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were detruded from the body by any [K] violent method went ftrait to Valhalla." It was a tradition also, that Odin himself having formerly refided in perfon among his worshippers, in order to inftruct them in religious matters and to lead them forth to new poffeffions and conquefts, took the following method of retiring from the earth again to his eternal manfions. Having convened his fenate of demigods and all the heads of his people, he proceeded to inform them, that he was now about to quit his bodily form and terrestrial abode, in order to return and live for ever in Afgardia, where he would prepare a seat of happiness for the fouls of departed heroes. He then ordered preparations to be [L] made for burning his body in fuch a manner and with fuch ceremonies, as that it should appear as if his foul was retiring from its corporeal integuments to celeftial habitations. All ceremonials being adjusted, Odin first wounded himself with the point of his own fword; giving out, that by this ceremony he not only appropriated to himself the fouls of all fuch as fhould die a violent [M] and bloody death, but set them an example of it in his own method of leaving the world; fignifying alfo to the furrounding multitude, "that the foul must be detruded by fome violence from the body, in order to be admitted among departed heroes." The great object of adoration in the north having taken this method of escaping from the fight of his worshippers by committing violence on his own person, a wide field (we may be fure) was Jaid open for all the extravagancies of religious fuicide, to which the adorers of Odin thought they were fo particularly invited by their chief deity, and for which he held forth fuch ample rewards. As the obtaining a feat in Odin's hall was the grand object to which his worshippers aspired, and for which they

[K] Noftratibus fane hoc erat infallibiliter perfuafum, animas, non vulgares, neque fenio morbove, fed cruentâ morte & vi corporibus exeuntes, rectà ad Valhallam ferri.-BARTHOLINUS, p. 317.

[1] This was a piece of fhrewd policy in this mighty leader of the Scythian tribes (whoever he was). Having once raised himself into a deity in the estimation of his followers, (which he is faid to have done by his great skill in magic, as well as prowess in arms) he was unwilling to fink again into a mere mortal. But finding himself preffed by human infirmities and the approach of old age, he hit on the expedient of a pompous and voluntary departure from earth, that he might not leffen his future dignity by a necessary fubmiffion to the stroke of fate.--See BARTHOLINUS's Account of Odin's Death.

[M] Odin affigned over to Freya, a woman of the first dignity in his court, the office of receiving the fouls of fuch noble women, as put an end to their own lives by any act of violence.——BARTHOLINUS, p. 353.

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were at all times so ready to facrifice their lives, it may not be difagreeable to such readers as are not already acquainted with this fubject, to give fome further account of Valhalla [N] and its fuppofed inhabitants.

Valhalla was affigned (as has been before observed) for the reception of all thofe, who died a death of violence. But the rude inhabitants of the North, having no conception of a foul's existence without a body, though they burned the latter to ashes, yet imagined it to be fome how or other reunited to its foul again in the palace of Odin; where it was to enjoy for ever and without interruption, fuch pleasures as affected it most on earth. The most honourable feats in this hall were affigned to those, who fell in battle, and who could reckon up the greatest number of enemies, whom they had previously flain. On the other hand, fuch were entirely excluded from the joys of Valhalla, who suffered themselves to die of a lingering illness or of old age, fince violence and bloodfhed were the only paffports of admiffion into the prefence of this demon of deftruction. Hence numbers, to whom their unhappy ftars feemed to refuse a glorious fall in the field of battle, were eager to plunge their fwords into their own hearts, to precipitate themselves from rocks, or by any other means to compass forcible death, being affured, that by taking this method (and by this alone) they should have an immediate admiffion into Valhalla. But neither was it deemed fo honourable to approach the throne of Odin [o] single and unattended. On the contrary, a fuperior deference was paid to thofe, who entered this bloody hall with the greatest crowd of attendant, voluntary victims. Hence the wives, the friends, and flaves of the deceased lord were affiduous to accompany him into the other world, and therefore frequently and in numbers facri

[N] See various parts of Bartholinus, who collected from the Edda and Fragments of Scaldic Poetry. The Edda was compiled in the thirteenth century by Snorro Sturlefon in the Icelandic tongue ; and is ftudied by the learned of Denmark and Sweden, as the moft valuable remains of their ancient traditions. Bartholinus gives the preference to the Fragments of the Poets, quos Scaldos feptentrio indigitavit (fays he in his preface); and accordingly he has made great ufe of them, as well as of the Edda, in his work, De caufis contemptæ mortis a Danis adhuc Gentilibus.-Some of thefe Scaldic. fragments or odes have received an English dress from the pen of Gray, who refers to Bartholinus for the original in the Norfe tongue.

[o] Noftris defiderium cum turbâ & quàm maximo comitatu Inferos petere.-BARTHOLinus, p. 514 and 507, &c. where a number of inftances are adduced of the voluntary death of wives, friends, &c. to accompany their chief.

ficed themselves at his tomb. By thefe means they fecured to themselves alfo the joys of Valhalla, from which place all flaves or perfons of mean condition [P] were utterly excluded, unless they exhibited these proofs of honouring their fuperior by this voluntary destruction of themselves at his decease.

Though it does not immediately belong to the point in view, yet, in order to wind up the fubject of Odin's Hall, a few lines fhall be added on the pleasures expected to be enjoyed in this grand Elyfium of the North. In reward then for these bloody fervices, the perfons admitted into Valhalla were to enjoy all fuch pleasures in perfection and for ever, as had delighted them moft on earth. They were admitted into a participation of divinity with Odin and his fenate of demigods, where they were ftill to exercise their beloved war, fighting mock battles under the [o] ftandards of thefe deities. After these exercises they returned into the hall, where they recreated themfelves in that manner, which next to fighting conftituted their chief employment on earth-the pleasures of inebriation. But here Odin reserved to himself a marked fuperiority. For he alone regaled himself with wine, and left ale and mead (the beloved potations of the northern nations) [R] to be the beverage of his demigods and heroes, who were to enjoy moreover the supreme delight of making their potations out of the fkulls of their enemies.

