The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1876-12-10
The Religion Of Our Cremationi.t..


After the en- balmed body OF the late
Baron Won PALM had been reduced to
ashes on Wednesday, everybody seems to
have been satisfied that the thing could be
done, for 1t had actually been done. and
the fact demonstrated that fire would
burn and eventually disintegrate human
corpse. That, In truth, needed no demon
stration. for everybody knew before that
q body could be moderated, and that
many nations OF antiquity did so deal
With the corporal remains of their
dead. Hierophant OLcoTT also proved
that O man could burn up O dead body
without encountering persecution in this
country OF burial. could even gain great
notoriety by doing IL, but could not make
martyr OF himself IN witness of the faith
in cremation that was in him. 80 that is
now all settled. Dead bodies can be re-
duced to ashes in an oven. and they may
so be reduced without exciting the popu-
lace to riot and bloodshed. Moreover. II
anybody especially desires to be cremated
when he is dead. the apparatus for per-
forming the job is now ready and in sue
oessful working order ut Washington,
Pennsylvania, and barring the expense OF
conveying thither the corpse and the
friends OF the deceased, the cost of the
process is about ten dollars. Dr. LIZ MOVIE,
the owner and builder of the furnace for
his own cremation, apparently rendering
its free use TO those who wish their bodies
to he reduced to ashes after they arc dead.
Cremation, therefore, is now feasible in one
place in the country at least.
IN bal laf Ia,
ashes Of the late Baron Won PALM to cool
sufficiently for him TO gather them IN the
| IlindoO cremation urn presented for their
| holding, he HE'D him to the town hall OF
| Washington and lcctured on the process,
| rightly concluding that after the practice
| OF burial had been going on for fourteen
centuries il could not be Immediately
changed to that OF cremation. II II could,
and Or. LIE MOVIES furnace WAS kept III
| constant operation, the cost of so dis
posing Of corpees there would be the pultry
sum OF only sl.00 apiece
But what most interests us in the Hero
plants address was not his talk about ere
mation-the arguments IN favor Of that,
on the grounds OF hygiene and economy,
are familiar, and nothing new can be said
|
faith the cremated Baron died, and the
apostle Of whose present propagation Is
Hierophant OLCoTT himself lie says it is
the failh OF the ancestors of tho earliest
| Aryans. Now, we can trace back the
| Aryan family, which occupied the south
western part OF Asia, for two on three
thousand years before CHRI-r. But
that was comparatively modern
period in their history. They ma,
have run back ten thousand years anterior
to that, and their earliest ancestors wore
certainly among the very first pcople OF
the earth. Unt.l we know Just the year
when man was created on developed, or il
some way came into being, we have falot
10 get down To those original Aryans Whost
religion Ilcrophant OLCOrr is engaged u
propagaimg. what that religion was W
don't know; neither does he, nor auybodl
else We know that the SnnslNit tongu'
is OF Aryan origin, and that the Gcrmaulc
Celtic, Greek, Latin, Persian, and Other
languages sprang from an Aryan source
wo know that the Brlhmm religion within
historic times has prevailed IN southwest
eru ASIA; but we have nothing 10 guido M
Ia tine faith held 10y the earliest ancestor
Of ia" Aryan family. That can only b
conceived or Imagined from tho develop
mont OF religions faith in their known sue
cessors, The germ is lost
Therefore, when llierophant OIcoT
Describes his faith ana That II his FELLOW
Thcosophisis rs tho faith Of the ancestor
Of tho earliest Arydns hcdes libe- no fait
al an. lie calls il the "Scorot Doctrine,
ami very secret il is, ior no man can fin,
itopt, though perhaps the cremalcd l}arol
hnt now an outlook INTO the pact whicl
enables HIM to discover it end rap 1T ou
FOR the enlightenment of the lIierophan
The Theosophist apostle says this faith