[REPRINTED FROM
PROCEEDINGS OF SEVENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY.]
THE JOURNEY
OF THE SOUL.
AN ADDRESS
DELIVERED BEFORE THE NUMISMATIC AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY
OF PHILADELPHIA,
JANUARY 4th, 1883.
BY
DANIEL G.
BRINTON, M. D.
MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:—I am about to invite your attention for a few minutes to one of the many curious results of comparative mythology. This science, which is still in its infancy, may be regarded by some of you, as it is by the world at large, as one of little practical importance, and quite remote from the interests of daily life and thought. But some of the results it attains are so startling, and throw such a singular light on various familiar customs and popular belief, that the time is not far off when it will be recognized as one of the most potent solvents in the crucible of intelligence.
The point to which I shall address myself to-night is the opinion entertained by three ancient nations, very wide apart in space, time and blood, concerning the journey of the soul when it leaves the body.
These nations are the ancient Egyptians, the ancient Aryans and the Aztecs or Nahua of Central Mexico.
All these people believed, with equal faith, in the existence of a soul or spirit in man, and in its continuing life after the death of the body. How they came to this belief does not concern my present thesis; that they held it is unquestioning faith none can deny who has studied even superficially their surviving monuments. They supposed this assumed afterlife was continued under varying conditions in some other locality than the present world, and that it required a journey of some length for the disembodied spirit to reach its destined abode. It is the events which were supposed to take place on this journey, and the goals to which it led that I am about to narrate. It will be seen that there are several curious similarities in the opinions of these widely diverse peoples, which can only be explained by the supposition that they based
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