Note 65 — THE ESSENES.

“§ 11. For they firmly believe that the bodies perish and their substance is not enduring, but that the souls are immortal—continue for ever and come out of the most subtile ether—are enveloped by their bodies, to which they are attracted through a natural inclination, as if by hedges—and that when freed from the bonds of the body, they, as if released from a long servitude, rejoice and mount upwards. In harmony with the opinion of the Greeks,65 they say that for the good souls there is a life beyond the ocean, and a region which is never molested either with showers or snow or intense heat—is always refreshed with the gentle gales of wind constantly breathing from the ocean; whilst to the wicked souls they assign a dark and cold corner, full of never-ceasing punishments. And it seems to be according to the same opinion that the Greeks assigned to their valiant men, whom they called heroes and demigods, the Island of the Blessed, but to the souls of the wicked the regions of the impious in Hades; as also their fables speak of several there punished, as Sisyphus and Tantalus and Ixion and Tityus. This they teach, partly because they believe that the souls are immortal, and partly for the encouragement of virtue and the discouragement of vice. For good men are made better in their lives by the hope of reward after their death, whilst the passions of the wicked are restrained by the fear they are in that, although they should be concealed in this life, after death they must suffer everlasting punishment. This is the doctrine of the Essenes about the soul—possessing thereby an irresistible bait for those who have once tasted their philosophy.