Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/18

 12 INTRODUCTION. liif» a time? "What is the superior principle which gave them authority over the minds of men ? But by the sitle of these institutions and laws })laco the religious ideas of those times, and the facts at once become clear, and their explanation is no longer doubt- ful. If, on going back to the first ages of this race, — that is to say, to the time when its institutions were founded, — we observe the idea which it had of human existence, of life, of death, of a second life, of the divine principle, we perceive a close relation between these opinions and the ancient rules of private law; between the rites which spring from these opinions and their political institutions. A comparison of beliefs and laws shows that a primi- tive leiigion constituted the Greek and Roman family, established marriage and paternal authority, fixed the order of relationship, and. consecrated the right of property, and the right of inheritance. This same re- ligion, after havinir enlarged and extended the fiimilv, formed a still larger association, the city, and reigned in that as it l)a<l reigned in the family. From it came all the institutions, as well as all the j)rivate law, ci'the ancients. It was from this that the city received all its principles, its rules, its usages, and its magistracies. But, in the course of time, this ancient religion became modified or effaced, an<l private law and political in- stitutions were modified with it. Then came a scries of revolutions, and social changes regularly foiiowed the development of knowledge. It is of the first importance, therefore, to study the religious ideas of these peoples, and the oldest are the most important for us to know. For the institutions and beliefs which we find at the Nourishing periods of Greece and Rome are only the development of those