The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1874-05-23
DISPOSING OF THE DEAD.


DISPOSING OF THE DEAD.
IriaI Custams I'm Ancient and Modern
Times.
For nearly a century earnest efforts
ave been made to introduce cremation
Christian lands, as the most e1pedl-
1t mode of disposing of the dead. But
hose who have, in consequence, re-
hueeted to be burned when dead hardly |
koual in number the Christian martyrs. !
IFho, during the last eight hundred
ears, have chosen to be burned alive.
Probably the only historical account
81 an American preferring cremation Is
the case of Henry Laurens, president OF
the first American congress, who held /
peculiar views on the purifying powers
III fire and whose infant daughter had /
narrowly escaped burial while in a state |
|of suspended animation Without the |
uncommon occurrence that rendered |
burial repugnant to him, and without /
the strange notions that made cremation |
aDpear specially desirable, the most |
learned arguments would probably |
have failed 10 persuade him to commit
his holy to the flames, as they have
failed TO induce the Christian world at
large thus to dispose of their dead.
From a scientific point OF view, moth
ing can be more admirable than the
newly-proposed method of disposing OF
the dead by conducting superheated
steam into a clay retort, and reducing
the body in ten minutes, to about tour
pounds of ashes. But Jews, Moham-
medans. and Christians, for religious
reasons. have buried their dead these
thousands of wears; and for ages to come,
every one born in lands whose religions
teach the resurrection of the body, Will,
even. after being at variance with the
doctrines current around him, feel such
a tender regard for a lifeless body that,
following his impulse, he will lay 1t,
like some one sleeping, gently into the
ground. There Is nothing lrrel1glous
in burning the dead, and Christians per
ceive. as we'll as others, that the God
who raises the bodies from the grave
can also put them together from ashes,
whether preserved IN urns, or scattered
TO the winds, In fact, it is hardly POS
sible to giA a scientific or religious
reason for Directing to cremation We
do, however, object to 1t, eamply be-
cause IT is against our feelings to treat
the dead otherwise than with the same
tenderness and care which they would
receive from us if they were still living,
and asleep or helpless. This feeling
NAV partake of the nature OF superstl-
ton: but, as superstitions are difficult
to eradicate when once rooted, 1t may
also be accepted as the reason why that
feeling is so difficult to overcome. 1t
Is not our desire to argue here whether
uCxQ ART rculOf GU OSJ OIiof INC I1H1IfeS- OK
human reszonine. only a lump of cold
flesh and blood remains, with which the
living may do whatever reason dictates.
But man VIII not reason. He turns
only to the traditions of the heavenly
revelations, or earthly superstitions of
his fathers, and he disposes of the dead
as they teach him to do. Here the
power of science Is utterly broken, and
sentiment alone dictates.
The vast field OF cIeeds, sown with
mans trust In n future existence, has
but two divisions. In one is cultivated
the belief that there is another life in
store, which is entered upon as soon as
this life isAnded. The smaller portion
Is covered With religions that postpone
mans advent into another world to very
remote periods. The dead OF this faith
are carried to cemeteries, or sleeping
places, where their bodies are laid, 20
sleep until some future day, when they
rise again. Those outside of the pale
of Jewish, Christian, or Mohammedan
creeds, die in the faith that only the
soul survives, and that it is at once
translated into another form of exist
ence. Their bodies may be allowed to
moulder in grave; bat they may just
as well be consumed by fire, or given to
the beasts of prey. They are unclean
things, or shackles which the soul will
never come. to reclaim. The survivors
may dispose of them as necessity die
tates, or fancy prefers.
The ancient Aryans, the forefathers of
the grear nations of Western Europe,
believed in a world other than this,
where, without the imp rfections of the
human body, and in the glory of a
celestial body, the faithful were ID en-
Joy life, similar to that of the Moham-
medans, in paradise. They burned their
dead, that the earthly body might at
ones be translated into heavenly form.
which Agni, the god of fire, was expec-
ted to bestow. Cremation was, to the
ancient people of India, sacrifice by
which man attained unto the re-
gion of tn gods. There was creative
power in an ordinary burnt Offering,
and it was to be supposed that some.
thing new would aIise out of burning
corpse. Yama, who, as the first man on
earth, had learned the way to the next
world, showed the new corners at once
into the mansions above.
Buddhism teaches that the human
body. is the source of evil; hence. life
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man, or beast, before It is capable of
entering Nirvana, where it will find
peace, having learned. in its various
transmigrations, TO be impossible to
both pleasure and pain. As each death
NAV be the end of all the wanderings
of the soul, it is incumbent to burn or
otherwise rapidly destroy the body, lest
through mans neglect soul be doomed
to inhabit the body again and the pos
sibility of the dead reaching Nirvana
renders the cremation of friends not
seasons of grief, but of Joy.
The Greeks of the Homeric poems
burned or exposed their dead, but the
latter was done only to wound the feel
ings of the enemy. Great heroes were
honored by their friends with elaborate
ceremonies. When Patroclus was slain,
four horses, nine dogs, and twelve Tro-
Jan prisoners, were killed to be burned
with him. The embers of the pyre
were extiDguished with wine, and the
bones were gathered into a golden urn.
which was put aside to be buried some
future day with the ashes of Achilles.
It thus appears that in the most ancient
days OF Greece the custom prevailed of
Offering human sacrifice to the dead,
but it fell early into disuse.
The Romans disposed of their dead
in some respects in the same manner as
the Greeks. In the later times of the
republic, burning was the general GUS
tom, and under the empire, it was al
most universally practiced but, as
christianity spread, it was gradually
discontinued, falling into disuse in the
fourth century of our era. The corpse,
when buried, was sometimes placed in
coffin of Assian stone, which came from
Asses, iP2 Troas, and which had the
property OF consuming, in forty days,
the whole BODY. with the execution of i