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CHAPTER VII
SOME IDEAS ABOUT A FUTURE LIFE
Wherever the doctrine of annihilation has not prevailed,
mankind has had in all ages, and still retains, the belief that
the soul and the body are distinct, and that the soul has to go
through a process of purification or a season of probation after
the decease of the body, in order to atone for the evil deeds
committed by the latter when on earth. This idea is most
widely spread. We find it amongst Muhammedans and
Hindiis, amongst the ancient Greeks, in Sweden, in Ger-
many, in Northern America, on the island of Formosa, in
the Fiji Islands, and in many other portions of the world.
The process of atonement in a future world implies a journey
thither ; the
nature of that journey has naturally been a
source of speculation, and thence of belief, which in its
turn has given rise to ceremonies mainly aimed at giving
relief to the traveller along the dreadful and unknown
road.
Ancestor worship in some form prevails amongst certain
races in India—the people of the province of Coorg, for
e.xample.
Mr Conder, in his Views of all Religions, shows that
this cult is not unknown amongst some so-called Christian
peoples at the present day. He states, that " in the Armenian
cemetery at Constantinople, which overlooks the Bosporus,