Part 29

To a reflecting mind it is obvious that the moral value of beneficence exclusively lies in the benevolent motive, and that there is nothing praiseworthy in promoting the happiness of others from selfish considerations. Confucius taught that self must be conquered before a man can be perfectly virtuous.[7] According to Lao-tsze, self-abnegation is the cardinal rule for both the sovereign and the people.[8] Self-denial is the chief demand of the Gospel, and is emphasised as a supreme duty by Islam.[9] Generally speaking, the merit attached to a good action is proportionate to the self-denial which it costs the agent. This follows from the nature of moral approval in its capacity of a retributive emotion, as is proved by the fact that the degree of gratitude felt towards a benefactor is in a similar way influenced by the deprivation to which he subjects himself. On the other hand, there is considerable variety of opinion, even among ourselves, as to the dictates of duty, in cases where our own interests conflict with those of our fellow-men. To Professor Sidgwick it is a moral axiom that "I ought not to prefer my own lesser good to the greater good of another."[10] According to Hutcheson, we do not condemn those as evil who will not sacrifice their private interest to the advancement of the positive good of others, "unless the private interest be very small, and the publick good very great."[11]

[Footnote 7: _Lun Yü_, xii. i. 1.]

[Footnote 8: Douglas, _Confucianism and Taouism_, p. 192.]

[Footnote 9: Ameer Ali, _Ethics of Islâm_, p. 32.]

[Footnote 10: Sidgwick, _Methods of Ethics_, p. 383.]

[Footnote 11: Hutcheson, _Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions, &c._ p. 312.]

The idea that it is bad to cause harm to others and {155} good or obligatory to promote their happiness, is in different ways influenced by the relationship between the parties; and to many cases it does not apply at all. We have previously noticed that according to early ethics an enemy is a proper object of hatred, not of love;[12] and according to more advanced ideas a person who treats us badly has at all events little claim upon our kindness. The very opposite is the case with a benefactor or friend. To requite a benefit, or to be grateful to him who bestows it, is probably everywhere, at least under certain circumstances, regarded as a duty. This is a subject which in the present connection calls for special consideration.

[Footnote 12: _Supra_, i. p. 73 _sq._]

The duty of gratefulness presupposes a disposition for gratitude.[13] According to travellers' accounts, this feeling is lacking in many uncivilised races.[14] Lyon writes of the Eskimo of Igloolik:--"Gratitude is not only rare, but absolutely unknown amongst them, either by action, word, or look, beyond the first outcry of satisfaction. Nursing their sick, burying the dead, clothing and feeding the whole tribe, furnishing the men with weapons, and the women and children with ornaments, are insufficient to awaken a grateful feeling, and the very people who relieved their distresses when starving are laughed at in time of plenty for the quantity and quality of the food which was bestowed in charity."[15] Various other tribes in {156} North America have been accused of ingratitude;[16] and of some South American savages we are told that they evinced no thankfulness for the presents which were given them.[17] The Fijians are described as utterly indifferent to their benefactors. The Rev. Th. Williams writes:--"If one of them, when sick, obtained medicine from me, he thought me bound to give him food; the reception of food he considered as giving him a claim on me for covering; and, that being secured, he deemed himself at liberty to beg anything he wanted, and abuse me if I refused his unreasonable request."[18] Mr. Lumholtz had a similar experience with regard to the natives of Herbert River, Northern Queensland:--"If you give one thing to a black man, he finds ten other things to ask for, and he is not ashamed to ask for all that you have, and more too. He is never satisfied. Gratitude does not exist in his breast."[19] In several languages there is no word expressive of what we term gratitude or no phrase corresponding to our "thank you";[20] and on this fact much stress has been {157} laid, the deficiency of language being regarded as an indication of a corresponding deficiency in feelings.

[Footnote 13: For the definition of gratitude, see _supra_, i. 93.]

[Footnote 14: Steller, _Beschreibung von Kamischatka_, p. 292. Bergmann, _Nomadische Streifereien unter den Kalmüken_, ii. 310, 316. Foreman, _Philippine Islands_, p. 183. Modigliani, _Viaggio a Nías_, p. 467. Selenka, _Sonnige Welten_, p. 286 (Malays). Marsden, _History of Sumatra_, p. 207 (Malays of Sumatra). Forbes, _A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago_, p. 320 (natives of Timor-laut). Mrs. Forbes, _Insulinde_, p. 178 (natives of Ritabel). Hagen, _Unter den Papua's_, p. 266 (Papuans of Bogadjim). Romilly, _Western Pacific and New Guinea_, p. 239. La Pérouse, _Voyage round the World_, ii. 109 (Samoans). Colenso, _Maori Races of New Zealand_, p. 48; Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_, ii. 110. Ling Roth, _Aborigines of Tasmania_, p. 63. Gason, 'Manners and Customs of the Dieyerie Tribe,' in Woods, _Native Tribes of South Australia_, p. 258. Baker, _Albert N'yanza_, i. 242 (Latukas), 289 (Negroes), von François, _Nama und Damara_, p. 191 (Herero).]

[Footnote 15: Lyon, _Private Journal during the Voyage of Discovery under Captain Parry_, p. 348 _sq._ See also Parry, _Journal of a Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage_, p. 524 _sq._]

[Footnote 16: Cranz, _History of Greenland_, i. 174. Sarytschew, 'Voyage of Discovery to the North-East of Siberia,' in _Collection of Modern Voyages_, vi. 78 (Aleuts). Harmon, _Voyages and Travels in the Interior of North America_, p. 291 (Tacullies). Heriot, _Travels through the Canadas_, p. 319. Lafitau, _M[oe]urs des sauvages ameriquains_, i. 106. Burton, _City of the Saints_, p. 125 (Sioux and prairie tribes generally).]

[Footnote 17: von Spix and von Martius, _Travels in Brazil_, ii. 228, 241 _sq._ (Coroados). Stokes, quoted by King and Fitzroy, _Voyages of the 'Adventure' and 'Beagle,'_ i. 77 (Fuegians).]

[Footnote 18: Williams and Calvert, _Fiji_, p. 111. See also Anderson, _Notes of Travel in Fiji and New Caledonia_, pp. 124, 131.]

[Footnote 19: Lumholtz, _Among Cannibals_, p. 100.]

