Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/114

 108 THE FAMILY. BOOK II. In these distant clays we distinguisli one institnlion which must have survived a long time, which had a considerable influence upon the future constitution of societies, and without which this constitution could not be explained. This is the right of primogeniture. The old religion establislied a difference between the older and the younger son. '"The oldest," said the ancient Aryas, "was begotten for the accomplishment of the duty due the ancestors; the others are the fiuit of love." In virtue of tliis original superiority, the oldest had the privilege, after the death of the father,, of presiding at all the ceremonies of the domestic woi- ship; he it was who offered the funeral repast, and pronounced the formulas of prayer; "for the right of pronouncing the prayers belongs to that son who came into the Avorld first." The oldest was, therefore, heir to the hymns, the continuator of the worship, the religious chief of the family. From this creed flowed a rule of law: the oldest alone inherited property. Thus says an ancient passage, which the last editor of the Laws of Mann still inserted in the code: "The oldest takes possession of the whole patrimony, and the other brothers live under his authority as if they were under that of their father. The oldest son 2:)erforms the duties towards the ancestors; he ought, therefore, to have all."* Greek law is derived from the same religious beliefs as Hindu law ; it is not astonishing, then, to find here also the right of primogeniture. Sparta j)reserved it longer than other Greek cities, because the Spartans ' Laws of Manu, IX. 105-107, 12G. This ancient rule was modified as the old religion became enfeebled. Even in the code of Manu we find articles that authorize a division of the inheritance.