Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/306

 300 THE REVOLUTIONS. BOOK IV» It struggled thus for severnl centuries, in the midst of jDcrpetual contests, and finally disappeared. TIjc causes of its destruction may be reduced to two. One was the change which took place in the course of time in ideas, resulting from the natural development of the human mind, and which, in effacing ancient beliefs, at the same time caused the social edifice to crumble, which these beliefs had built, and could alone sustain. The other was a class of men who found themselves placed outside this city organization, and who suffered from it. These men had an interest in destroying it, and made war upon it continually. When, therefore, the beliefs, on which this social re- gime was founded, became weakened, and the interests of the majority of men were at war with it, the sys- tem fell. No city escaped this law of transformation ; Sparta no more than Athens, Rome no more than Greece. We have seen that the men of Greece and those of Italy had originally the same beliefs, and that the same series of institutions was developed among both; and we shall now see that all these cities passed through similar revolutions. We must try to understand why and how men became separated from this ancient organization, not to fall, but, on the contrary, to advance towards a social organiza- tion larger and better. For under the semblance of disorder, and sometimes of decay, each of their changes brought them nearer an object which they did not com- piX'hend. Thus far we have not spoken of the lower classes, because we have had no occasion to speak of them. For we have been attempting to describe the primitive organization of the city; and the lower classes counted absolutely for nothing in that organism. The city was