[Footnote 20: Southey, _History of Brazil_, iii. 399 (Abipones, Guaranies). Hearne, _Journey to the Northern Ocean_, p. 307 (Northern Indians). Lewin, _Wild Races of South-Eastern India_, p. 192 (Toungtha). Foreman, _op. cit._ p. 182 _sq._ (Bisayans). Modigliani, _Viaggio a Nías_, p. 467. Ling Roth, _Natives of Sarawak_, i. 74 (Dyaks). Chalmers, _Pioneering in New Guinea_, p. 187; Romilly, _Western Pacific and New Guinea_, p. 239 _sq._ (However, Mr Romilly's statement that "in all the known New Guinea languages there is not even a word for 'thank you,'" is not quite correct, as appears from Chalmers _op. cit._ p. 187.) Wilson, _Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean_, p. 365; Waitz-Gerland, _Anthropologie der Naturvölker_, vi. 116 (Tahitians). Colenso, _op. cit._ p. 48 (Maoris). New, _Life and Labours in Eastern Africa_, p. 100 (Wanika). von François, _op. cit._ p. 191 (Herero). In the Vedic language, also, there was no word for "thanks" (Oldenberg, _Die Religion des Veda_, p. 305); and many Eastern languages of the present day lack an equivalent for "thank you" (Ward, _View of the History, &c. of the Hindoos_, ii. 81, n. _a_.; Pool, _Studies in Muhammedanism_, p. 176; Polak, _Persien_, i. 9). When one of the missionaries in India was engaged in the translation of the Scriptures into Bengali, he found no common word in that language suitable to express the idea of gratitude (Wilkins, _Modern Hinduism_, p. 397).]

Here again we must distinguish between a traveller's actual experience and the conclusions which he draws from it; and it seems that in many cases our authorities have been too ready to charge savages with a total lack of grateful feelings, because they have been wanting in gratitude on certain occasions. It is too much to expect that a savage should show himself thankful to any stranger who gives him a present. Speaking of the Ahts of British Columbia, Mr Sproat remarks that the Indian's suspicion prevents a ready gratitude, as he is prone to see, in apparent kindness extended to him, some under-current of selfish motive. "He is accustomed, among his own people, to gifts made for purposes of guile, and also to presents made merely to show the greatness and richness of the giver; but, I imagine," our author adds, "when the Aht ceases to suspect such motives--when he does not detect pride, craft, or carelessness--he is grateful, and probably grateful in proportion to the trouble taken to serve him."[21] As for the ingratitude of the Northern Queensland natives, Mr. Lumholtz himself admits that "they assume that the gift is bestowed out of fear";[22] and of the New Zealanders we are told that their total want of gratitude was particularly due to the fact that "no New Zealander ever did any kindness, or gave anything, to another, without mainly having an eye to himself in the transaction."[23] Moreover, gratitude often requires not only the absence of a selfish motive in the benefactor, but some degree of self-sacrifice. "A person," says Mr. Sproat, "may keep an Indian from starving all the winter through, yet, when summer comes, very likely he will not walk a yard for his preserver without payment. The savage does not, in this instance, {158} recognise any obligation; but thinks that a person who had so much more than he could himself consume might well, and without any claim for after services, part with some of it for the advantage of another in want."[24] Mr. Powers makes a similar observation with reference to the aborigines of California:--"White men," he says, "who have had dealings with Indians, in conversation with me have often bitterly accused them of ingratitude. 'Do everything in your power for an Indian,' they say, 'and he will accept it all as a matter of course; but for the slightest service you require of him he will demand pay.' These men do not enter into the Indian's ideas. This 'ingratitude' is really an unconscious compliment to our power. The savage feels, vaguely, the unapproachable elevation on which the American stands above him. He feels that we had much and he had little, and we took away from him even his little. In his view giving does not impoverish us, nor withholding enrich us. Gratitude is a sentiment not in place between master and slave; it is a sentiment for equals. The Indians are grateful to one another."[25] Nor are men very apt to feel grateful for benefits to which they consider themselves to have a right. Thus, according to Mr. Howitt, the want of gratitude among the South Australian Kurnai for kindnesses shown them by the whites is due to the principle of community, which is so strong a feature of the domestic and social life of these aborigines. "For a supply of food, or for nursing when sick, the Kurnai would not feel grateful to his family group. There would be a common obligation upon all to share food, and to afford personal aid and succour. This principle would also come into play as regards the simple personal property they possess, and would extend to the before-unknown articles procured from the whites. The food, the clothes, the medical attendance which the Kurnai receive from the whites, they take in the accustomed manner; and, in addition to {159} this, we must remember that the donors are regarded as having unlimited resources. They cannot be supposed by the Kurnai to be doing anything but giving out of their abundance."[26] Mr. Guppy found the same principle at work among the Solomon Islanders:--"Often when during my excursions I have come upon some man who was preparing a meal for himself and his family, I have been surprised at the open-handed way in which he dispensed the food to my party of hungry natives. No gratitude was shown towards the giver, who apparently expected none."[27] It has also been observed that the want of gratitude with which Arabs have often been charged by Europeans has arisen "from the very common practice of hospitality and generosity, and from the prevailing opinion that these virtues are absolute duties which it would be disgraceful and sinful to neglect."[28]

[Footnote 21: Sproat, _Scenes and Studies of Savage Life_, p. 165 _sq._]

[Footnote 22: Lumholtz, _Among Cannibals_, p. 159.]

[Footnote 23: Colenso, _op. cit._ p. 48.]

[Footnote 24: Sproat, _op. cit._ p. 165 _sq._]

[Footnote 25: Powers, _Tribes of California_, p. 411.]

[Footnote 26: Fison and Howitt, _Kamilaroi and Kurnai_, p. 257.]

[Footnote 27: Guppy, _Solomon Islands_, p. 127.]

[Footnote 28: Lane, _Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians_, p. 298. See also Burton, _Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah_, i. 51.]

We should further remember that savages often take care not to display their emotions. Among the Melanesians, according to Dr. Codrington, "it is not the custom to say anything by way of thanks; it is rather improper to show emotion when anything is given, or when friends meet again; silence with the eyes cast down is the sign of the inward trembling or shyness which they feel, or think they ought to feel, under these circumstances. There is no lack of a word which may be fairly translated 'thank'; and certainly no one who has given cause for it will say that Melanesians have no gratitude; others probably are ready enough to say it."[29] Of the North American Chippewas Major Strickland writes:--"If an Indian makes a present, it is always expected that one equally valuable should be given in return. No matter what you give them, or how valuable or rich the present, they seldom betray the least emotion or appearance of gratitude, it being considered beneath the dignity of a red man to betray his feelings. For all this seeming indifference, {160} they are in reality as grateful, and, I believe, even more so than our own peasantry."[30] The Aleuts also, although they are chary of expressions of thanks, "do not forget kindness, and endeavour to express their thankfulness by deeds. If anyone assists an Aleut, and afterwards offends him, he does not forget the former favour, and in his mind it often cancels the offence."[31] From the want of a word for a feeling we must not conclude that the feeling itself is wanting. Mr. Sproat observes:--"The Ahts have, it is true, no word for gratitude, but a defect in language does not absolutely imply defect in heart; and the Indian who, in return for a benefit received, says, with glistening eyes, that his heart is good towards his benefactor, expresses his gratitude quite as well perhaps as the English man who says 'Thank you.'"[32]

[Footnote 29: Codrington, _Melanesians_, p. 354.]

[Footnote 30: Strickland, _Twenty-seven Years in Canada West_, ii. 58.]

[Footnote 31: Veniaminof, quoted by Dall, _Alaska_, p. 395.]

[Footnote 32: Sproat, _op. cit._ p. 165. See also Ling Roth, _Natives of Sarawak_, i. 74 (Dyaks).]

