Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/130

 124 THE FAMILY. BOOK II. domestic institutions and private law. It remains to discover what its action was upon morals in primitive societies. Without pretending that this old religion created moral sentiments in the heart of man, we may at least believe that it was associated with them to fortify them, to give them greater authority, to assure their supremacy and their right of direction over the conduct of men, sometimes also to give them a false bias. The religion of these primitive ages was exclusively domestic ; so also were morals. Religion did not say to a man, showing him another man, That is thy brother. It said to him, That is a stranger ; he can- not participate in the religious acts of thy hearth ; he cannot approach the tomb of thy family ; he has other gods than thine, and cannot unite with thee in a com- mon prayer ; thy gods reject his adoration, and regard him as their enemy ; he is thy foe also. In this religion of the hearth man never supplicates the divinity in favor of other men ; he invokes him only for himself and his. A Greek proverb has re- mained as a souvenir and a vestige of this ancient isola- tion of man in prayer. In Plutarch's time they still said to the egotist. You sacrifice to the hearth.' This signified. You separate yourself from other citizens; you have no friends ; your iellow-men are nothing to you ; you live solely for yourself and yours. This proverb pointed to a time when, all religion being around the hearth, the horizon of morals and of affec- tion had not yet passed beyond the narrow circle of the family. It is natural that moral ideas, like religious ideas, ' 'Eot'ui 6i'tis. Pseudo-Plutarch, ed. Dubner, V. 1G7.