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 of slaves picture himself in Hades either with or without his slaves? If they accompanied him into Hades, all the social distinctions of Athenian life would logically follow, and the exact reflection of Athens in Hades would be too grotesque even for the most pious and least sceptical of minds. If, on the other hand, there were no slaves in Hades, how could the freemen of Athens realise without inward ridicule a privilege which any of them might lose with his civil status? But, over and above this hostility of slavery to a future state, Athenian ideas of future reward and retribution had to meet another cause of weakness. In the political life and poetical sentiments of Athens clan facts and feelings were long retained; and as long as men believed in the inheritance of guilt in groups—as during the height of Athenian power and dramatic genius the Athenians undoubtedly did on the average believe—there was little moral need for the personal rewards or punishments of the under-world. The very strength of this survival from the clan age concealed the want of sanctions for personal morality till it was too late for Athenian intelligence to do more than debate, as some among us are now debating, scientific bases for morality.

§ 51. While survivals from the clan spirit supply the ethics of Athenian tragedy, while the conflict between such survivals and growing individualism produces the masterpieces of Athenian philosophy, the clan spirit in Rome brings about very different effects in Roman character and, through character, in Roman literature. Where Solon and Peisistratus had commenced the conservative patricians of Rome were determined to remain, and for a long time did remain. Clan life, retained and in some respects hardened in the Roman familia, left little scope for either literary or philosophic progress