It is not surprising, then, that in various cases a people which to one traveller appears to be quite destitute of gratitude is by another described as being by no means lacking in this feeling;[33] and sometimes contradictory statements are made even by the same writer. Thus Mr. Lumholtz, who gives such a gloomy picture of the character of the Northern Queensland natives, nevertheless tells us of a native who, though himself very hungry, threw the animals which the traveller had shot for him to an old man--his wife's uncle--whom they met, in order to give some proof of the gratitude he owed the person from whom he had received his wife;[34] and regarding the Fijians Mr. Williams himself states that thanks for presents "are always expressed aloud, and generally with a kind wish for the giver."[35] As we have noticed before, retributive kindly emotions, of which gratitude is only the most developed form, are commonly found among gregarious animals, social affection being not only a friendly {161} sentiment towards another individual, but towards an individual who is conceived of as a friend.[36] And it is all the more difficult to believe in the absolute want of gratitude in some savage races, as the majority of them--to judge from my collection of facts--are expressly acquitted of such a defect, and several are described as remarkably grateful for benefits bestowed upon them.

[Footnote 33: _E.g._, the Fuegians, Sioux, Ahts, Aleuts, Kamchadales, Tasmanians, Zulus (see _supra_ and _infra_).]

[Footnote 34: Lumholtz, _Among Cannibals_, p. 221.]

[Footnote 35: Williams and Calvert, _op. cit._ p. 132.]

[Footnote 36: _Supra_, i. 94.]

The Fuegians use the word _chapakouta_, which means glad, satisfied, affectionate, grateful, to express thanks.[37] Jemmy Button, the young Fuegian who was brought to England on board the _Beagle_, gave proofs of sincere gratitude;[38] and Admiral Fitzroy also mentions a Patagonian boy who appeared thankful for kindness shown to him.[39] Of the Mapuchés of Chili Mr. E. R. Smith observes:--"Whatever present is made, or favour conferred, is considered as something to be returned; and the Indian never fails, though months and years may intervene, to repay what he conscientiously thinks an exact equivalent for the thing received."[40] The Botocudos do not readily forget kind treatment;[41] and the Tupis "were a grateful race, and remembered that they had received gifts, after the giver had forgotten it."[42] The Guiana Indians "are grateful for any kindness."[43] The Navahos of New Mexico have a word for thanks, and employ it on all occasions which we would consider appropriate.[44] The Sioux "evinced the warmest gratitude to any who had ever displayed kind feelings towards them."[45] In his 'Voyages from Montreal to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans,' Mackenzie mentions the gratitude shown him by a young Indian whom he had cured of a bad wound. When well enough to engage in a hunting party, the young man brought to his physician the tongue of an elk, and when they parted both he and his relatives expressed the heartiest acknowledgment for the care bestowed on him.[46] If an Aleut receives a gift he accepts it, saying _Akh!_ which means "thanks."[47] Some of the Point Barrow Eskimo visited by Mr. Murdoch "seem to feel truly {162} grateful for the benefits and gifts received, and endeavoured by their general behaviour, as well as in more substantial ways, to make some adequate return"; whereas others appeared to think only of what they might receive.[48]

[Footnote 37: Hyades and Deniker, _Mission scientifique du Cap Horn_, vii. 314.]

[Footnote 38: King and Fitzroy, _op. cit._ ii. 327.]

[Footnote 39: _Ibid._ ii. 173.]

[Footnote 40: Smith, _Araucanians_, p. 258.]

[Footnote 41: Wied-Neuwied, _Reise nach Brasilien_, ii. 16.]

[Footnote 42: Southey, _op. cit._ i. 247.]

[Footnote 43: Im Thurn, _Among the Indians of Guiana_, p. 213.]

[Footnote 44: Matthews, 'Study of Ethics among the Lower Races,' in _Journal of American Folk-Lore_, xii. 9.]

[Footnote 45: Eastman, _Dacotah_, p. ix.]

[Footnote 46: Mackenzie, _Voyages from Montreal to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans_, p. 137 _sq._]

[Footnote 47: Veniaminof, quoted by Dall, _op. cit._ p. 395.]

[Footnote 48: Murdoch, 'Ethnol. Results of the Point Barrow Expedition,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ ix. 42. See also Seemann, _Voyage of 'Herald,'_ ii. 67 (Western Eskimo).]

Of the Tunguses it is said, "If you make them a present, they hardly thank you; but though so unpolite, they are exceedingly grateful."[49] The Jakuts never forget a benefit received; "for they not only make restitution, but recommend to their offspring the ties of friendship and gratitude to their benefactors."[50] The Veddah of Ceylon is described as very grateful for attention or assistance.[51] "A little kindly sympathy makes him an attached friend, and for his friend . . . . he will readily give his life."[52] Mr. Bennett once had an interview with two village Veddahs, and on that occasion gave them presents. Two months after a couple of elephant's tusks found their way into his front verandah at night, but the Veddahs who had brought them never gave him an opportunity to reward them. "What a lesson in gratitude and delicacy," he exclaims, "even a Veddah may teach!"[53]

[Footnote 49: Georgi, _Russia_, iii. 111.]

[Footnote 50: Sauer, _Expedition to the Northern Parts of Russia, performed by Billings_, p. 124.]

[Footnote 51: Tennent, _Ceylon_, ii. 445. Sarasin, _Forschungen auf Ceylon_, iii. 546.]

[Footnote 52: Nevill, 'Vaeddas of Ceylon,' in _Taprobanian_, i. 192.]

[Footnote 53: Pridham, _Account of Ceylon_, i. 460 _sq._]

The Alfura of Halmahera,[54] the Bataks of Sumatra,[55] and the Dyaks of Borneo[56] are praised for their grateful disposition of mind. Of the Hill Dyaks Mr. Low observes that gratitude "eminently adorns the character of these simple people, and the smallest benefit conferred upon them calls forth its vigorous and continued exercise."[57] The Motu people of New Guinea are "capable of appreciating kindness,"[58] and have words for expressing thanks.[59] Chamisso speaks highly of the gratitude evinced by the natives of Ulea, Caroline Islands:--"Any thing, a useful instrument, for example, which they have received as a gift from a friend, retains and bears among them as a lasting memorial the name of the friend who bestowed it."[60] When Professor Moseley at Dentrecasteaux Island, of the Admiralty Group, gave a hatchet as pay to his guide, according {163} to promise, the guide seemed grateful, and presented him with his own shell adze in return.[61] Though the Tahitians never return thanks nor seem to have a word in their language expressive of gratitude, they are not devoid of the feeling itself.[62] Backhouse tells us of a Tasmanian native who, having been nursed through an illness, showed many demonstrations of gratitude; and he adds that this virtue was often exhibited among these people--a statement which is corroborated by the accounts of other travellers.[63] Of the Australian aborigines Mr. Ridley writes:--"I believe they are as a people remarkably susceptible of impressions from kind treatment. They recognised me as one who sought their good, and were evidently pleased and thankful to see that I thought them worth looking after."[64] The Adelaide and Encounter Bay blacks are said to display attachment to persons who are kind to them.[65] Speaking of the Central Australian tribes, Messrs. Spencer and Gillen observe that, though they are not in the habit of showing anything like excessive gratitude on receiving gifts from the white man, they are in reality by no means incapable of that feeling;[66] and other writers report instances of gratitude displayed by natives of West Australia[67] and Queensland.[68]

[Footnote 54: Kükenthal, _Forschungsreise in den Molukken und Borneo_, i. 188.]

