Page images
PDF
EPUB

trines were well adapted. They explained virtue as the true harmony of man with himself, and with the laws of nature, without regard to reward or punishment. This state was to be attained by mastery over the passions and affections, and complete indifference to external things. Self-denial and resolute endurance were prominent points in their moral teaching. They were characterized by abstemiousness, plainness of dress, and strict regard to decorum. They held that a man was at liberty to lay down his life whenever he deemed it no longer useful. Zeno, and others of their teachers, committed suicide in old age. They believed the universe was pervaded by a Divine Intelligence, as by a soul. The elements and the heavenly orbs partook of this divine essence, and were therefore suitable objects of worship. They did not adopt the common doctrine of successive transmigrations of the human soul, but held that it returned to the Supreme Soul, after death, Epictetus says: "There is no Tartarus. You do not go to a place of pain. You return to the source from which you came, to a delightful reunion with your primitive elements." They were taught not to deprecate impending calamities, but to pray for resignation and fortitude to endure them. Marcus Antoninus says: "Either the gods have power, or no power. If they have no power, why do you pray? If they have power, why do you not rather pray that you may be without anxiety about an event, than that the event may not take place?"

In common with many of the Grecian sects, they believed in the old Hindoo, Chaldean, and Egyptian calculations concerning the destruction of the world by water and by fire. This universal devastation was to take place at stated intervals, with vast astronomical intervals between. All was to be restored to a state of order, innocence, and beauty; the old tendency to degeneracy would end in similar destruction, to be again renovated; and so on alternately forever. Seneca says: "A time will come when the world, ripe for renovation, will be wrapped in flames; when the opposite powers in conflict will mutually destroy

each other. The constellations will dash together, and the whole universe, plunged in the same common fire, will be consumed to ashes. The world being melted and reentered into the bosom of Jupiter, this god will continue for some time concentred in himself, immersed in the contemplation of his own ideas. Afterward, a new world will spring from him, perfect in all its parts. The whole face of nature will be more lovely; and under more favourable auspices, an innocent race of men will people this earth, the worthy abode of virtue."

The religious doctrines and customs of Greece were adopted by Rome without essential alterations. Something of their gracefulness was lost under the influence of her less poetic character, but a stronger moral element was infused. In the days of the Roman Republic, temples were erected to Concord, Faith, Constancy, Modesty, and even to Peace. Venus Verticordia presided over the purity of domestic morals, and the most virtuous woman in Rome was chosen to dedicate her statue. Religion was intimately connected with the state. The Emperor was the Supreme Pontiff; and High Priests were chosen among the most illustrious senators. The priests, both of the city and the provinces, were mostly men of wealth and rank, who received, as an honourable distinction, the care of some celebrated temple, or some public sacrifice, or the sacred games, which were frequently exhibited at their own expense. They acted as magistrates, and claimed none of the peculiar sacredness which so strongly riveted the power of Hindoo and Egyptian priests.

Numa, second king of Rome, forbade the people to put images or pictures in their temples; giving as a reason that God was to be apprehended only by the mind, and it was wrong to represent the most excellent being by such mean things. For one hundred and sixty years, their temples contained neither statues nor paintings. It was the policy of government to exclude foreign worship, and for a time they tried to enforce it rigidly. But Rome, being the centre of power, was the point of confluence for all nations of

