And after that we need
little wonder at the assassinations, poisonings, and forging of wills,
which then laid waste the domestic life of the Romans.
2. A second source of the universal depravity was the growing inefficacy
of the public religion; and this arose from its disproportion and
inadequacy to the intellectual advances of the nation. _Religion_, in
its very etymology, has been held to imply a _religatio_, that is, a
reiterated or secondary obligation of morals; a sanction supplementary to
that of the conscience. Now, for a rude and uncultivated people, the Pagan
mythology might not be too gross to discharge the main functions of a
useful religion. So long as the understanding could submit to the fables
of the Pagan creed, so long it was possible that the hopes and fears built
upon that creed might be practically efficient on men's lives and
intentions. But when the foundation gave way, the whole superstructure of
necessity fell to the ground. Those who were obliged to reject the
ridiculous legends which invested the whole of their Pantheon, together
with the fabulous adjudgers of future punishments, could not but dismiss
the punishments, which were, in fact, as laughable, and as obviously the
fictions of human ingenuity, as their dispensers.
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