[Footnote 55: Junghuhn, _Die Battaländer auf Sumatra_, ii. 239.]

[Footnote 56: Ling Roth, _Natives of Sarawak_, i. 74, 76.]

[Footnote 57: Low, _Sarawak_, p. 246.]

[Footnote 58: Stone, _A Few Months in New Guinea_, p. 95.]

[Footnote 59: Chalmers, _Pioneering in New Guinea_, p. 187.]

[Footnote 60: von Kotzebue, _Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea_, iii. 214.]

[Footnote 61: Moseley, 'Inhabitants of the Admiralty Islands,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ vi. 416.]

[Footnote 62: Waitz-Gerland, _op. cit._ vi. 116.]

[Footnote 63: Ling Roth, _Aborigines of Tasmania_, pp. 47, 62, 64.]

[Footnote 64: Ridley, _Aborigines of Australia_, p. 24. See also _ibid._ p. 20 _sqq._]

[Footnote 65: Wyatt, 'Manners and Superstitions of the Adelaide and Encounter Bay Aboriginal Tribes,' in Woods, _Native Tribes of South Australia_, p. 162.]

[Footnote 66: Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_, p. 48 _sqq._]

[Footnote 67: Salvado, _Mémoires historiques sur l'Australie_, p. 146.]

[Footnote 68: Fraser, _Aborigines of New South Wales_, p. 44.]

Concerning the people of Madagascar the missionary Ellis writes:--"Whether the noble and generous feeling of gratitude has much place amongst the Malagasy has been questioned. Though often characterised by extreme apathy, they are certainly susceptible of tenderness of feeling, and their customs furnish various modes of testifying their sense of any acts of kindness shewn them, and their language contains many forms of speech expressive of thankfulness. The following are among those in most general use: 'May you live to grow old--may you live long--may you live sacred--may you see, or obtain, justice from the sovereign.'" Moreover, with all their expressions of thankfulness, considerable action is used: sometimes the two hands are extended open as if to make a present; or the party stoops down to the ground, and clasps the legs, or touches the knee and the feet of the person he is thanking.[69] Ingratitude, {164} again, is expressed by many strong metaphors, such as "son of a thunderbolt," or "offspring of a wild boar."[70] The Bushmans, according to Burchell, are not incapable of gratitude.[71] The statement made by certain travellers or colonists that the Zulus are devoid of this feeling, is contradicted by Mr. Tyler, who asserts that "many instances might be related in which a thankful spirit has been manifested, and gifts bestowed for favours received."[72] The Basutos have words to express gratitude.[73] Among the Bakongo, says Mr. Ward, "evidences of gratitude are rare indeed, although occasionally one meets with this sentiment in odd guises. Once, by a happy chance, I saved a baby's life. The child was brought to me by its mother in convulsions, and I was fortunate enough to find in my medicine chest a drug that effected an almost immediate cure. Yet the service I rendered to this woman, instead of meeting with any appreciation, only procured for me the whispered reputation of being a witch." But twenty months afterwards, at midnight when all the people were sleeping, the same woman came to Mr. Ward and gave him some fowl's eggs in payment. "I come," she said, "in the darkness that my people may not know, for they would jeer at me if they knew of this gift."[74] A traveller tells us that the inhabitants of Great Benin "if given any trifles expressed their thanks."[75] Writing on the natives of Accra, Monrad states that gratitude is among the virtues of the Negroes, and induces them even to give their lives in return for benefits conferred on them.[76] The Feloops, bordering on the Gambia, "display the utmost gratitude and affection towards their benefactors."[77] As regards the Eastern Central Africans, Mr. Macdonald affirms without any hesitation that they have gratitude, "even though we define gratitude as being much more than an 'acute sense of favours to come.'"[78] The Masai and Wadshagga have "a curious habit of spitting on things or people as a compliment or sign of gratitude"[79]--originally, I presume, with a view to transferring to them a blessing. The Barea are said to be thankful for benefits.[80] According to Palgrave, "gratitude is no {165} less an Arab than a European virtue, whatever the ignorance or the prejudices of some foreigners may have affirmed to the contrary";[81] and Burckhardt says that an Arab never forgets the generosity shown to him even by an enemy.[82]

[Footnote 69: Ellis, _History of Madagascar_, i. 258. See also Rochon, _Voyage to Madagascar_, p. 56.]

[Footnote 70: Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 139 _sq._]

[Footnote 71: Burchell, _Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa_, ii. 68, 86, 447.]

[Footnote 72: Tyler, _Forty Years among the Zulus_, p. 194.]

[Footnote 73: Casalis, _Basutos_, p. 306.]

[Footnote 74: Ward, _Five Years with the Congo Cannibals_, p. 47 _sqq._]

[Footnote 75: Punch, quoted by Ling Roth, _Great Benin_, p. 45.]

[Footnote 76: Monrad, _Skildring af Guinea-Kysten_, p. 8.]

[Footnote 77: Mungo Park, _Travels in the Interior of Africa_, p. 14.]

[Footnote 78: Macdonald, _Africana_, i. 10.]

[Footnote 79: Johnston, _Kilima-njaro Expedition_, p. 438.]

[Footnote 80: Munzinger, _Ostafrikanische Studien_, p. 533.]

[Footnote 81: Palgrave, quoted in Spencer's _Descriptive Sociology_, 'Asiatic Races,' p. 31.]

[Footnote 82: Burckhardt, _Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys_, p. 105.]

In other statements gratitude is directly represented as an object of praise, or its absence as an object of disapproval. Among the Atkha Aleuts, according to Father Yakof, gratitude to benefactors was considered a virtue.[83] Among the Omahas, if a man receives a favour and does not manifest his thankfulness, the people exclaim:--"He does not appreciate the gift! He has no manners."[84] The Kamchadales "are not only grateful for favours, but they think it absolutely necessary to make some return for a present."[85] The Chinese say that "kindness is more binding than a loan."[86] According to the 'Divine Panorama,' a well-known Taouist work, those who forget kindness and are guilty of ingratitude shall be tormented after death and "shall not escape one jot of their punishments."[87] In one of the Pahlavi texts gratitude is represented as a means of arriving at heaven, whilst ingratitude is stigmatised as a heinous sin;[88] and according to Ammian ungrateful persons were even punished by law in ancient Persia.[89] The same, we are told, was the case in Macedonia.[90] The duty of gratitude was strongly inculcated by Greek and Roman moralists.[91] Aristotle observes that we ought, as a general rule, rather to return a kindness to our benefactor than to confer a gratuitous favour upon a brother in arms, just as we ought rather to repay a loan to a creditor than to spend the same sum upon a present to a friend.[92] According to {166} Xenophon the requital of benefits is enjoined by a divine law.[93] "There is no duty more indispensable than that of returning a kindness," says Cicero; "all men detest one forgetful of a benefit."[94] Seneca calls ingratitude a most odious vice, which it is difficult to punish by law, but which we refer for judgment to the gods.[95] The ancient Scandinavians considered it dishonourable for a man to kill even an enemy in blood-revenge if he had received a benefit from him.[96]

[Footnote 83: Yakof, quoted by Petroff, _Report on the Population, &c. of Alaska_, p. 158.]

