276 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



carrying with it the suspension of these religious rites, was held by the 

 Greeks to be a misfortune, not merely from the loss of the citizens 

 composing it, but also because the family gods and the manes of 

 deceased citizens were thus deprived of their honours and might visit 

 the country with displeasure. The larger associations, called Gens, 

 Phratry, Tribe, were formed by an extension of the same principle 

 of the family considered as a religious brotherhood, worshipping some 

 common god or hero with an appropriate surname, and recognizing him 

 as their joint ancestor.&quot; 



A like bond was generated in a like manner in the Roman 

 community. Each curia, which was the homologue of the 

 phratry, had a head, &quot; whose chief function was to preside 

 over the sacrifices.&quot; And, on a larger scale, the same thing 

 held with the entire society. The primitive Eoman king was 

 a priest of the deities common to all : &quot; he held intercourse 

 with the gods of the community, whom he consulted and 

 whom he appeased.&quot; The beginnings of this religious bond, 

 here exhibited in a developed form, are still traceable in 

 India. Sir Henry Maine says, &quot; the joint family of the 

 Hindoos is that assemblage of persons who would have 

 joined in the sacrifices at the funeral of some common 

 ancestor if he had died in their lifetime.&quot; So that political 

 integration, while furthered by that likeness of nature which 

 identity of descent involves, is again furthered by that like 

 ness of religion simultaneously arising from this identity of 

 descent. 



Thus is it, too, at a later stage, with that less-pronounced 

 likeness of nature characterizing men of the same race who 

 have multiplied and spread in such ways as to form adjacent 

 small societies. Cooperation among them continues to be 

 furthered, though less effectually, by the community of their 

 natures, by the community of their traditions, ideas, and 

 sentiments, as well as by their community of speech. Among 

 men of diverse types, concert is necessarily hindered 

 both by ignorance of one another s words, and by unlike- 

 nesses of thought and feeling. It needs but to remember 

 how often, even among those of the same family, quarrels 

 arise from misinterpretations of things said, to see what 



