384 GOVERNMENT IX 



shadows the others. The great problem of modern 

 \J political philosophy is to determine the province 

 of government. Is there, or is there not, any 

 region of human action over which the individual 

 himself alone has jurisdiction and into which other 

 men have no business to intrude ? 



In the ancient polities of Greece and Rome 

 hardly any part of human life, except a man's 

 family religious practices, was thus sacred from 

 the intrusion of the State. Beyond the limits of 

 this primary social group even religious liberty 

 ceased. The ancient States permitted no acts 

 which manifested want of respect, still less such as 

 savoured of active opposition, to the cults author- 

 ised by the community. Any " infidels " who ven- 

 tured to give open expression to their lack of faitli 

 in the gods of the city were quickly taught that 

 they had better keep their opinions to themselves : 

 and no mercy was shown to those foreign religions 

 the practices of which were judged to be incon- 

 sistent with the public welfare. But the old 

 pagan religions had no propaganda ; and as perse- 

 cution is usually a correlate of proselytism, they 

 were fairly tolerant in practice, until the progress of 

 Christianity opened the eyes of the Roman authori- 

 ties to the fact that civil existence, as they under- 

 stood it, was incompatible with religious existence, 

 as the Christians understood it. Pagan Rome, 

 therefore, systematically persecuted Christianity 

 with the intention of averting a political t1 



