Let me add, that the MS. treatise in the Harleian Collection (referred to ante, p. 135.) is printed in Pennant's Wales, and, more correctly, in vol. ii. of the Transactions of the Cymmrodorion Society. It is much to be lamented that the treatise on the Lordships Marchers, bequeathed by Sir Matthew Hale to the Society of Lincoln's Inn, is not to be found in that library. If the work was composed by that eminent judge himself, it must be one of the highest value and authority. Does any one possess it, or a copy of it?
E. SMIRKE.
DOCTRINE OF THE RESURRECTION.
(Vol. iii., p. 374.)
"Can any of your readers inform me of any traces of the doctrine of the resurrection before the Christian era?" I shall endeavour as briefly as possible to do justice to this important subject by giving extracts from, and references to, various authors, especially Hody in his work The Resurrection of the (Same) Body Asserted from the Traditions of the Heathens, &c. The arguments derived from this source are as follow:—
1. "The gross notions of the heathens concerning the soul in its state of separation, that it has all the same parts as the body has."
Confer Farmer on the Worship of Human Spirits in the Ancient Heathen Nations, p. 419. et seq.; Æschyli Persæ, v. 616.; and Blomfield's note; Nicolaus de Sepulchris Hebræorum, &c., cap. ix. and xiv.
2. "Their opinion concerning the transmigration of souls." Confer Vossii Idololat., lib. i. c. x.
3. "Their opinion concerning the duration of the soul as long as the body lasted, and its adherence to the body after death," v. Cicero, Tuscul. Quæst., lib. i.; Lucret., lib. iii. Concerning the opinion of the Egyptians, v. Greenham on Embalming.
4. "The belief that some men have ascended up into heaven in their bodies, there to remain for ever," v. Hody.
5. "That others have done so even after death upon a re-union of their souls and bodies." (H.) "There were not only certain persons under the law and among the Jews who were raised to life; but there were also histories among the Gentiles of several who rose the third day; and Plato mentioneth another who revived the twelfth day after death, Plato de Rep., lib. x.; Plin. lib. vii. 52., "De his qui elati revixerunt;" Philostrat. lib. iii. c. xiii."—Pearson on the Creed. There are histories of this description in Bonifacii Hist. Ludiceæ, p. 561. et seq.