Chapter III: Preface: P. xi

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. General view of the subject, 1—The ancient
beliefs: after life in the tomb, 3—in the nether world,
4—Philosophical criticism, 5—Academic and Peripatetic schools,
6—Epicureans, 7—Stoics, 12—Scepticism at the end of the Republic,
16—Earthly immortality, 19—Rebirth of Pythagorism, 20—Its teaching,
24—Posidonius, 27—Cicero, 31—Diffusion of the mysteries, 33—Hermetic
writings and Chaldean oracles, 38—Plutarch, 39—The second and third
centuries, 39—Neo-Platonism, 40—Conclusion, 43.