Plato, and other philosophers and writers of the Pagans, taught that a solemn general judgment of the dead was to decide their fate. Minos sat on a throne, and shook the fatal urn. By his side were the avenging furies, and a host of evil spirits, executioners of the sentences of Minos. Eacus, Rhadamante, and Triptolem, were his assistant judges. Even now the Indians believe that Zomo will judge the world; so the Japanese. The Lamas ascribe this power to Erlik-kan. At the sound of a trumpet the earth was to deliver up her dead to be judged. It was to be destroyed by fire after a great commotion of the celestial spheres, and fears of the then living mortals. The souls, at the sound of a trumpet, assembled in a vast meadow, adorned with asphodels, where Minos sat on his throne. The dead were led to his redoubtable tribunal by their respective guardian angels, who had accompanied them during their whole life; watched over their conduct; and had kept a record of all they had done, right or wrong. This meadow, where the dead were to be judged, was called the field of truth, because there the whole truth about the past doings of the dead was made known, and no crime could escape the knowledge and justice of the great judge. The dead, once assembled, were divided into three classes. The first class was composed of those who had been virtuous on earth: they were the smallest number. The second class was composed of those who were guilty of great crimes; and the third class, of those who had been neither virtuous nor great criminals. This triple division, which we naturally find in society, was taught by Plato in his Phædo, a work in which, writing about the judgment of the dead, he divides them as said before. This same division we also find in Plutarch, treating the same subject, and disserting, in his answer to the Epicureans, about the state of the dead to be judged. Minos used three books in judging the dead; the first was called book of life, it was used for the righteous: the second was called book of death; it was used for the great criminals: the third book was used for those who had been neither righteous nor great criminals. The judge pronounced the sentence only after the severest examination of the virtues and crimes of every one of the dead; and he affixed a seal on their forehead as he judged them.