old forms, or many of them, has
survived not only into the old Roman religion, but to
the present day, in many parts of Italy. "The peasants
have recourse to the priests and the saints on great
occasions, but they use magic all the time for
everything," was said by a woman of the Romagna Toscana
to the late C.G. Leland (_Etruscan Roman Remains_,
Introduction, p. 9). This enterprising American's
remarkable book, though dealing only with a small region
of northern Italy, deserves more consideration than it
has received. The author may have been uncritical, but
beyond doubt he had the gift of extracting secrets from
the peasantry. He claims to have proved that "la vecchia
religione" contains much that has come down direct from
pre-Christian times; and the appearance of Mr. Lawson's
remarkable book on _Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient
Greek Religion_ may tempt some really qualified
investigator to undertake a similar work in Italy before
it is too late.

LECTURE IV

THE RELIGION OF THE FAMILY

Some of the survivals mentioned in the last two lectures seem to carry
us back to a condition of culture anterior to the family and to the
final settlement on the land. Some attempt has recently been made to
discover traces of descent by the mother in early Latium;[131] if this
could be proved, it would mean that the Latins were already in Latium
before they had fully developed the patriarchal system on which the
family is based. However this may be, the first real fact that meets us
in the religious experience of the Romans is the attitude towards the
supernatural, or "the Power that manifests itself in the Universe," of
the family as settled down upon the land. The study of religion in the
family, as we know it in historical times, is also that of the earliest
organisation of religion, and of the most permanent type of ancient
Italian religious thought. Aust, whose book on the Roman religion is the
most masterly sketch of the subject as yet published, writes thus of
this religion of the family:[132] "Here the limits of religion and
superstition vanish ... and in vain we seek here for the boundary marks
of various epochs." By the first of these propositions he means that the
State has not here been at work, framing a _ius divinum_, including
religion and excluding magic; in the family, magic of all kinds would be
admissible alongside of the daily w