Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/206

 200 THE CITY. BOOK. III. their innumerable gods had his little domain ; to one a family belonged, to another a tribe, to a third a city. Such was the world which sufficed for the providence of each of them. As to the god of the human race, a few philosophers had an idea of liim; the mysteries of Eleusis might have afforded a glimpse of him to the- most intelligent of the initiated; but the vulgar never believed in such a god. For ages man understood the divine being only as a force which protected hina per- sonally, and every man, or every group of men, desired to have a god. Even to-day, among the descendant* of those Greeks, we see rude peasants pray to the saints- with fervor, while it is doubtful if they have the idea of a god. Each one of them wishes to have, among these saints, a particular protector, a special providence. At Naples, each quarter of the city has its Madonna; the lazzaroni kneel before that of their own street, while they insult that of the neighboring street : it is^ not rare to see two facchini wrangle, and even fight with knives, in defence of the merits of their respective Madonnas. These cases are exceptions to-day, and are found only among certain peoples and in certain classes. They were the rule among the ancients. Each city had its corps of priests, who depended upon no foreign authority. Between the priests of two cities there was no bond, no communication, no exchange of instruction or of rites. If one passed from one city to anothei-, he found other gods, other dogmas* other ceremonies. The ancients had books of liturgies* but those of one city did not resemble those of another. Every city had its collection of prayers and practices, which were kept very secret ; it would have thought itself in danger of compromising its religion and its destiny by opening this collection to strangers. Thus