so the testimonies of the great temperance and morality of the old Romans; for example, in Sallust:93 "In peace and war, they cultivated good morals. Great harmony prevailed; but no avarice. Right and duty were regarded, not so much on account of the laws, as from natural impulse. Discord or dissimulation found a place only against enemies; citizens strove with citizens only in virtue. Magnificence prevailed in the sacrifices to the gods, frugality in domestic affairs, fidelity towards friends."-Ammianus Marcellinus even calls ancient Rome "the home of all the virtues."93 Even the Jews praised the morality, and particularly the fidelity, of the Romans before the Punic war.94

All this is sufficient to justify to us the opinions of Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Polybius formerly cited, who so decidedly award the preference to the Roman mythology above that of the Greeks. And so long as that serious faith in the gods prevailed in the Roman state, it enjoyed the greatest stability and quiet. But the decline of religion brought along with it also the decline of morals, as Dionysius of Halicarnassus often intimates.95 Even the bravery of the Romans in war was con

92 Sallustius, Bellum Catilinarium, IX.

66

93 Ammiani Marc. Histor. XIV. 6. Virtutum omnium domicilium."

94 1 Macc. 8: 1, 12.

95 Dionysii Hal. Antiqq. Romm. II. 6, 11, 14, 24, 34, 74. III. 21. V. 60. VII. 35. VIII. 37. X. 17. Compare Creuzer's Symbolik, B. II. p. 996, of the new edition, where these passages of Dionysius are named. But no author among the ancients, has perhaps described so strongly what the fear of the gods was to the state, as the noble Plutarch, who surpassed all the other ancients in reverence for sacred things. He thus expresses himself in his work Adversus Colotem. c. 31. "The most important of all laws, are those which have respect to our belief in the gods; and which, for that reason, Lycurgus, Numa, Ion, and Deucalion taught to all their nations, while they infused into them by means of prayers, oaths, oracles, and responses of the gods, a vivid feeling of hope as well as of fear respecting the gods. Yea, shouldst thou wander through the earth, thou mayest find cities without walls, without a king, without houses, without coin, without theatre or gymnasium; but never wilt thou behold a city without a god, without prayer, without oracle, without sacrifice. Sooner might a city stand without ground, than

nected with their fear of the gods; of which ancient history is full of examples. Who is not here reminded of the Decii, devoting themselves to the gods? Livy says of one of these,96 he was looked upon by both armies as a superhuman being, who was sent from heaven to turn the wrath of all the gods from his own to the hosts of the enemy. Such consecrations, says Cicero, were made by our ancestors only through the power of religion. The following account by Livy, is a memorable contribution to the history of superstition among this people :97 "In the third watch of the night, Papirius silently arose and sent forth the soothsayer, who was accustomed to prophesy from the feeding of fowls, according as they ate, or refused to eat. There was no man in the whole camp, who did not long for battle. Superiors and inferiors were inflamed with the same passion; the general saw the desire of battle in the soldiers; the soldiers, in the general. The same desire was felt by those who were present at the divination. For although the fowls did not eat, yet the diviner ventured to make a false report to the consul, that they had eaten greedily, and thus the sign was propitious. The consul rejoiced in the lucky omen, and caused the signal for battle to be given. In the mean time, there arose a contest among the diviners, concerning the quality of the sign which the fowls had given. Some Roman knights heard this, and deemed it of sufficient importance to be reported to the son of Papirius. This young man, who was not born in the present irreligious period, investigated the affair and reported it to the consul. The latter exclaimed, Thanks to thy virtue and attention! Whereupon he placed the soothsayer in front of the standard; where, before the battle began, he was slain by an arrow discharged unintentionally."

Even down to the times of Caesar, the religio was of such powerful influence upon the Roman army, that, as Plutarch informs us,98 the warlike counsels of Pompey were heard with coldness by the soldiers; but when Cato in his speech quoted the deos patrios as defenders and protectors of their

a state sustain itself without a belief in the gods. This is the cement of all society, and the support of all legislation."