[Footnote 84: Dorsey, 'Omaha Sociology,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ iii. 270.]

[Footnote 85: Dobell, _Travels in Kamtschatka_, i. 75.]

[Footnote 86: Davis, _China_, ii. 123.]

[Footnote 87: Giles, _Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio_, ii. 374 _sq._ See also _Thâi-Shang_, 4.]

[Footnote 88: _Dînâ-î Maînôg-î Khirad_, xxxvi. 28; xxxvii. 6; xliii. 9.]

[Footnote 89: Ammianus Marcellinus, xxiii. 6. 81.]

[Footnote 90: Seneca, _De beneficiis_, iii. 6. 2.]

[Footnote 91: See Schmidt, _Die Ethik der alten Griechen_, ii. 305 _sqq._]

[Footnote 92: Aristotle, _Ethica Nicomachea_, x. 2. 3.]

[Footnote 93: Xenophon, _Memorabilia_, iv. 4. 24.]

[Footnote 94: Cicero, _De officiis_, i. 15 (47); ii. 18 (63).]

[Footnote 95: Seneca, _De beneficiis_, iii. 6. 1 _sq._]

[Footnote 96: Maurer, _Die Bekehrung des Norwegischen Stammes_, ii. 174.]

We may assume that among beings capable of feeling moral emotions the general disposition to be kind to a benefactor will inevitably lead to the notion that ungrateful behaviour is wrong. Such behaviour is offensive to the benefactor; as Spinoza observes, "he who has conferred a benefit on anyone from motives of love or honour will feel pain, if he sees that the benefit is received without gratitude."[97] This by itself tends to evoke in the bystander sympathetic resentment towards the offender; but his resentment is much increased by the retributive kindliness which he is apt to feel, sympathetically, towards the benefactor. He wants to see the latter's kindness rewarded; and he is shocked by the absence of a similar desire in the very person who may be naturally expected to feel it more strongly than anybody else**.

[Footnote 97: Spinoza, _Ethica_, iii. 42. A Japanese proverb says that "thankless labour brings fatigue" (Reed, _Japan_, ii. 109).]

The moral ideas concerning conduct which affects other persons' welfare vary according as the parties are members of the same or different families, or of the same or different communities. For reasons which have been stated in previous chapters parents have in this respect special duties towards their children, and children towards their parents; and a tribesman or a fellow-countryman has claims which are not shared by a foreigner. But there are duties not only to particular individuals, but also to {167} whole social aggregates. Foremost among these is the duty of patriotism.

The duty of patriotism is rooted in the patriotic sentiment, in a person's love of the social body of which he is himself a member, and which is attached to the territory he calls his country. It involves a desire to promote its welfare, a wish that it may prosper for the time being and for all future. This desire is the outcome of a variety of sentiments: of men's affection for the people among whom they live, of attachment to the places where they have grown up or spent part of their lives, of devotion to their race and language, and to the traditions, customs, laws, and institutions of the society in which they were born and to which they belong.

Genuine patriotism presupposes a power of abstraction which the lower savages can hardly be supposed to possess. But it seems to be far from unknown among uncultured peoples of a higher type. North American Indians are praised for their truly patriotic spirit, for their strong attachment to their tribe and their country.[98] Carver says of the Naudowessies:--"The honour of their tribe, and the welfare of their nation, is the first and most predominant emotion of their hearts; and from hence proceed in a great measure all their virtues and their vices. Actuated by this, they brave every danger, endure the most exquisite torments, and expire triumphing in their fortitude, not as a personal qualification, but as a national characteristic."[99] Patriotism and public spirit were often strongly manifested by the Tahitians.[100] The Maori "loves his country and the rights of his ancestors, and he will fight for his children's land."[101] Of the Guanches of Teneriffe we are told that patriotism was {168} their chief virtue.[102] The same quality distinguishes the Yorubas of West Africa; "no race of men," says Mr. MacGregor, "could be more devoted to their country."[103] Burckhardt writes:--"As to the attachment which a Bedouin entertains for his own tribe, the deep-felt interest he takes in its power and fame, and the sacrifices of every kind he is ready to make for its prosperity--these are feelings rarely operating with equal force in any other nation; and it is with an exulting pride of conscious patriotism, not inferior to any which ennobled the history of Grecian or Helvetian republics, that an Aeneze, should he be suddenly attacked, seizes his lance, and waving it over his head exclaims, 'I am an Aeneze.'"[104]

[Footnote 98: Adair, _History of the American Indians_, p. 378 _sq._ Heriot, _Travels through the Canadas_, p. 317. Loskiel, _History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians_, i. 17 (Iroquois).]

[Footnote 99: Carver, _Travels through the Interior Parts of North America_, p. 412.]

[Footnote 100: Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 128.]

[Footnote 101: Angas, _Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand_, i. 338. See also Travers, 'Life and Times of Te Rauparaha,' in _Trans. and Proceed. New Zealand Institute_, v. 22.]

[Footnote 102: Bory de St. Vincent, _Essais sur les Isles Fortunées_, p. 70.]

[Footnote 103: MacGregor, 'Lagos, Abeokuta, and the Alake,' in _Jour. African Soc._ 1904, p. 466.]

[Footnote 104: Burckhardt, _Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys_, p. 205.]

Many of the elements out of which patriotism proper has grown are clearly distinguishable among savages, even the very lowest. We have previously noticed the savage's attachment to members of his own community or tribe. Combined with this is his love of his native place, and of the mode of life to which he is habituated. There is a touching illustration of this feeling in the behaviour of the wild boy who had been found in the woods near Aveyron--where he had spent most part of his young life in perfect isolation from all human beings--when he, after being removed to Paris, was once taken back to the country, to the vale of Montmorence. Joy was painted in his eyes, in all the motions and postures of his body, at the view of the hills and the woods of the charming valley; he appeared more than ever restless and savage, and "in spite of the most assiduous attention that was paid to his wishes, and the most affectionate regard that was expressed for him, he seemed to be occupied only with an anxious desire of taking his flight."[105] How much greater must not the love of home be in him who has there his relatives and friends! Mr. Howitt tells us of {169} an Australian native who, on leaving his camp with him for a trip of about a week, burst into tears, saying to himself once and again, "My country, my people, I shall not see them."[106] The Veddahs of Ceylon "would exchange their wild forest life for none other, and it was with the utmost difficulty that they could be induced to quit even for a short time their favourite solitude."[107] The Stiêns of Cambodia are so strongly attached to their forests and mountains that to leave them seems almost like death.[108] Solomon Islanders not seldom die from home-sickness on their way to the Fiji or Queensland plantations.[109] The Hovas of Madagascar, when setting out on a journey, often take with them a small portion of their native earth, on which they gaze during their absence, invoking their god that they may be permitted to return to restore it to the place from which it was taken.[110] Mr. Crawfurd observes that in the Malay Archipelago the attachment to the native spot is strongest with the agricultural tribes;[111] but, though a settled life is naturally most favourable to its development, this feeling is not inconsistent with nomadism. The Nishinam, who are the most nomadic of all the Californian tribes, have very great attachment for the valley or flat which they count their home.[112]

[Footnote 105: Itard, _Account of the Discovery and Education of a Savage Man_, p. 70 _sqq._]

[Footnote 106: Brough Smyth, _Aborigines of Victoria_, ii. 305.]

