ers. Her
early deity is unknown. But the secret of her eternity is in the
religions that she absorbed. It was these that made her immortal.

To that immortality the obscure god of an obscure people contributed
largely, perhaps, but perhaps, too, not uniquely. Jahveh might have
remained unperceived behind the veil of the sanctuary had not his
altar been illuminated by lights from other shrines. In the early days
of the empire, Rome was fully aware of the glamour of Amon, of the
star of Ormuzd, Brahm's cerulean lotos and the rainbow heights of
Bel-Marduk. But in the splendour of Jove all these were opaque.

Jupiter, always imposing, was grandiose then. His thoughts were vast
as the sky. In a direct revelation to Vergil he said of his chosen
people: "I have set no limits to their conquest or its duration. The
empire I have given them shall be without end."[41] Hebrew prophets had
spoken similarly. Vergil must have been more truly inspired. The Roman
empire, nominally holy, figuratively still exists. Yet fulfilment of
the prophecy is due perhaps less to the God of the Gentiles than to
the God of the Jews. Though perhaps also it may be permissible to
discern in the latter a transfiguration of Jove, who originally Zeus,
and primarily not Hellenic but Hindu, ultimately became supreme. After
the terrific struggle which resulted in that final metamorphosis,
Jerusalem, disinherited, saw Rome the spiritual capital of the globe.

[Footnote 41: AEneid i. 278.]

Jerusalem was not a home of logic. Rome was the city of law. That law,
cold, inflexible, passionless as a sword and quite as effective, Rome
brandished at philosophy. It is said that the intellectual gymnastics
of Greece were displeasing to her traditions. It is more probable that
augurs had foreseen or oracles had foretold that philosophy would
divest her of the sword, and with it of her sceptre and her might.
Ideas cannot be decapitated. Only ridicule can demolish them.
Philosophy, mistress of irony, resisted while nations fell. It was
philosophy that first undermined established creeds and then led to
the pursuit of new ones. Yet it may be that a contributing cause was a
curious theory that the world was to end. Foretold in the _Brahmanas_,
in the _Avesta_ and in the _Eddas_, probably it was in the _Sibylline
Books_. If not, the subsequent Church may have so assumed.

Dies irae, dies illa,
Solvet saeclum in favilla,
Teste David cum Sibylla.

Not alone David a