ain all the more so because there
is a tendency just now to reduce both religion and law to an origin in
magic, leaving the religious instinct, the _feeling of dependence_, the
progenitor of conscience, quite out of account. One must indeed be
thoroughly familiar with Roman literature and antiquities to overcome
these difficulties, to discover the spiritual residuum in the Roman
character beneath all its hardness and utilitarianism. Before we pass on
to the task before us, let me make two suggestions for the help of those
who would endeavour to find this spiritual residuum. The first is that
they should consider the history and true meaning of three great words
which Latin language has bequeathed to modern speech,--_religio_, the
feeling of awe, taking practical shape in the performance of authorised
ceremonies; _sacrum_, that which by authoritative usage is made over
without reserve to the divine inhabitants of the city; and last but not
least, _pietas_, the sense of duty to god and man alike, to all divine
and human beings having an authorised claim upon you. And this word
_pietas_ shall introduce my second suggestion--that there is no better
way of getting to understand the spirit of the Roman religion than by
continual study of the _Aeneid_, where the hero is the ideal Roman,
_pius_ in the best and widest sense. What makes the _Aeneid_ so helpful
in this way is the poet's intimate and sympathetic knowledge of the
religious ideas of the Italians, in which we may see reflected those of
the Roman of the age we are now dealing with: his love too of antiquity
and of all ancient rites and legends; and his conviction that the great
work of Rome in the world had been achieved not only by _virtus_ but by
_pietas_. What has been won by _virtus_ must be preserved by _pietas_,
by the sense of duty in family and State,--that is the moral of the
_Aeneid_. In no other work of Roman genius is this idea found in
anything like the same degree of prominence and consistency; and when a
student has steeped his mind well in the details of the Roman worship,
and begins to weary of what must seem its soulless Pharisaism, let him
take up the _Aeneid_ and read it right through for the story and the
characters. I will venture to say that he will think better both of the
Romans and their poet than he ever did before. But of the _Aeneid_ I
shall have more to say later on; at present let us turn to the less
inspiring topics which must occupy us fo