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civilisation Plutarch rose from the drear waste of a dying religion

as the aftermath rises when the mowers think they have left the

field bare。



Greek philosophy began and ended in scepticism:  the first and the

last word of Greek history was Faith。



Splendid thus in its death; like winter sunsets; the Greek religion

passed away into the horror of night。  For the Cimmerian darkness

was at hand; and when the schools of Athens were closed and the

statue of Athena broken; the Greek spirit passed from the gods and

the history of its own land to the subtleties of defining the

doctrine of the Trinity and the mystical attempts to bring Plato

into harmony with Christ and to reconcile Gethsemane and the Sermon

on the Mount with the Athenian prison and the discussion in the

woods of Colonus。  The Greek spirit slept for wellnigh a thousand

years。  When it woke again; like Antaeus it had gathered strength

from the earth where it lay; like Apollo it had lost none of its

divinity through its long servitude。



In the history of Roman thought we nowhere find any of those

characteristics of the Greek Illumination which I have pointed out

are the necessary concomitants of the rise of historical criticism。


The conservative respect for tradition which made the Roman people

delight in the ritual and formulas of law; and is as apparent in

their politics as in their religion; was fatal to any rise of that

spirit of revolt against authority the importance of which; as a

factor in intellectual progress; we have already seen。



The whitened tables of the Pontifices preserved carefully the

records of the eclipses and other atmospherical phenomena; and what

we call the art of verifying dates was known to them at an early

time; but there was no spontaneous rise of physical science to

suggest by its analogies of law and order a new method of research;

nor any natural springing up of the questioning spirit of

philosophy with its unification of all phenomena and all knowledge。

At the very time when the whole tide of Eastern superstition was

sweeping into the heart of the Capital the Senate banished the

Greek philosophers from Rome。  And of the three systems which did

at length take some root in the city; those of Zeno and Epicurus

were used merely as the rule for the ordering of life; while the

dogmatic scepticism of Carneades; by its very principles;

annihilated the possibility of argument and encouraged a perfect

indifference to research。



Nor were the Romans ever fortunate enough like the Greeks to have

to face the incubus of any dogmatic system of legends and myths;

the immoralities and absurdities of which might excite a

revolutionary outbreak of sceptical criticism。  For the Roman

religion became as it were crystallised and isolated from progress

at an early period of its evolution。  Their gods remained mere

abstractions of commonplace virtues or uninteresting

personifications of the useful things of life。  The old primitive

creed was indeed always upheld as a state institution on account of

the enormous facilities it offered for cheating in politics; but as

a spiritual system of belief it was unanimously rejected at a very

early period both by the common people and the educated classes;

for the sensible reason that it was so extremely dull。  The former

took refuge in the mystic sensualities of the worship of Isis; the

latter in the Stoical rules of life。  The Romans classified their

gods carefully in their order of precedence; analysed their

genealogies in the laborious spirit of modern heraldry; fenced them

round with a ritual as intricate as their law; but never quite

cared enough about them to believe in them。  So it was of no

account with them when the philosophers announced that Minerva was

merely memory。  She had never been much else。  Nor did they protest

when Lucretius dared to say of Ceres and of Liber that they were

only the corn of the field and the fruit of the vine。  For they had

never mourned for the daughter of Demeter in the asphodel meadows

of Sicily; nor traversed the glades of Cithaeron with fawn…skin and

with spear。



This brief sketch of the condition of Roman thought will serve to

prepare us for the almost total want of scientific historical

criticism which we shall discern in their literature; and has;

besides; afforded fresh corroboration of the conditions essential

to the rise of this spirit; and of the modes of thought which it

reflects and in which it is always to be found。  Roman historical

composition had its origin in the pontifical college of

ecclesiastical lawyers; and preserved to its close the uncritical

spirit which characterised its fountain…head。  It possessed from

the outset a most voluminous collection of the materials of

history; which; however; produced merely antiquarians; not

historians。  It is so hard to use facts; so easy to accumulate

them。



Wearied of the dull monotony of the pontifical annals; which dwelt

on little else but the rise and fall in provisions and the eclipses

of the sun; Cato wrote out a history with his own hand for the

instruction of his child; to which he gave the name of Origines;

and before his time some aristocratic families had written

histories in Greek much in the same spirit in which the Germans of

the eighteenth century used French as the literary language。  But

the first regular Roman historian is Sallust。  Between the

extravagant eulogies passed on this author by the French (such as

De Closset); and Dr。 Mommsen's view of him as merely a political

pamphleteer; it is perhaps difficult to reach the VIA MEDIA of

unbiassed appreciation。  He has; at any rate; the credit of being a

purely rationalistic historian; perhaps the only one in Roman

literature。  Cicero had a good many qualifications for a scientific

historian; and (as he usually did) thought very highly of his own

powers。  On passages of ancient legend; however; he is rather

unsatisfactory; for while he is too sensible to believe them he is

too patriotic to reject them。  And this is really the attitude of

Livy; who claims for early Roman legend a certain uncritical homage

from the rest of the subject world。  His view in his history is

that it is not worth while to examine the truth of these stories。



In his hands the history of Rome unrolls before our eyes like some

gorgeous tapestry; where victory succeeds victory; where triumph

treads on the heels of triumph; and the line of heroes seems never

to end。  It is not till we pass behind the canvas and see the

slight means by which the effect is produced that we apprehend the

fact that like most picturesque writers Livy is an indifferent

critic。  As regards his attitude towards the credibility of early

Roman history he is quite as conscious as we are of its mythical

and unsound nature。  He will not; for instance; decide whether the

Horatii were Albans or Romans; who was the first dictator; how many

tribunes there were; and the like。  His method; as a rule; is

merely to mention all the accounts and sometimes to decide in

favour of the most probable; but usually not to decide at all。  No

canons of historical criticism will ever discover whether the Roman

women interviewed the mother of Coriolanus of their own accord or

at the suggestion of the senate; whether Remus was killed for

jumping over his brother's wall or because they quarrelled about

birds; whether the ambassadors found Cincinnatus ploughing or only

mending a hedge。  Livy suspends his judgment over these important

facts and history when questioned on their truth is dumb。  If he

does select between two historians he chooses the one who is nearer

to the facts he describes。  But he is no critic; only a

conscientious writer。  It is mere vain waste to dwell on his

critical powers; for they do not exist。



In the case of Tacitus imagination has taken the place of history。

The past lives again in his pages; but through no laborious

criticism; rather through a dramatic and psychological faculty

which he specially possessed。



In the philosophy of history he has no belief。  He can never make

up his mind what to believe as regards God's government of the

world。  There is no method in him and none elsewhere in Roman

literature。



Nations may not have missions but they certainly have functions。

And the function of ancient Italy was not merely to give us what is

statical in our institutions and rational in our law; but to blend

into one elemental creed the spiritual aspirations of Aryan and of

Semite。  Italy was not a pioneer in intellectual progress; nor a

motive power in the evolution of thought。  The owl of the goddess

of Wisdom traversed over the whole land and found nowhere a

resting…place。  The dove; which is the bird of Christ; flew

straight to the city of Rome and the new reign began。  It was the

fashion of early Italian painters to represent in mediaeval costume

the soldiers who watched ov

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