Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/167

 CHAP. II. 3SKV RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 161 they even lived on very good terms, and shared the emjiiro over man ; but they never became confounded. Their dogmas were always entirely distinct, often con- tradictory; and their ceremonies and practices w^ere absolutely different. The worship of the gods of Olym- ])us and that of heroes and manes never had anything common between them. Which of these two religions was the earlier in date no one can tell. It is certain, however, that one — that of the dead — having been fixed at a very early epoch, always remained unchangeable in its practices, while its dogmas faded away little by little; the other — that of ])hysical nature — was more progressive, and developed freely from age to age, mod- ifying its legends and doctrines by degrees, and con- tinually augmenting its authority over men. 2. Helation of this Hdigion to the Development of Human Society. We can easily believe that the first rudiments of this religion of nature are very ancient, though not so old, perhaps, as the worship of ancestors. But as it corre- sponded with more general and higher conceptions, it required more time to become fixed into a precise doc- trine.* It is quite certain that it was not brought into the world in a day, and that it did not spring in full perfection from the brain of man. We find at the ' Need we recall all the Greek and Italian traditions tiiat showed the religion of Jupiter to be a young and relatively re- cent religion? Greece and Italy had preserved the recollection of a time when social organizations already existed, and when this religion was not yet known. Ovid, Fast., II. 289; Virg., Georg., I. 126. .aEsch., Eumen. Pausanias, VIII. 8. It appears that among the Hindus the Pitris were anterior to the Devas. 11