Such then was the religion and fuch the felf-murder deemed honourable by the worshippers [s] of Odin. Though their ideas of futurity were grofsly [P] See Bartholinus, 385, &c.

[Q] They were called Monoheroes-quod illi foli in alterâ vitâ militiam exercerent, fub vexillis Deorum pugnaturi.--BARTHOLINUS.

[R] See Bartholinus and his extracts from northern writers and Scaldic poetry, concerning the great use and abuse of ale and mead in Scandinavia, Britain, Germany, &c. in Lib. II. Chap. xii.

Pliny alfo writes as follows, Lib. XIV. c. xxii. Eft & occidentis populis fua ebrietas fruge madida; pluribus modis per Gallias Hifpaniafque, nominibus aliis fed ratione eádem. Hifpaniæ jam & vetuftatem ferre ea genera docuerunt. Ægyptus quoque e fruge fibi potus fimiliter excogitavit. Nullâque in parte mundi ceffat ebrietas; meros quippe hauriunt tales fuccos, nec diluendo, ut vina, mitigant. At herculè illic tellus fruges parere videbatur. Heu mira vitiorum folertia, inventum eft, quemadmodum aqua inebriaret!

[s] The Druids also favoured suicide on religious principle, as appears from the following maxim or rule of theirs. "There is another world, and they who kill themselves to accompany their friends "thither, will live with them there."-See RAPIN'S Introduction to Hift. of England.

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fenfual, yet their frequent fuicide was wholly of a religious tendency, and was accomplished, not with any view of liberating themselves from dangers or troubles on earth, but folely for the purpose of forwarding (as they thought) their happiness after death: and in this it agreed with Afiatic fuicide in general· Whereas the suicide countenanced by fome Western philofophers (as we shall foon find), as well as that of its abettors in modern days, looks entirely another way; viz. only towards a relief from present sufferings, which there would be more fortitude in fuftaining with firmness than in cutting fhort by self-murder. One general reflection should not be forgotten in concluding these remarks on Afiatic fuicide" that it must ever be praife-worthy to act on principle, even "though that principle be founded on grofs error." For whatever reason "we" may have to condemn fuch or fuch maxims of Indian philosophy and morality, yet we are not at liberty to find fault with thofe, whofe practice corresponds with their faith. Though therefore even in the present days an Indian wife burns, an old Gentoo is expofed on the banks of the Ganges, and a Japanese drowns for the honour of Amida, yet there may be to themselves more honour than blame in fo doing. Be it also further remembered, that whatever allowance be due to the Afiatic Pagan on this occafion, the more enlightened European can make no use of such an indulgence, fo as ever to deprive himself of life, without incurring the highest degree of cenfure: and that for the very same reason in both, "a consistency of principle and practice."

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The opinions of the ancient philofophers on the subject of fuicide only to be collected from Scattered passages in their writings, or from what has been handed down by others concerning their tenets -Pythagoras and Socrates condemned all fuicide, as an offence against the authority of God.-Plato Speaks more favourably of fuicide in particular fituations; fuch as heavy misfortunes, extreme poverty, &c.—Sinful. anly (be fays) when arifing from indolence and timidity; may be flown to, when we are in great danger of becoming impious and facrilegious to the gods, or hurtful ··

to the state; in cafes of incurable fickness.-Plato makes it an offence chiefly against Self and ftate.-New Platonifts.-Philofophic death explained.-Plotinus condemns Suicide on abstract notions of the nature of the foul and its union with the body.— Porphyry follows the ideas of his mafter Plotinus.-Macrobius argues on the fame grounds.-Olympiodorus's fentiments in favour of fuicide under particular circumftances, and grounded on his own interpretation of the opinions of the old and new Platonists.-Ariftotle deems it an offence against the state; and not defenfible on Selfish and interested motives.-Epicurus; in what his pleasure, as the fummum bonum, confifted; bow warped by his followers.-His pleafure according to its best interpretation indolent and inactive.-The fame indolence and unconcern about human affairs attributed to the gods of the Epicureans.-They allowed therefore of no rewards or punishments in a future ftate, if indeed they allowed of any futurity at all.—A contradiction between the advice of Epicurus and the immediate tendency of his doctrines.-The tendency of Epicurean doctrines lead immediately to fuicide, when the troubles of life become great and are deemed irremediable.

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S a full difcuffion of the subject of fuicide in all its points of view, seems never to have employed the thoughts of any ancient philofopher; or at least, as no regular treatise of that kind has been preserved to our days, all that can be done on this head, is to collect such scattered paffages in the writings of the ancients, as allude to the practice, and which either condemn or speak favourably of it in general terms, according to the opinions and doctrines of the different fects to which the writers belonged.

Pythagoras, who is thought to have gathered much of his knowledge and philofophy from India, and to have brought with him from thence his grand doctrine of the metempfychofis, feems however to have converted that doctrine to a different and more rational purpose than those sages of the Eaft, who approved of felf-murder. For whereas the Bramans carried their contempt of life to fo high a pitch as to imagine, they should be rewarded in their course of transmigrations, in cafe they anticipated the stroke of death, the great founder of the Italic fect proceeded on contrary grounds. Pythagoras confidered the foul, whilst it was united to its corporeal tegument, to be in a state inferior to that, to which by its proper powers and faculties it belonged; and confequently to

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