for signs,' public business might at any moment be interrupted if the gods voluntarily sent an indication of disapproval (_oblativa_): the augurs then had always to be at hand to advise the magistrates whether notice should be taken of such signs, and, if so, what was their signification, and they even seem to have had certain rights of reporting themselves (_nuntiatio_) the occurrence of adverse ones. The sign of most usual occurrence would be lightning--sometimes such an unexpected event as the seizure of a member of the assembly with epilepsy (_morbus comitialis_)--and we know to what lengths political obstructionists went in later times in the observation of fictitious signs, or even the prevention of business by the mere announcement of their intention to see an unfavourable omen (_servare de caelo_). The complications and ramifications of the augur's art are infinite, but the main idea should by now be plain, and it must be remembered that the kindred art of the soothsayer (_haruspex_), oracles, and the interpretation of fate by the drawing of lots (_sortes_) are all later foreign introductions: auspice and augury are the only genuine Roman methods for interpreting the will of the gods. Here then in household, fields, and state, we have a second type of relation to the gods, running parallel to the ordinary practice of sacrifice and prayer, distinct yet not fundamentally different. As it is man's function to propitiate the higher spirits and prevent, if possible, the wrecking of his plans by their opposition, so it is his business, if he can, to find out their intentions before he engages on any serious undertaking. As in the _ius sacrum_ his legal mind leads him to assume that the deities accept the responsibility of the contract, when his own part is fulfilled, so here, like a practical man of business, he assumes their construction of a code of communication, which he has learned to interpret. In its origin it is a notion common to many primitive religions, but in its elaboration it is peculiarly and distinctively Italian, and, as we know it, Roman. CHAPTER IX RELIGION AND MORALITY--CONCLUSION