the earth, and it became necessary to allow foreign residents and visitors the practice of their own religious rites. This toleration was easily granted, because it was a common opinion among polytheistic nations that every country had the religion best suited to its climate and character, and that the deity it worshipped, whoever he might be, was one of many beneficent Spirits, appointed to preside over various divisions of the earth, and manifold departments of the universe. From Egypt, Carthage, Gaul, Persia, and numerous other countries, the conquering armies of Rome brought back foreign customs and opinions with the spoils of war. The popular feeling in favour of adding the gods of other nations to their own established worship became too strong for the policy of government or the wisdom of sages to resist. The worship of Serapis was first celebrated in private chapels at Rome, then publicly prohibited; the first temples erected to him were ordered to be destroyed; afterward, it was permitted to build them within a mile of the city; and at last he was formally acknowledged and established among the deities. The Persian Mithras was enrolled in the same calendar. The Magi, resident in Rome, introduced his Mysteries, which were solemnized in a cave. In the process of initiation, candidates were subjected to severe ordeals, such as long fasts in solitude and darkness, passing through deep waters and through fire. It is said that one of the ceremonies of admission was to eat bread and drink wine, and to receive the mark of a Cross on the forehead; probably the Hindoo and Egyptian Cross, already described. When the Jews became tributary to Rome, they were protected in their own forms of worship; it being readily admitted that Jehovah might be a true national deity, though not the only Governor of the Universe. Solemn embassies were sent to invite Cybele from Phrygia, and Esculapius from Greece. The image of Astarte was brought from Carthage to Rome, to be married to the image of the Sun; and the day of their mystic nuptials was kept as a festival throughout the empire. It was a common custom to tempt the deities of besieged cities, by

Q*

promising them more distinguished honours in Rome than they received in their own country.

Roman priests, as well as those of Hindostan, were acquainted with a chemical process, which enabled them to resist fire. Strabo says that many persons, every year, walked barefoot over burning coals without receiving the slightest injury, and crowds assembled to see it. The more rational citizens of Rome strongly disapproved of nocturnal assemblies, as occasions for revelry and licentiousness, under the disguise of religion. They discountenanced the impure rites practised in temples of Venus, and the mad orgies connected with the worship of Bacchus; and at last their influence so far prevailed, that the festivals of Bacchus were prohibited by law.

Rome was the great gathering-place for all the nations of the earth. To the general admixture of religious forms and creeds was added almost unlimited freedom of inquiry in the philosophical schools. The ceremonies consecrated by long established custom were observed for reasons of state, and to satisfy the requisitions of the populace; but they gradually degenerated into mere lifeless forms. Cicero argues that it was impossible the oracle at Delphi could have gained so much reputation in the world, and been enriched with such costly presents from almost all kings and nations, had not the veracity of its prophecies been confirmed by the experience of ages. But he informs us that it had declined very much before his day; the Pythia being often accused of taking bribes of the rich and powerful.

A belief in the existence of the soul after death was indicated in all periods of the history of Greece and Rome, by the fact that they were always accustomed to address prayers to the Spirits of their ancestors, when overwhelmed with trouble, or about to undertake any important enterprise. They likewise offered sacrifices for the benefit of the dead, and performed such games at their tombs as they most delighted in while living on this earth. But though they thus implied a belief that spirits of the departed were pres

ent, and took cognizance of the affairs of this world, their writers never urged the rewards of another life as inducements to virtue, or its punishments as furnishing motives to avoid crime. They inculcated a stoical resignation to the will of the gods, and reconciled themselves to death because mortals were thus released from the calamities of this world.

In the latter times of Greece and Rome, educated minds retained very little belief in the popular forms of theology. Philosophers had long risen above them to the contemplation of One Supreme Mind, and poets had long been accustomed to play with them as mere graceful fancies. Still the idea prevailed that fables were necessary for the populace. Strabo says: "It is impossible to govern a mob of women, or the whole mixed multitude, and to exhort them to piety, holiness, and faith, by philosophic reasoning. We must also employ superstition, with its fables and prodigies. The thunder, the ægis, the trident, the serpents, the torches, the thyrsi of the gods, are fables, bugbears to those who are children in understanding; as is all the ancient theology."

Cicero represents an Epicurean as saying: "It is marvellous how one of the Augurs can look another in the face without laughing."

Plutarch thus describes a philosopher of the same school: "He hypocritically enacts prayer and adoration, from fear of the enemy. He utters words directly opposite to his philosophy. While he is sacrificing, the ministering priest seems to him no more than a cook; and he departs, uttering the line of Menander: 'I have sacrificed to gods in whom I have no concern.'

Juvenal tells us that poets indulged their imagination to such a degree concerning future rewards and punishments, that even the Roman children ceased to believe them.

"The silent realm of disembodied ghosts,

The frogs that croak along the Stygian coasts,
The thousand souls in one crazed vessel steered,
Not boys believe-save boys without a beard."

« PreviousContinue »