But this dread of Nature was not con-
fined to savage or barbarous tribes. ''The
Romans were always conscious of a thrill of
fear in presence of anything unknown, any-
thing which had no well-defined nature or
consciousness. Everjrwhere they saw some-
thing full of mystery, and experienced a
vague kind of horror, which led them to
feign the existence of something irrational,
which was reverenced as a kind of higher
being. The Greeks, on the contrary, made
everything clear, and constructed a beautiful

* Prehistoric Times,



222 PEACE AND HAPPINESS chap.
and brilliant set of myths, which covered all
the relations of life and Nature/' ^

The real name of Rome is said to have
been Valentia, but this was kept secret lest
the possession of the name should give the
magicians of their enemies some occult power
over the city, and Valerius Soranns was
condemned to death, and executed, for having
betrayed it.
Until quite recently the stars and planets
were supposed to exercise a mysterious, and
often maleficent, influence over human Ufe; an
influence from which the unfortunate victim
had no means of freeing himself.
In the Middle Ages, Nature spirits were re-
garded as often mischievous, and apt to take
offence; sometimes as essentially malevolent
— even the most beautiful, like the Venus of
Tannhftuser, being often on that very account
all the more dangerous; while the mountains
and forests, the lakes and seas, were the abodes
of hideous ghosts, and horrible monsters, of
giants and ogres, sorcerers and demons.
These fears, though vague, were none the less

^ Hegel's Philosophy of ReUgian.
