[45] Sir W. M. Ramsay further mentions a Rhodian inscription of the fifth century B.C., which required the candidates for initiation at the temple of Lindus to bring a pure heart and a conscience free from crime (_loc. cit._). [46] This may possibly represent the conception originally prevailing in the mystic schools concerning the future life of mankind in general. (See Mr. Nutt hereon, _op. cit._, i. 256.) If so, redemption from such a lot would be one of the most important objects to be compassed by the theurgic effects of initiation, until the growth of moral ideas in connection with the mysteries converted this ‘place of filth and gloom’ into a place of punishment for the wicked. [47] In like manner, the spirits were amazed to see that Dante’s body cast a shadow, as the souls of the dead did not (_Purg._, iii. 88 _sq._), and that he breathed (_ib._, ii. 67-9). According to the old Persian belief, the souls of the beatified dead were to cast no shadows. See Sec. 2, _post._ [48] See Books iv. and vi. of his _De Civitate Dei_. [49] See Dante’s Tenth Epistle, addressed to Can Grande della Scala, _Oxford Dante_, pp. 414 _sqq._ [50] _Op. cit._, p. 416, ll. 173-5. [51] _Ib._, l. 169. [52] _Ib._, p. 417, l. 268. [53] Lenormant, _Origines de l’Histoire_, vol. ii., cited by Ragozin, _Chaldæa_, p. 276, which work gives a compendious account of the subject. For fuller particulars see Sayce, _Hibbert Lectures_, 1887, Lectures iv. and v., and his article ‘Chaldæa’ in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, ed. 9, vol. iii. [54] Sayce, _Hibbert Lectures_, 1887, p. 364. [55] ‘She makes the soul of the righteous one go up above the Hara-berezaiti (Mount Elborz), above the Kinvad bridge she places it, in the presence of the heavenly gods themselves.’--_Vendîdâd_, xix. 30; in Darmesteter’s translation, _Sacred Books of the East_, iv. 219; and see Ragozin, _Media_, c. iv. [56] In the Avesta we meet with an idea which is prominent in Jewish and Christian examples of the Vision legend. If, at the balance of any soul’s account, when his good and evil deeds were weighed one against the other, the scales were equally poised, he was reserved for the last Judgment in a place set apart for his like. [57] _Vendîdâd_, p. 55. [58] _Loc. cit._, footnote. [59] _Vendîdâd_, p. 20, note. A similar bird occurs frequently in the Hindu mythology. The Accadian ‘divine storm-bird’ stole the lightning from heaven, and was thereby enabled to impart to man the knowledge of fire, and of divination by lightning flashes.--Sayce, _Hibbert Lectures_, 1887, 293-4. The Babylonian Semites identified this bird with their culture-god Zu, who, in form of a bird, robbed the gods of the ‘tablets of destiny’ (_op. cit._, 295-7). All the world over, the part of Prometheus has been played by a supernatural bird, such as Yehl, the crane, of the Thlinkeets; Pundgel, the eagle-hawk, of Australia, etc. [60] _Vendîdâd_, vi. 15-16. [61] _Op. cit._, p. 17.