216 



Discov Kin- 



Reviews of Books 



Roman Essays and Interpretations. By W. Warde 

 Fowler, M.A., Hon. LL.D., etc. (Oxford, at the 

 Clarendon Press, 1920.) 



The attitude of a people towards its ghosts is probably 

 among the most typical of national characteristics. The 

 gradual evolution from fear to veneration, from distrust 

 to some kind of worship, leaves its mark in language and 

 in custom. And however enlightened or even agnostic be 

 the trend of a nation's thought, there always lingers the 

 dim, half-conscious sense that somewhere there is a half- 

 open door, behind which lurk beings vmtrammelled by 

 the laws which hold good for waking hours and broad 

 daylight. 



The monumental work of Sir James Frazer, in The 

 Golden Bough, besides being as entrancing a fairy-book as 

 was ever penned, is a history of the ways of man's 

 thought, and a history which is probably more accurate 

 than the researches of psycho-analysis and the intro- 

 spection of the modern psychological novelist. And in 

 a collection of charming essays by Dr. Warde Fowler — 

 whose recent death removes a unique figure from English 

 literature and scholarship — there are some striking 

 instances of a nation's progress in its attitude towards the 

 " world of spooks." 



Speech, said the cynic, was given us to disguise our 

 thoughts. But to the philologist words are living 

 memorials of thought. It is a ludicrous criticism of 

 human procrastination that " bye and bye " once meant 

 "immediately"! And in Roman Essays and Interpre- 

 tations, Dr. Warde Fowler has traced the varied history 

 of the Latin word religio in such a way that we can 

 follow more than one change in the Roman attitude to 

 the unknown. 



Once on a time it just signified magic. The mole, 

 says Pliny, is religionis capax, i.e. a creature of impor- 

 tance in " religion," because its heart and teeth are charms 

 against disease ! Religio was the feeling that inspired 

 Kubla Khan's warning, 



"Close your eyes with holy dread," 

 and " holy dread " is probably the best translation of its 

 primitive meaning. 



But, although the word always retained some of this 

 spirit of the uncanny, the growing orderliness of Roman 

 society gradually narrowed down its use. To Cicero — a 

 man superficially agnostic and anti-religious, yet capable 

 of sending a surreptitious note to his wife to bid her 

 propitiate the gods — it signified the spirit that led to the 

 cults by which malevolent beings were quieted. Religio, 

 therefore, had come to have a more soothing meaning ; 

 the mind of the Roman citizen, intolerant of mystery 

 had tidied up its thoughts of ghosts or other unseen 

 potencies, and found, as it thought, the way to deal with 

 tlicm. 



And then, by a further transition, the word became 

 coloured by the philosophies of Greece, and began to 

 develop something of the higher meaning it has to-day. 



The ideas of good and evil, the altruistic spirit of ethical 

 justice, of the subordination of the individual to the 

 general welfare, gained a hold on man's feelings and 

 crept into this word. And in the Christian era it came 

 to be used to express the whole range of Christian doctrine 

 and practice, though always carrying a certain stern or 

 negative note not present in such words as " Faith " or 

 even " Church." 



So the word that once stood for fear finally came to 

 imply deliverance from fear ; and whereas it once served 

 to designate the unknown, eventually it symbolised man's 

 most intimate beliefs and confidences. And the monk of 

 the Middle Ages was religiosus — dedicated to good 

 works ; although to Pliny the word could only have 

 meant " possessed of wizard power." 



If words can thus accurately record the histor>' of a 

 mental attitude, traditional customs can often throw a 

 light on the side-lines that go to make nations' character- 

 istics. For instance, in Ireland of to-day the fair\--world 

 is something Puckish, mischievous and care-free, a little 

 world on a different plane from the human, just slightly 

 out of focus. The Leprechaun is a kindly sprite, all 

 things considered — a being of air^' lightsomeness, with 

 whom one can live on very friendly terms. It may be 

 unfair to contrast the material features of modern 

 spiritualism — the unimaginative attitude which tolerates 

 in its ghosts what seem rather meaningless habits of 

 tambourine-jangling and unintelligible spirit-writing. 

 Howev'er that may be, it seems that the Romans had a 

 kindly attitude to their store of ghosts. In Rome there 

 was an ancient underground granary, the kind of pit 

 stiU common in Palestine of our day, and no doubt thj 

 kind into which Joseph was thrown in his. In them the 

 seed-corn once used to be preserved after harvest. All 

 over the world the seed-corn has at one time or other 

 been reverenced, and the reverence still holds in many 

 lands. There were many festivals in ancient Rome on 

 which the harvest was celebrated with careful religious 

 ritual, and in early Rome on three autumn days this 

 seed-corn-pit was opened to receive its store, after the 

 festivities of harvest. 



Later, this practice of public storage ceased. But 

 still the pit was duly opened on these dates. And then, 

 folk said, the ghosts would wander around and seek old 

 haunts. It was a kindly thought — and not perhaps a 

 common one, or a common attitude to the poor tilings. 

 It must have provided a spice of romance to many a 

 Roman child. What would Charles Lamb have given, 

 whose childhood revelled in witches and other night-fears, 

 for days on which each corner might hide its spirit, on its 

 yearly day out ? 



In Spain to-day, on All Souls' eve, the villagers repair 

 to the churchyard, and there hold a feast to which the 

 departed are invited. All Hallow's E'en, in this country, 

 is still regarded as the night when spirits wander. But 

 there was something delightfully practical in the Roman 

 way of removing a cover and letting your ghosts out ! 



There are many other essays in this volume typical of 

 the wide and most human interests of its author — illu- 

 minating analyses of lines from Vergil, and two striking 



