It is assumed in fact that every act or process of human life has its special numen who can be invoked to make that act successful. Thus after young Sextus, Calvus’s son, was born, his very pious nurses first invoked Vaticanus who opened his mouth for his first cry, then Cucina who guarded his cradle, then Edulia and Potina who taught him to eat and drink, Stabilius who aided him first to stand up, and Abeona and Adeona who watched over his first footsteps “going” and “returning.” His sophisticated parents doubtless smiled at this scrupulous piety, but they did nothing to discourage it. These cold impersonal divinities stand to man in a legal rather than a theological relationship. Men and the numina have made a kind of contract--so much prayer and ceremonial sacrifice must be offered in return for so much good favor, prosperity, and protection. _Do ut des_ (“I give that you may give”) sums up the whole spirit of the Roman religion. Numa the alleged founder of so many cults was not a prophet or an inspired poet but a king and lawgiver. A wise man is always pious; that is, he always gives to the gods their precise due according to carefully set forms, otherwise the divinities may evade their part of the contract, just as a merchant is not bound to execute a bargain in which the other party has failed to do precisely as was stipulated. If prayers and sacrifice fail in their purpose, it is reasonable to suppose that the fault lies in the formula and the victims employed. The pig, sheep, or other victim must then be sacrificed over again with greater scrupulosity. On the other hand, willful neglect of worship is as surely punished by the gods as willful neglect of paying one’s debts is punished by the Prætor. The fate of the impious will be somewhat like that of the absconding debtor, only much more dreadful. Needless to say this “Religion of Numa” contains no more spirituality than the hard stones which pave the Forum. It does, however, put a genuine premium upon the rigid performance of duty, and thereby sometimes reacts favorably upon human conduct. =353. Priestly Offices: Little Sacrosanct about Them.=--For these necessary ceremonies mankind requires priests, but they are not revered interpreters of the divine will, nor are they mysterious mediators between Providence and men; they are rather attorneys employed by men to represent them competently in their dealings with the divinities.