ficult, and that of a son was attended with even greater
difficulties. Burgesses and clients were equally free in their private
rights, but foreigners were beyond the pale of the law. The laws indicated
a great progress in agriculture and commerce, but the foundation of law
was the State. The greatest liberality in the permission of commerce, and
the most rigorous procedure in execution, went hand in hand. Women were
placed on a legal capacity with men, though restricted in the
administration of their property. Personal credit was extravagant and
easy, but the creditor could treat the debtor like a thief. A freeman
could not, indeed, be tortured, but he could be imprisoned for debt with
merciless severity. From the first, the laws of property were stringent
and inexorable.

(M782) In religion, the ancient Romans, like the Greeks, personified the
powers of nature, and also abstractions, like sowing, field labor, war,
boundary, youth, health, harmony, fidelity. The profoundest worship was
that of the tutelary deities, who presided over the household. Next to the
deities of the house and forest, held in the greatest veneration, was
Hercules, the god of the inclosed homestead, and, therefore, of property
and gain. The souls of departed mortals were supposed to haunt the spot
where the bodies reposed, but dwelt in the depths below. The hero worship
of the Greeks was uncommon, and even Numa was never worshiped as a god.
The central object of worship was Mars, the god of war, and this was
conducted by imposing ceremonies and rites. The worship of Vesta was held
with peculiar sacredness, and the vestal virgins were the last to yield to
Christianity. The worshipers of the gods often consulted priests and
augurs, who had great colleges, but little power in the State. The Latin
worship was grounded on man's enjoyment of earthly pleasures, and not on
his fear of the wild forces of nature, and it gradually sunk into a dreary
round of ceremonies. The Italian god was simply an instrument for the
attainment of worldly ends, and not an object of profound awe or love, and
hence the Latin worship was unfavorable to poetry, as well as
philosophical speculation.

(M783) Agriculture is ever a distinguishing mark of civilization, and
forms the main support of a people. It early occupied the time of the
Latins, and was their chief pursuit. In the earliest ages arable land was
cultivated in common, and was not distributed among the people as th