[Footnote 107: Hartshorne, 'Weddas,' in _Indian Antiquary_, viii. 317.]

[Footnote 108: Mouhot, _Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China_, i. 243.]

[Footnote 109: Guppy, _op. cit._ p. 167.]

[Footnote 110: Ellis, _History of Madagascar_, i. 141.]

[Footnote 111: Crawfurd, _History of the Indian Archipelago_, i. 84.]

[Footnote 112: Powers, _op. cit._ p. 318 _sq._ For other instances of love of home among uncivilised races see von Spix and von Martius, _op. cit._ ii. 242, note (Coroados); von Kotzebue, _op. cit._ iii. 45 (Indians of California); Gibbs, _Tribes of Western Washington and North-Western Oregon_, p. 187; Elliott, _Report of the Seal Islands of Alaska_, p. 240; Hooper, _Ten Months among the Tents of the Tuski_, p. 209; von Siebold, _Aino auf der Insel Yesso_, p. 11; Mallat, _Les Philippines_, ii. 95 (Negritos); von Brenner, _Besuch bei den Kannibalen Sumatras_, p. 194 (Bataks); Earl, _Papuans_, p. 126 (natives of Rotti, near Timor); Ling Roth, _Aborigines of Tasmania_, p. 46; Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_, ii. 174; Cumming, _In the Himalayas_, p. 404 (Paharis); Lane, _Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians_, p. 302 (Bedawees); Tristram, _Great Sahara_, p. 193 _sq._ (Beni M'zab); Burton, _Zanzibar_, ii. 96 (Wanika); _Emin Pasha in Central Africa_, p. 315 (Monbuttu); Andersson, _Lake Ngami_, p. 198 (Ovambo); Rowley, _Africa Unveiled_, p. 63 _sq._ (Kroos of the Grain Coast below Liberia); Price, 'Quissama Tribe,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ i. 187.]

{170} Moreover, as we have noticed above, savages have the greatest regard for their native customs and institutions.[113] Many of them have displayed that love of national independence which gives to patriotism its highest fervour.[114] And among some uncivilised peoples, at least, the force of racial and linguistic unity shows itself even outside the social or political unit. Burckhardt observes that the Bedouins are not only solicitous for the honour of their own respective tribes, but consider the interests of all other tribes as more or less attached to their own, and frequently evince a general _esprit de corps_, lamenting "the losses of any of their tribes occasioned by attacks from settlers or foreign troops, even though at war with those tribes."[115] A Tongan "loves the island on which he was born, in particular, and all the Tonga islands generally, as being one country, and speaking one language."[116] Travellers have noticed how gratifying it is, when visiting an uncultured people, to know a little of their language; there is at once a sympathetic link between the native and the stranger.[117] Even the almost inaccessible Berber of the Great Atlas, in spite of his excessive hatred of the European, will at once give you a kindly glance as soon as you, to his astonishment, utter to him a few words in his own tongue.

[Footnote 113: See _supra_, i. 118 _sq._]

[Footnote 114: _Cf._ Dobrizhoffer, _Account of the Abipones_, ii. 95, 105; Lomonaco, 'Sulle razze indigene del Brasile,' in _Archivio per l'antropologia e la etnologia_, xix. 57 (Tupis); Brett, _Indian Tribes of Guiana_, p. 348; Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes of the United States_, iii. 189 (Iroquois); Nansen, _Eskimo Life_, p. 323 (Greenlanders); Macpherson, _Memorials of Service in India_, p. 81 (Kandhs); Sarasin, _op. cit._ iii. 530 (Veddahs); Casati, _Ten Years in Equatoria_, i. 188, 304 (Negroes of Central Africa); Fritsch, _Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrika's_, p. 422 _sq._ (Bushmans).]

[Footnote 115: Burckhardt, _Bedouins and Wahábys_, p. 205.]

[Footnote 116: Mariner, _Natives of the Tonga Islands_, ii. 156.]

[Footnote 117: See Stokes, _Discoveries in Australia_, ii. 25.]

Like other species of the altruistic sentiment, patriotism is apt to overestimate the qualities of the object for which it is felt; and it does so all the more readily as love of one's country is almost inseparably intermingled with love of one's self. The ordinary, typical patriot has a strong will to believe that his nation is the best. If, as many {171} people nowadays seem to maintain, such a will to believe is an essential characteristic of true patriotism, savages are as good patriots as anybody. In their intercourse with white men they have often with astonishment noticed the arrogant air of superiority adopted by the latter; in their own opinion they are themselves vastly superior to the whites. According to Eskimo beliefs, the first man, though made by the Great Being, was a failure, and was consequently cast aside and called _kob-lu-na_, which means "white man"; but a second attempt of the Great Being resulted in the formation of a perfect man, and he was called _in-nu_, the name which the Eskimo give to themselves.[118] Australian natives, on being asked to work, have often replied, "White fellow works, not black fellow; black fellow gentleman."[119] When anything foolish is done, the Chippewas use an expression which means "as stupid as a white man."[120] If a South Sea Islander sees a very awkward person, he says, "How stupid you are; perhaps you are an Englishman."[121] Mr. Williams tells us of a Fijian who, having been to the United States, was ordered by his chiefs to say whether the country of the white man was better than Fiji, and in what respects. He had not, however, gone far in telling the truth, when one cried out, "He is a prating fellow"; another, "He is impudent"; and some said, "Kill him."[122] The Koriaks are more argumentative; in order to prove that the accounts they hear of the advantages of other countries are so many lies, they say to the stranger, "If you could enjoy these advantages at home, what made you take so much trouble to come to us?"[123] But the Koriaks, in their turn are looked down upon by their neighbours, the Chukchi, who call the surrounding peoples old women, only fit to guard their flocks, and to be their attendants.[124] The Ainu despise the Japanese {172} just as much as the Japanese despise them, and are convinced of "the superiority of their own blood and descent over that of all other peoples in the world."[125] Even the miserable Veddah of Ceylon has a very high opinion of himself, and regards his civilised neighbours with contempt.[126] As is often the case with civilised men, savages attribute to their own people all kinds of virtue in perfection. The South American Mbayás, according to Azara, "se croient la nation la plus noble du monde, la plus généreuse, la plus exacte à tenir sa parole avec loyauté, et la plus vaillante."[127] The Eskimo of Norton Sound speak of themselves as _yu'-p[)i]k_, meaning fine or complete people, whereas an Indian is termed _iñ-k[)i]-l[)i]k_, from a word which means "a louse egg."[128] When a Greenlander saw a foreigner of gentle and modest manners, his usual remark was, "He is almost as well-bred as we," or, "He begins to be a man," that is, a Greenlander.[129] The savage regards his people as the people, as the root of all others, and as occupying the middle of the earth. The Hottentots love to call themselves "the men of men."[130] The Indians of the Ungava district, Hudson Bay, give themselves the name _nenenot_, that is, true or ideal red men.[131] In the language of the Illinois Indians the word _illinois_ means "men"--"as if they looked upon all other Indians as beasts."[132] The aborigines of Hayti believed that their island was the first of all things, that the sun and moon issued from one of its caverns, and men from another.[133] Each Australian tribe, says Mr. Curr, regards its country as the centre of the earth, which in most cases is believed not to extend more than a couple of hundred miles or so in any direction.[134]

