EARLY ROMAX RELIGION. 67 



ing in the granarj-. This does not mean that otlier nations did not 

 have their agricultural deities, but that the Roman development of 

 those spirits was one that took place after the Latin stock became 

 separate, and further that these divinities were more nvimerous and 

 played a more important part in the worship of die earlv Roman 

 than was the case with any otlier race, and finall}- that they con- 

 tinued to be worshipped long after a stage cf civilisation was 

 reached, at which in tlie case of other nations they passed out of 

 existence or were merged into larger conceptions. 



(2) The ver}- abstract waj- in which they formed these deities. 

 In the case of the worship of the nature powers, whedier greater or 

 lesser, there is not much abstraction in arriving at the conception: 

 the sun spirit and the sun are the same to the earliest savage, thougn 

 later the sun is conceived of as being the dwelling place of the sim 

 spirit, the running water of the river-god. A later stage, when other 

 spirits appear, shows, no doubt, more of this abstraction, but tlie 

 Roman went far beyond odiers in his tendency to form abstractions 

 not only of all the particular acts that he himself performed, but of 

 all tlie stages in the various processes of Nature. It is not. as in the 

 case of the Greeks, that he personified an abstract qualit}". but he 

 formed a vague abstraction of certain very definite acts, such as we 

 do not find in the case of other races. 



(3) Closely connected widi the last named characteristic of 

 these abstractions ; diey are almost entirely functional, associated. 

 as we would expect from the Roman character, with the practical 

 life, with eacli phase of natural development, with each state or still 

 more, action of die life of man; essentially practical deities, whose 

 malevolence could do him material harm, and whose co-operation 

 meant prosperity. So Janus in earlier times is die spirit of the 

 opening and closing door, hence facing both wa)"s. who protects the 

 household at its threshold by preventing enemies coming in, and so 

 in accordance with that further tendency toward abstraction that I 

 ha^-e just mentioned becomes the god of beginnings. I would there- 

 fore emphasize the practical, material side of Roman worship. The 

 Roman did not rise to the conception of a god of the gods making 

 for righteousness. He ignores the ideal elements of life. 



A further point in which the Roman seems to have if not in- 

 novated, vet to have carried out the conception mere thoroughly and 

 more logicallv is. that he conceived of the gods, spite of their im- 

 personaHty. to be the parties to a contract for the advantage of both 



