New-York tribune., 1874-01-14
BOSTON,.
LITERARY NOTES.

LITERARY NOTES.
~nrz ANCIENT CITY THE WHOLE ANIMUs OF IIIE
GREEK AND ROMAN GOVERNMENTS DIFFERENT
VROM ANYTHING OF WHICH WE CAN CONCEIVE
rApAY-How THEY woRsBIPED THEIR DEAD
WHY LAND WAS INALrENABLE AND MARRIAGE A
RuIGIoUs CERENoNY-PIoUs ENEAs-THE HON
CHARLES sUMNER-HIs BOOK.
syHox A REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIDUSE.l
BosroN, Jan. 12.-Lee g. Shepard are about
20 publish The Ancient City "a work OF much interest
and importance translated for them by Willard Small,
from the French OF de Couanges. The translation If
ret particularly brilliant but IL s clear and fluent and
The work itself which deserves tho attention
not 20 much Of scholars, who should he already
familiar with the facts ON which II Is based
as Of general readers, who have but q vague
IDEA Of the true annus OF the old Greek and Roman
bfe and government. The history and literature OF
6reeee and Rome enter much into our early educa-
Don-we become 30 much at home with those stately
shsdesthst fail TO realize how foreign from ours
sbeir modes Of thought and action really and
hsten without protest TO the first demagOgue who uses
their experience 20 point moral for our benefit De
Couangee thinks that one of the great difficulties that
impede the march Of modern society is the habit
which 10 always has Of keeping Greek and Roman
antiquity before its eyes. He proceeds, therefore,
70 show us how essentially different the theory OF
Ill the institutions OF the anceDts from ythng that is
possible among u.s. The beginning OF government with
them worship. From the very first they rejected
idea that the creature alive to-day could be forever
dead tomorrow They believed in immortality; but
their OF the future life of the crudest and
most material kind. For very long time they believed
the tie between body and soul 10 be indssouble-born
together they were separated by DEATH but remained
together underground, and passed there strange i'm
mortaty-of desires and satisfactions OF dependence
and of power. when they buried body they felt that
they buried something that was alive; and so they
never failed 20 inter with the things OF which
they supposed he still had need-cothiDg, utensils
and arms They poured wine upon his tomb 10 queDch
his thirst and placed food there satisfy his hunger
They slaughtered for him horses and slaves, that he
might his subterranesn state' To defraud the
dead would have been impious. When Troy had been
taken and the Greeks about TO return
20 their country took with him his beautiful
tiyebut should Achilles down under the sod, be de-
frandedi No, they gave him Polyxena. verse OF
Pindar has preserved TO us n curious record OF the
thonghts Of those ancient generations. PhrXus had
been compelled TO quit Greece, and had He'd as ar as
Coehs There he had died but, dead though he was,
lie onged for and appeared therefore, TO Peas
and directed him go 20 Colchis and bring away his
soul" The poor soul the foreign EARTH was weary
longing for The soil of its native land and the tomb
of its fathers but is could not leave Cochs without
tbe familiar body II had inhabited 30 long
The beings who lived under ground were not suIl.
oienty free from human weakness to have need OF
was carried to every tomb. These funeral repass
somethipg more than O service OF commemoratOn. The
food that the family brought really for the dead
exclusively for him. What proves this is that the
milk and wine poured out upon the earth OF the
tomb the earth followed out 50 that the sOhd
food night reach the dead that. il they sacrificed
victim all its flesh burned, that Of the liy-
ing could have any part OF that they pronounced
certain conseersted formulas TO invite the dead
70 eat and drink and, IN tne when they went away
they took great 10 leave little milk aud few
cakes and II was considered gross mpety Tor
any hying lpersOn 10 touch this scant provision des-
t,ned for the needs of the dead" IL pour upon the
earth Of the tomb.' says IphiGenia, in EurIpides,
"mLs, honey. and wine, for 1t is with these that we
rejoice the dead" Since then the dead had necessi
tes II the pous duty OF the living TO satisfy them
snd bus there established In very ancient times
complete religion Of the dead The departed
were held to lie sacred beings To them
The ancients applied the most adOring epithets !;
for them they cherished infinite generations for to their
apprehension, all the dead were gods. This spotheoSs
waS the privilege OF great men alone no distinction
was made at that period, among the departed The
Greeks called the dead 1.-The subterranean gods" In
dsehyus y invokes his deceased father" o thou
who art a god beneath the earth"' The Romans
" the dead the OF Names. Render TO the names
What Is due them" says Cicero; "they who
have Quilted this life; consider them as divine beings
We find ths worship of deceased among the Heenes
among the Latns among the Sabines, among the Erus
tans and we also fud It among the Aryans Of India.
1he Greeks and Romans believed that these subter-
rahesn gods were alike TO protect and TO punish
n the funeral past ceased be offered TO them they
became ayengng spirits cursDg their descendants with
eesase and the land with sterity II was OF the ut
pOrtance therefore, to keep them satisfied and
IN good humOr. SO momentOus task must not be left
H. ehaDCe-there instituted accordingly. regular
system Of worship. With It connected the worship
h.p-a ah,1d AphA nd
hold sacred The sacred fire the Providence of the
family continually trusted and Invoked In tins
primitive religion each god could be adored
only by family-you did not provide the
funeral repsst for your neighbors dead, or
Tend the sacred fire any hearth but your
own The god would have rejected the service OF the
.hen No offering could be made to any dead person
save by bis own direct descendant II the duty OF
the eldest son 10 make the baons to the maues OF his
own father and all ms ancestors Every faniy mad It's
ceremonies which peculiar TO ITSELF Its particular
eeIebrations formulas Of prayer, its hymns The
father interpreter and sole priest OF his religion,
alone had the right teach it, and could teach only
70 his SON. The domestic worship passed from male to
malo-a woman participated IN IL only through her
father or her husband. From this primitive religion
grew. naturally, the Greek and Roman laws
worship was peculiarly the duty of the eldest son;
therefore 70 him belonged the inheritance. This molly
earth IN which the gods his family aootethis home
I'm which the sacred hearth-fre burned-nust be his,
t@yond the hility OF alienation Marriage was
rebous ceremony; the wife abured the gods OF her
father and devoted herself henceforth 10 those OF her
hnsband. Younger became, in some Sort the de-
,epdeuts Of their eldest brother since II they forsooK
him they would have gods aud no worship. Moral
NV was narrowed TO the duty owed TO ones gods and
ones family. All the rest OF the world was foreign, and
had claim.
From this beginning with the worship OF ones own
familiar dead, the house of the palefaced images
the author traces the growth of the family ill IL en-