compelled to bear witness to its justice by confessing that he had secretly poisoned several persons, his own guests, for the sake of obtaining their gold. And he observed, in general, that none were doomed to suffer more severely, than those who had played the hypocrite in this life, having assumed the mask of virtue, merely in order to practise the vices to which they were addicted, with so much the greater success, in secret. That their punishment might exhibit a sort of conformity to their character, inasmuch as they had sinned against truth and nature, they were committed to the hands of tormentors, by whom they were compelled to turn themselves inside out, and to twist themselves, with the greatest agony of effort, into every possible variety of unnatural shape and posture. Persons who had harbored feelings of hatred toward each other, were there seen fastened together, gnawing and devouring each other with remorseless fury.

Those who had been avaricious were subjected to a process adjusted in like manner to the nature of their sin. They are seized by demons, armed with hooks for the purpose, and thrown by them, first into a lake of boiling gold, where they are scalded and burnt; next, they are plunged into a lake of lead, exceedingly cold, where they are as suddenly congealed and frozen; and, finally, into a third, of iron, where they are blackened and mutilated by being dragged over its uneven jagged surface. Not less dreadful is the retribution which awaits guilty parents and ancestors. Their descend

1 It is worth mentioning that Plutarch speaks elsewhere of an ancient, wellknown tradition, which represents it as one of the employments of evil demons (for some of them are good), to tempt men and render the practice of virtue dif

ants, who had suffered on their account, no sooner saw them than they gathered around them and assailed them with the most hideous outcries and imprecations. If any of them attempted to escape, their children still followed them with the same upbraiding voice; and frequently, when they supposed their sufferings to be almost at an end, their tormentors laid hold of them again, and dragged them back to the ministers of justice for new punishment.

As Thespesius was passing along, he overheard a shrill voice foretelling, as he thought, the day of his own death; which proceeded, as he was told, from the Sybil in the moon, who looks forth thence upon the earth, and sings the fates of its inhabitants, as she revolves around it.

The last spectacle which Thespesius saw, was the place where the souls of those about to enter, by transmigration, on a new existence, were undergoing the changes necessary to fit them for the shapes they were to assume. Here, among others, he saw the soul of Nero, who, in addition to other torments, had been transfixed with red-hot nails. The artificer at work upon him was on the point of making him into a viper, as agreeing best with his disposition; but, in consideration of his merit in restoring to the Greeks their freedom, it was concluded to mitigate his doom and transform him (in allusion, it is supposed, to his musical propensities) into a frog, or possibly a swan.

In the effect which this singular experience is represented as having had in leading Thespesius to reform his life, we may discover Plutarch's opinion in regard to the moral use to which the myth (if that be its name) should be applied. He would hold up to men this doctrine of a coming retribution as a motive to living virtuously here on the earth, since whatever impunity the wicked may enjoy for the present, they are hastening to a scene where the awards of their conduct will be meted out to them with strict justice.

ficult to them. The passage (in his Life of Dion) runs thus: "That there are certain wicked and malignant demons which envy good men, and withstand their enterprises, by raising fears and troubles to them, that so they might hinder them in their pursuit of virtue, lest if they continue steadfast and immovable in good, they should be at last partakers of greater felicity than they themselves enjoy."

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