[Footnote 118: Hall, _Arctic Researches_, p. 566 _sq._]

[Footnote 119: Hale, _U.S. Exploring Expedition. Vol. VI. Ethnography and Philology_, p. 109.]

[Footnote 120: Keating, _Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River_, ii. 168. See also Boller, _Among the Indians_, p. 54 _sq._]

[Footnote 121: Williams, _Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands_, p. 514.]

[Footnote 122: Williams and Calvert, _Fiji_, p. 105.]

[Footnote 123: Krasheninnikoff, _History of Kamschatka_, p. 224.]

[Footnote 124: Sauer, _op. cit._ p. 255.]

[Footnote 125: Batchelor, 'Notes on the Ainu,' in _Trans. Asiatic Soc. Japan_, x. 211 _sq._ Howard, _Life with Trans-Siberian Savages_, p. 182.]

[Footnote 126: Nevill, in _Taprobanian_, i. 192. Sarasin, _op. cit._ iii. 530, 534. 553.]

[Footnote 127: Azara, _Voyages dans l'Amérique méridionale_, ii. 107.]

[Footnote 128: Nelson, 'Eskimo about Bering Strait,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xviii. 306 _sq._]

[Footnote 129: Cranz, _History of Greenland_, i. 126.]

[Footnote 130: Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_, p. 92.]

[Footnote 131: Turner, 'Ethnology of the Ungava District,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xi. 267.]

[Footnote 132: Marquette, _Recit des voyages_, p. 47 _sq._]

[Footnote 133: Brett, _Indian Tribes of Guiana_, p. 376.]

[Footnote 134: Curr, _The Australian Race_, i. 50. For other instances of national conceit or pride among savages see Darwin, _Journal of Researches_, p. 207 (Fuegians); von den Steinen, _Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens_, p. 332 (Bakaïri); von Humboldt, _Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent_, v. 423, and Brett, _op. cit._ p. 128 (Guiana Indians); James, _Expedition to the Rocky Mountains_, i. 320 (Omahas); Murdoch, in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ ix. 42 (Point Barrow Eskimo); Krasheninnikoff, _op. cit._ p. 180 (Kamchadales); Brough Smyth, _op. cit._ ii. 284 (Australian natives); Macpherson, _op. cit._ p. 67 (Kandhs); Munzinger, _Ueber die Sitten und das Recht der Bogos_, p. 94; Andersson, _Lake Ngami_, p. 198 (Ovambo).]

{173} We meet with similar feelings and ideas among the nations of archaic culture. The Chinese are taught to think themselves superior to all other peoples. In their writings, ancient and modern, the word "foreigner" is regularly joined with some disrespectful epithet, implying or expressing the ignorance, brutality, obstinacy, or meanness of alien nations, and their obligations to or dependence upon China.[135] To Confucius himself China was "the middle kingdom," "the multitude of great states," "all under heaven," beyond which were only rude and barbarous tribes.[136] According to Japanese ideas, Nippon was the first country created, and the centre of the world.[137] The ancient Egyptians considered themselves as the peculiar people, specially loved by the gods. They alone were termed "men" (_romet_); other nations were negroes, Asiatics, or Libyans, but not men; and according to the myth these nations were descended from the enemies of the gods.[138] The national pride of the Assyrians, so often referred to by the Hebrew prophets,[139] is conspicuous everywhere in their cuneiform inscriptions: they are the wise, the brave, the powerful, who, like the deluge, carry away all resistance; their kings are the "matchless, irresistible"; and their gods are much exalted above the gods of all other nations.[140] To the Hebrews their own land was "an exceeding good land," "flowing with milk and honey," "the glory of all lands";[141] and its inhabitants were a holy {174} people which the Lord had chosen "to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth."[142] Concerning the ancient Persians, Herodotus writes:--"They look upon themselves as very greatly superior in all respects to the rest of mankind, regarding others as approaching to excellence in proportion as they dwell nearer to them; whence it comes to pass that those who are the farthest off must be the most degraded of mankind."[143] To this day the monarch of Persia retains the title of "the Centre of the Universe"; and it is not easy to persuade a native of Isfahan that any European capital can be superior to his native city.[144] The Greeks called Delphi--or rather the round stone in the Delphic temple--"the navel" or "middle point of the earth";[145] and they considered the natural relation between themselves and barbarians to be that between master and slave.[146]

[Footnote 135: Philip, _Life and Opinions of the Rev. W. Milne_, p. 257. _Cf._ Staunton, in _Narrative of the Chinese Embassy to the Khan of the Tourgouth Tartars_, p. viii.]

[Footnote 136: Legge, _Chinese Classics_, i. 107. See also Giles, _op. cit._ ii. 116, n. 2.]

[Footnote 137: Griffis, _Religions of Japan_, p. 207.]

[Footnote 138: Erman, _Life in Ancient Egypt_, p. 32.]

[Footnote 139: _Isaiah_, x. 7 _sqq._; xxxvii. 24 _sqq._ _Ezekiel_, xxxi. 10 _sq._ _Zephaniah_, ii. 15.]

[Footnote 140: Mürdter-Delitzsch, _Geschichte Babyloniens und Assyriens_, p. 104.]

[Footnote 141: _Numbers_, xiii. 27; xiv. 7. _Ezekiel_, xx. 6, 15.]

[Footnote 142: _Deuteronomy_, vii. 6.]

[Footnote 143: Herodotus, i. 134.]

[Footnote 144: Rawlinson, in his translation of Herodotus, i. 260 _sq._ n. 5.]

[Footnote 145: Pindar, _Pythia_, vi. 3 _sq._ _Idem_, _Nemea_, vii. 33 _sq._ Aeschylus, _Eumenides_, 40, 166. Sophocles, _[OE]dipus Tyrannus_, 480, 898. Livy, xxxviii. 48. _Cf._ Herodotus' theory of "extremities" (iii. 115 _sq._), and Rawlinson's commentary, in his translation of Herodotus, i. 260 _sq._ n. 6.]

