her creatures have no wants
transcending the bounds of their nature. Man is full of desires and
wants that reach to infinity, and can never be satisfied. His nature is
a lie, uniting the greatest poverty with the greatest pride. Among
these so great evils, the best thing God has bestowed on man is the
power to take his own life."[307]

The system of the Stoics was exactly adapted to the Roman character; but,
naturally, it exaggerated its faults instead of correcting them. It
supplanted all other systems in the esteem of leading minds; but the
narrowness of the Roman intellect reacted on the philosophy, and made that
much more narrow than it was in the Greek thought. It became simple
ethics, omitting both the physical and metaphysical side.

Turning to literature, we find in Horace a gay epicureanism, which always
says: "Enjoy this life, for it will be soon over, and after death there is
nothing left for us." Virgil tells us that those are happy who know the
causes of things, and so escape the terrors of Acheron. The serious
Tacitus, a man always in earnest, a penetrating mind, is by Bunsen called
"the last Roman prophet, but a prophet of death and judgment. He saw that
Rome hastened to ruin, and that Caesarism was an unmixed evil, but an evil
not to be remedied."[308] He declares that the gods had to mingle in Roman
affairs as protectors; they now appeared only for vengeance.[309] Tacitus
in one passage speaks of human freedom as superior to fate,[310] but in
another expresses his uncertainty on the whole question.[311] Equally
uncertain was he concerning the future life, though inclined to believe
that the soul is not extinguished with the body.[312]

But the tone of the sepulchral monuments of that period is not so hopeful.
Here are some which are quoted by Doellinger,[313] from Muratori and
Fabretti: "Reader, enjoy thy life; for, after death, there is neither
laughter nor play, nor any kind of enjoyment." "Friend, I advise thee to
mix a goblet of wine and drink, crowning thy head with flowers. Earth and
fire consume all that remains at death." "Pilgrim, stop and listen. In
Hades is no boat and no Charon; no Eacus and no Cerberus. Once dead, we
are all alike." Another says: "Hold all a mockery, reader; nothing is our
own."

* * * * *

So ended the Roman religion; in superstition among the ignorant, in
unbelief among the wise. It was time that something should come to r