History of Rome, and of the Roman people, from its origin to the invasion of the barbarians . es were overgrown with grass. Yet between life and deatha religion always traverses an intermediate state, which may lastfor centuries. Already mortally smitten by doubt, it seemed stillto live in mens habitudes. Man with his reason drifts away, or,like the statesman, grants nothing but a formal adhesion. Woman,who is all feeling, remains at the temple with her faith, and keeps 1 For example, in the Be Came Christ!, .i: Prorsus credibile est, quia ineplum est; a Humest, quia impossibile est. Ju>t b
History of Rome, and of the Roman people, from its origin to the invasion of the barbarians . es were overgrown with grass. Yet between life and deatha religion always traverses an intermediate state, which may lastfor centuries. Already mortally smitten by doubt, it seemed stillto live in mens habitudes. Man with his reason drifts away, or,like the statesman, grants nothing but a formal adhesion. Woman,who is all feeling, remains at the temple with her faith, and keeps 1 For example, in the Be Came Christ!, .i: Prorsus credibile est, quia ineplum est; a Humest, quia impossibile est. Ju>t before, he s;n-s of himself, feliciter stullum. .380 THE EMPIRE AND ROMAN SOCIETY. her child there. In all religions the heart has made women thepriestesses of the first and last hours. That paganism had long been in that state for the learned,and even for the vulgar, Juvenal is on the point of having, like the Jews, a precise creed contained in a book,nor, like Egypt and India, a clergy who preserved and defendedit, polytheism had seen the new society, which asked to be taught. SCENES FROM THE ELYSIAN something, desert its cold and empty temples, where nothing wastaught. Then came the magnificent outburst of the philosophicspirit, which left no way untrodden through which there was hope ofattaining the truth, and explored all these paths, let us remember,with the utmost freedom, the Emperor never taking offence at anyphilosophic audacity. At last, worn out with so many vainresearches, this powerful spirit gave up ambitious theories, as ithad given up popular beliefs, and sank into a state of doubt. We 1 Sat. xiii. 35. 2 Qn atl Italo-Greek vase in the Museum of Munich. IDEAS. 381 know what was the religion of Lucretius, of Cicero, and of Caesar,and what the Pontifex Maximus Scaevola and Varro thought of thestale worship. The elder Pliny is clearly an atheist. In his opin-ion God, if there be a God, is destiny, or what he calls the power ofNature; and he divi
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