Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/228

 222 THE CITY. BOOK III- CHAPTER VIII. The Rituals and the Anncls. The character and the virtue of the religion of th ancients was not to elevate human intelligence to the conception of the absolute; to open to the eager mind a brilliant road, at the end of which it could gain a glimpse of God. This religion was a badly connected assemblage of small creeds, of minute practices, of petty observances. It was not necessary to seek the meaning of them ; there was no need of reflecting, or of giving a reason for them. The word religion did not signify what it signifies for us; by this word we understand a body of dogmas, a doctrine concerning God, a symbol of faith concerning what is in and around us. This same word, among the ancients, sig- nified rites, ceremonies, acts of exterior worship. The doctrine was of small account: the practices were the important part ; these were obligatory, and bound man (Jigare, religio). Religion was a material bond, a chain which held man a slave. Man had originated it, and he was governed by it. He stood in fear of it, and dared not reason upon it, or discuss it, or examine it. Gods, heroes, dead men, claimed a material worship from him, and he paid them the debt, to keep them friendly, and, still more, not to make enemies of them. Man counted little upon their friendship. They were envious, irritable gods, without attachment or friendship for man, and willingly at war with him. Neither did the gods love man, nor did man love his gods. He believed in their existence, but would have