96 Livii Hist. VIII. 9.

97 Livii Hist. X. 40.

98 Plutarchus, Vita Caesaris.

cause, the army became at once inflamed, and Caesar lost that battle.99

A distinguished memorial of the moral and religious earnestness of the Roman character, is found in the whole account of the abolition of the bacchanalia in Rome, by the consul Posthumius, which we will briefly extract from Livy.100 "Under the consuls Spurius Posthumius and Marcius Philippus, a complaint was made against secret associations. These had been first introduced into Etruria, from a small beginning, by a Greek soothsayer of low extraction. In secret societies, which held out the appearance of purely religious associations, all kinds of debauchery and other vices were practised. Men and women, young and old, came together in the night, and gave themselves up to excess. Here also perjuries, poisonings, and other things of the like nature were prepared. At first, these societies in Rome. remained entirely concealed, on account of the extent and magnitude of the city; but they were finally detected in the following manner. Publius Aebutius had left a son, who was brought up by his mother Duronia and his stepfather T. Sempronius. The mother was devoted to the stepfather; and since the latter knew not how to give a satisfactory account of the money of his ward, he determined either to put him out of the way, or in some manner closely to connect himself with him. One way to accomplish this would be to take him to the bacchanalia. The mother therefore said to the young man, that she had promised during a sickness of his, if he should recover, to initiate him into the bacchanalia. Ten days he must be abstemious; on the tenth she would take him into the sanctuary. In the neighbourhood of the young Aebutius, dwelt a courtezan, Fecenia, who had come to this mode of life only by her condition as a slave, and merited a better occupation. This woman was familiar with the youth, without any prejudice to his character; for she loved him without improper advances on his part; and since his family supported him very parsimoniously, she assisted him with money, and even made him her heir. To her he related with entire simplicity, what his mother was about to do with him. But on hearing this she exclaimed: 'Rather may we both die, than this take place. May God prevent it!' And then she

99 On the influence of religion upon the common people, see Joh. von Müller's Fragments. Werke, B. XV. p. 429.

100

Livius, Histor. XXXIX. 8-17.

invoked curses upon those who had counselled such a thing. But when the youth named his mother and his stepfather as the proposers of it, she replied: Will then your stepfather-for it would be sin to accuse your mother of it-thus destroy your chastity, your hopes, your reputation, and your whole life? And as now the astonished youth inquired what she meant by all this, she gave him a description of the abominable debaucheries and corruptions which were perpetrated in those pretended sanctuaries; and did not suffer him to depart, until he had promised her, he would take no part in them. When he returned home and signified to his mother and stepfather his aversion to being initiated, they became enraged and drove him from the house. He took refuge with a female relative, who advised him to disclose the whole affair to the consul. This he did, and the consul first made sure of the courtezan Fecenia, as the informer, who as a slave had herself taken part in those abominable festivals; and then forthwith made a disclosure to the senate. The senate was thrown into the greatest consternation; and after the strictest measures had been adopted on their part, the consuls laid the whole matter before an assembly of the people. The customary prayer to the gods was first offered, which preceded every popular assembly, and then the consul began: O Romans! in no assembly of ours has this customary prayer to the gods ever been used with more propriety or even necessity, in order to remind you that those are the true gods, which your ancestors have bidden you revere and worship;-but not those which impel, as with thorns of wrath, the minds of such as are deluded by foreign religious customs, to all imaginable crime and licentiousness, etc.'

If thus in the commencement of the Roman state and the Roman religion, the latter exhibited, in a peculiar manner, a sacerdotal and more oriental character, yet, with the growth of the kingdom and the predominance of corruption, it was by degrees changed to a more political one. Still stronger than among the Greeks, the love of country prevailed among the Romans; and for this reason, indeed, because the Roman state possessed a far greater unity. Yet of this result there existed also in their religion one peculiarly efficient element, in the doctrine of the Lares and Penates. The love of home, yea the love of one's own possessions, was thus deified; and these became the objects of worship under the names of Lares and Penates. And since now, according to the ancient religious view, the progress of the Roman con

quests, for which they prayed regularly to the gods, was regarded as the work of gods peculiarly propitious to the Roman state; and since too the subsequent calamities of the state were also ascribed to the predominance of Christianity, and to the consequent hostility of the gods; it would naturally follow, that their religion should thus have become continually more and more closely connected and combined with their love of country. And we may indeed say, that AS AMONg the greeKS RELIGION DEGENERATED INTO A TASTE FOR THE ARTS, SO AMONG THE ROMANS IT SUNK INTO PATRIOTISM.

PART III.

ON THE INFLUENCE OF HEATHENISM UPON LIFE, PARTICULARLY AMONG THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.

SECTION I.

On Superstition and Unbelief, especially about the time of Christ.

We have hitherto endeavoured to learn the general character of heathenism, and especially that of the Grecian and Roman religions. We come now to consider the effects of heathenism as manifested in particulars.

We must here first consider those two excrescences of religious life, superstition and unbelief, which always appear wherever vital piety vanishes. One reads in Göthe, what one would hardly expect to find in him :101 "In the history of the world and of man, the deepest and, strictly speaking, the sole theme, to which all others are subordinate, is the conflict of unbelief and superstition." This declaration is one of the truest-truer than perhaps it was felt to be by him who uttered it. The centre, around which moves the whole spiritual life of the man who reflects and feels, is faith. So much the more dangerous, therefore, and of so much the greater consequence, are the two devious paths of superstition and unbelief. They must necessarily arise, where the necessities of the human heart are not sufficiently supplied through the existing systems; where no true means of union with God and his holy and heavenly kingdom, are presented to the soul that longs for such an elevation and

101 Göthe's Westöstlicher Divan, p. 424.-['Göthe is the greatest modern poet of Germany.-New Platonism is the ground work of his strange religious system.' ENCYC. AM.]