A CASK OF RITUALISM 129 



the mind by the reading of Marcus the Epicurean. In 

 either case you are introduced into a life different from our 

 modern life, into homes and surroundings with ideals far 

 removed from ours. You feel you are in another age, in 

 another world of human thought and life. And to get the 

 full significance of the subject before us we have to transfer 

 ourselves into this remote antiquity; and be imbued with 

 the feelings and spirit of an age unlike our own in many 

 ways. We have to create a mental picture of a much 

 simpler state of Society : yet after we have created such a 

 picture, we shall not look upon these human institutions in 

 the process of making, but shall be plunged into a somewhat 

 advanced state of culture already made, and replete with all 

 the fundamental laws that have governed human institutions 

 ever since; institutions based on certain broad and universal 

 ideas that have offered repose to the succeeding generations 

 of men everywhere; and yet how different everything out- 

 wardly seems. We are in a state of rush working our way 

 through the mazes of modern industrial pathways, beholding 

 the results of the scientific spirit everywhere; but they in 

 antiquity, following a simple life, ruled by a few ideals that 

 made human life very intimate. They were under the more 

 immediate sway of spiritual feelings, we are more under the 

 control of the senses. 



Two great events in those ancient times filled life; one 

 was the solemn and moving trial of war, the other the august 

 ceremonials of the great sacrifices.* To the one men looked 

 with dread; to the other with feelings of awe. The celebra- 

 tions of the Sacrifices were awaited with solemnity; and the 

 whole strength of the country economically and spiritually 

 was devoted to their ample and elaborate preparations : the 

 royal mandates spread throughout the land summoning men 

 to prepare their hearts for the worship of God, and ordering 

 the divinations and horoscopes for the days and sacred 

 animals. In obedience to the royal commands a crowd of 

 officers was busy preparing the wines, the savoury meats, 

 the salads, and immense parapharnalia required, such as 

 the sacred vessels — thousands upon thousands of them — 

 ending with the preparation of the altars. All these formed 

 a great part of the national concern and coloured the mental 

 life of the people. And I have no doubt that in many homes 

 it was the great theme that occupied the minds of the men 

 and women and children, and formed the centre of the family 

 life. They had little concern with the outside world, but 

 this approach to Heaven, this renewal of intercourse with 



it * m & is m &. 



