Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/535

 cnAP. in. cnKisTiAifiTY. 529 laws of property were essentially altered ; the sacred landmarks disappeared from the fields; the right of prope. no longer flowed from religion, but from labor ; its acquisition became easier, and the formalities of the ancient law were definitively abolished. Thus, by the single fact that the family no longer had its domestic religion, its constitution and its laws were transformed ; so, too, from the single fact that the state no longer had its ofiicial religion, the rules for the government of men were forever changed. Our study must end at this limit, which separates ancient from modern polities. We have written the history of a belief. It was established, and human society was constituted. It was modified, and society underwent a series of revolutions. It disappeared, and society changed its character. Such was the law of ancient times. 84