is
developed, this single principle being either mind (/idealistic
monism/) or matter (/materialistic monism/). (Annandale.)

The future life.

The belief in a future life is the natural outcome of a religious
belief such as the Babylonians, Assyrians, and many of the surrounding
nations possessed. As has been shown, a portion of their creed
consisted in hero-worship, which pre-supposes that the heroes in
question continued to exist, in a state of still greater power and
glory, after the conclusion of their life here upon earth.

"The god Bel hates me--I cannot dwell in this land, and in the
territory of Bel I cannot set my face. I shall descend then to the
Abyss; with Aa my lord shall I constantly dwell." It is with these
words that, by the counsel of the god Aa, Ut-napistim explained to
those who questioned him the reason why he was building the ship or
ark which was to save him and his from the Flood, and there is but
little doubt that the author of the story implied that he announced
thereby his approaching death, or his departure to dwell with his god
without passing the dread portals of the great leveller. This belief
in the life beyond the grave seems to have been that which was current
during the final centuries of the third millennium before Christ--when
a man died, it was said that his god took him to himself, and we may
therefore suppose, that there were as many heavens--places of
contentment and bliss--as there were gods, and that every good man was
regarded as going and dwelling evermore with the deity which he had
worshipped and served faithfully during his lifetime.

Gilgames, the half-divine king of Erech, who reigned during the
half-mythical period, on losing his friend and counsellor, Enki-du, set
out to find him, and to bring him back, if possible, from the underworld
where he was supposed to dwell. His death, however, had not been like
that of an ordinary man; it was not Namtaru, the spirit of fate, who
had taken him, nor a misfortune such as befalls ordinary men, but
Nerigal's unsparing lier-in-wait--yet though Nerigal was the god of
war, Enki-du had not fallen on the battlefield of men, but had been
seized by the earth (apparently the underworld where the wicked are is
meant) in consequence, seemingly, of some trick or trap which had been
laid for him.

The gods were therefore prayed, in turn, to bring him back, but none
of them listened except Ea, who beg