Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/68

 62 THE FAMILY. BOOK H.. believed that the dead repeated continually, " May there be born in our line sons who shall bring us rice, milk, and honey." The Hindu also had this saying : "The extinction of a family causes the ruin of the re- ligion of this family ; the ancestors, deprived of the offer- ing of cakes, fall into the abode of the unhappy." ' The men of Italy and Greece long held to the same notions. If they have not left us in their writings an opinion so clearly expressed as in the old books of the East, their laws, at least, remain to attest their ancient opinions. At Athens the law made it the duty of the first magis- trate of the city to see that no family should become extinct.^ In the same way, the Roman law made pro- vision that no family should fail and become extinct.* We read in the discourse of an Athenian oratoi", "There is no man who, knowing that he must die, is 80 careless about himself as to wish to leave his family without descendants ; lor then there would be no one to render him that worship that is due to the dead."* Every one, therefore, had an interest in leaving a son after him, convinced that his immortal happiness depended upon it. It was even a duty towards those ancestors whose happiness could last no longer than the family lasted. The Laws of Manu call the oldest son " the one who is begotten for the accomplishment of a duty." Here we touch upon one of the most remarkable characteristics of the ancient family. The religion that had founded it required that it should never perish. When a family becomes extinct, a worship dies out. We must take these families at a time before the belief > Bhagavad-Gita, I. 40. * Isaeus, VII. 30-32. • Cicero, De Legih., II. 19. * Isaaus, VII. 30.