Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/36

 30 ANCIENT BELIEFS. BOOK U It is evident that this usage of keeping fire always upon an altar was connected with an ancient belief. The rules and the rites which they observed in regard to it, show that it was not an insignificant custom. It was not permitted to feed this fire with every sort of wood ; religion distinguished among the trees those that could be employed for this use from those it was impiety to make use of.' It was also a religious precept that this tire must always remain pure;* which meant, literally, that no filthy object ought to be cast into it, and figuratively, that npyblameworthy deed ought to be committed in its presence. There was one day in the year — among the Romans it was the first of March — when it was the duty of every family to put out its sacred fire, and light another immediately.^ But to procure this new fire, certain rites had to be scrupulously observed. Especially must they avoid using flint and steel for this purpose. The only processes allowed were to concen- trate the solar rays into a focus, or to rub together rapidly two pieces of wood of a given sort.* These diflferent rules sufficiently prove that, in the opinion of the ancients, it was not a question of procuring an ele- ment useful and agreeable; these men saw something else in the fire that burnt upon their altars. This file was something divine ; they adored it, and offered it a real worship. They made offerings to it of whatever they believed to be agreeable to a god — ' Virgil, VII. 71. Festus, v. Felicis. Plutarch, Numa, 9. Fast., Til. 698. ' Macrob. Saturn., I. 12. on the Sun.
 * Eurip., Here. Fur., 715. Cato, De Re Rust., 143. Ovid,
 * Ovid, Fast., III. 143. Fesius, v. Felicis. Julian, Speech