5.

[288] They affirm that it happened at Dijon, in the family of the MM.
Surmin, in which a constant tradition has perpetuated the memory of
the circumstance.

[289] Continuation of the Count de Gabalis, at the Hague, 1708, p. 55.

[290] Cicero, de Divinat. lib. i.

[291] John xiv. 2.

CHAPTER XXXI.

SPIRITS THAT KEEP WATCH OVER TREASURE.

Everybody acknowledges that there is an infinity of riches buried in
the earth, or lost under the waters by shipwrecks; they fancy that the
demon, whom they look upon as the god of riches, the god _Mammon_, the
Pluto of the pagans, is the depositary, or at least the guardian, of
these treasures. He said to Jesus Christ,[292] when he tempted him in
the wilderness, showing to him all the kingdoms of the earth, and
their glory: "All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall
down and worship me." We know also that the ancients very often
interred vast treasures in the tombs of the dead; either that the dead
might make use of them in the other world, or that their souls might
keep guard over them in those gloomy places. Job seems to make
allusion to this ancient custom, when he says,[293] "Would to God I
had never been born: I should now sleep with the kings and great ones
of the earth, who built themselves solitary places; like unto those
who seek for treasure, and are rejoiced when they find a tomb;"
doubtless because they hope to find great riches therein.

There were very precious things in the tomb of Cyrus. Semiramis caused
to be engraved on her own mausoleum that it contained great riches.
Josephus[294] relates that Solomon placed great treasures in the tomb
of David his father; and that the High-Priest Hyrcanus, being besieged
in Jerusalem by King Antiochus, took thence three thousand talents. He
says, moreover, that years after, Herod the Great having caused this
tomb to be searched, took from it large sums. We see several laws
against those who violate sepulchres to take out of them the precious
things they contain. The Emperor Marcianus[295] forbade that riches
should be hidden in tombs. If such things have been placed in the
mausoleums of worthy and holy persons, and if they have been
discovered through the revelation of the good spirits of persons who
died in the faith and grace of God, we cannot conclude from those
things that all hidden treasures are in the power of the demon, and
that he alone knows anything of them; the good angels know of them;