Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/227

 CHAP. VII. THE RELIGION OP THE CITY. 221 veloped man. The soul, the body, priv.ate life, publio life, meals, festivals, assemblies, tribunals, battles, all were under the empire of this city religion. It regu- lated all the acts of man, disposed of every instant of his life, fixed all his habits. It governed a human being with an authority so absolute that there was nothing beyond its control. One would have a very false idea of human nature to believe that this ancient religion was an imposture, and, so to speak, a comedy. Montesquieu pretends that the Romans adopted a worship only to restrain the people. A religion never had such an origin ; and every religion that has come to sustain itself only from motives of public utility, has not stood long. Mon- tesquieu has also said that the Komans subjected reli- gion to the state. The contrary is true. It is impossi- ble to read many pages of Livy without being con- vinced of this. Neither the Romans nor the Greeks knew anything of those sad conflicts between church and state which have been so common in other societies. But this is due solely to the fact that at Rome as well as at Sparta and Athens, the state was enslaved by its religion; or, rather, the state and religion were so com- pletely confounded, that it was impossible even to dis- tinguish the one from the other, to say nothing of ^ormincf an idea of a conflict between the two.