50 HEREDITY AND SOCIETY 



a great influence in the future. Indeed the persistence 

 of Greek philosophy, as distinct from their official 

 religion, is further evidence on this point. 



Both in Greece and Rome, religion occupied a 

 prominent place. It was recognized to be a necessary 

 force to keep the State together, but the ceremonies of 

 the State religion and their connection with the life 

 and thought of the community were less convincingly 

 related than was the case with the Jews. There was 

 also far less appeal to personal experience and individual 

 need, two of the most permanent elements in a religious 

 system. The form of religion which depended largely 

 on an instinct for personification, had been created by 

 a people in contact with natural" phenomena ; it was 

 translated into a multitude of ceremonies which gradu- 

 ally lost their meaning, and indeed were inappropriate, 

 to a city population, who, in their later stages, developed 

 a strongly commercial bent. 



If, as is now thought, in spite of apparent fusion, 

 there were profound differences of race and consequently 

 of traditional religion and morality among the in- 

 habitants of the cities of Greece and Rome and the 

 country districts surrounding them, it would account 

 for the absence of any one accepted code of customary 

 observance, such as was possessed by the Jews. Hence 

 neither the current religion nor the prevalent system 

 of morals carried sufficient conviction to preserve the 

 nations through the time of their wealth and prosperity. 



A fusion of races and religions, such as occurred 

 during the extension of the Greek and Roman empires, 

 leads, not to the strengthening, but to the actual 

 destruction of the qualities that are most characteristic 