[Footnote 146: Euripides, _Iphigenia in Aulide_, 1400 _sq._ Aristotle, _Politica_, i. 2, 6, pp. 1252 b, 1255 a.]

In the archaic State the national feeling is in some cases greatly strengthened by the religious feeling; whilst in other instances religion inspires devotion to the family, clan, or caste rather than to the nation, or constitutes a tie not only between compatriots but between members of different political communities. The ancestor-worship of the Chinese has hardly been conducive to genuine patriotism. Whatever devotion to the common weal may have prevailed among the Vedic Aryans, it has certainly passed away beneath the influence of Brahmanism, or been narrowed down to the caste, the village, or the family.[147] The Zoroastrian Ahura-Mazda was not a national god, but "the god of the Aryans," that is, of all the peoples who inhabited ancient Iran; and these were constantly at war {175} with one another.[148] Muhammedans, whilst animated with a common hatred towards the Christians, show little public spirit in relation to their respective countries,[149] composed as they are of a variety of loosely connected, often very heterogeneous elements, ruled over by a monarch whose power is in many districts more nominal than real. In ancient Greece and Rome patriotism no doubt contained a religious element--each state and town had its tutelary gods and heroes, who were considered its proper masters;[150] but in the first place it was free citizens' love of their native institutions, a civic virtue which grew up on the soil of liberty. When the two Spartans who were sent to Xerxes to be put to death were advised by one of his governors to surrender themselves to the king, their answer was, "Had you known what freedom is, you would have bidden us fight for it, not with the spear only, but with the battle-axe."[151] And of the Athenians who lived at the time of the Persian wars, Demosthenes said that they were ready to die for their country rather than to see it enslaved, and that they considered the outrages and insults which befell him who lived in a subjugated city to be more terrible than death.[152] In classical antiquity "the influence of patriotism thrilled through every fibre of moral and intellectual life."[153] In some Greek cities emigration was prohibited by law, at Argos even on penalty of death.[154] Plato, in the Republic, sacrificed the family to the interests of the State. Cicero placed our duty to our country next after our duty to the immortal gods and before our duty to our parents.[155] "Of all connections," he says, "none is more weighty, none is more dear, than that between every individual and his country. Our parents are dear to us; {176} our children, our kinsmen, our friends, are dear to us; but our country comprehends alone all the endearments of us all. What good man would hesitate to die for her if he could do her service?"[156]

[Footnote 147: Wheeler, _History of India_, ii. 586 _sq._ See also Leist, _Alt-arisches Jus Gentium_, p. 529.]

[Footnote 148: Meyer, _Geschichte des Alterthums_, i. 540. Spiegel, _Erânische Alterthumskunde_, iii. 687 _sqq._]

[Footnote 149: Polak, _Persien_, i. 12. Urquhart, _Spirit of the East_, ii. 427, 439 (Turks). Burckhardt, _Bedouins and Wahábys_, p. 204 _sq._ (Turks and Arab settlers).]

[Footnote 150: Leist, _Alt-arisches Jus Gentium_, p. 529. Schmidt, _Die Ethik der alten Griechen_, ii. 221.]

[Footnote 151: Herodotus, vii. 134 _sq._]

[Footnote 152: Demosthenes, _De Corona_, 205, p. 296.]

[Footnote 153: Lecky, _History of European Morals_, i. 200.]

[Footnote 154: Plutarch, _Lycurgus_, xxvii. 5. Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, xv. 29.]

[Footnote 155: Cicero, _De officiis_, i. 45 (160). _Cf._ _ibid._ iii. 23 (90).]

[Footnote 156: _Ibid._ i. 17 (57). _Cf._ Cicero, _De legibus_, ii. 2, (5).]

The duty of patriotism springs, in the first instance, from the patriotic feeling; when the love of country is common in a nation public resentment is felt towards him who does not act as that sentiment requires him to act. Moreover, lack of patriotism in a person may also be resented by his fellow-countrymen as an injury done to themselves; and as we have seen before, anger, and especially anger felt by a whole community, has a tendency to lead to moral disapproval. For analogous reasons deeds of patriotism are apt to evoke moral praise. However, in benefiting his own people the patriot may cause harm to other people; and where the altruistic sentiment is broad enough to extend beyond the limits of the State and strong enough to make its voice heard even in competition with the love of country and the love of self, his conduct may consequently be an object of reproach. At the lower stages of civilisation the interests of foreigners are not regarded at all, except when sheltered by the rule of hospitality; but gradually, owing to circumstances which will be discussed in the following chapter, altruism tends to expand, and men are at last considered to have duties to mankind at large. The Chinese moralists inculcated benevolence to all men without making any reference to national distinctions.[157] Mih-tsze, who lived in the interval between Confucius and Mencius, even taught that we ought to love all men equally; but this doctrine called forth protests as abnegating the peculiar devotion due to relatives.[158] In Thâi-Shang it is said that a good man will feel kindly towards every creature, and should not hurt even the insect tribes, grass, and trees.[159] Buddhism {177} enjoins the duty of universal love:--"As a mother, even at the risk of her own life, protects her son, her only son, so let a man cultivate goodwill without measure toward all beings, . . . unhindered love and friendliness toward the whole world, above, below, around."[160] According to the Hindu work Panchatantra it is the thought of little-minded persons to consider whether a man is one of ourselves or an alien, the whole earth being of kin to him who is generously disposed.[161] In Greece and Rome philosophers arose who opposed national narrowness and prejudice. Democritus of Abdera said that every country is accessible to a wise man, and that a good soul's fatherland is the whole earth.[162] The same view was expressed by Theodorus, one of the later Cyrenaics, who denounced devotion to country as ridiculous.[163] The Cynics, in particular, attached slight value to the citizenship of any special state, declaring themselves to be citizens of the world.[164] But, as Zeller observes, in the mouth of the Cynic this doctrine was meant to express not so much the essential oneness of all mankind, as the philosopher's independence of country and home.[165] It was the Stoic philosophy that first gave to the idea of a world-citizenship a definite positive meaning, and raised it to historical importance. The citizen of Alexander's huge empire had in a way become a citizen of the world; and national dislikes were so much more readily overcome as the various nationalities comprised in it were united not only under a common government but also in a common culture.[166] Indeed, the founder of Stoicism was himself only half a Greek. But there is also an obvious connection between the cosmopolitan idea and the Stoic {178} system in general.[167] According to the Stoics, human society has for its basis the identity of reason in individuals; hence we have no ground for limiting this society to a single nation. We are all, says Seneca, members of one great body, the universe; "we are all akin by Nature, who has formed us of the same elements, and placed us here together for the same end."[168] "If our reason is common," says Marcus Aurelius, "there is a common law, as reason commands us what to do and what not to do; and if there is a common law we are fellow-citizens; if this is so, we are members of some political community--the world is in a manner a state."[169] To this great state, which includes all rational beings, the individual states are related as the houses of a city are to the city collectively;[170] and the wise man will esteem it far above any particular community in which the accident of birth has placed him.[171]

[Footnote 157: _Lun Yü_, xii. 22. Mencius, vii. 1. 45. Douglas, _Confucianism and Taouism_, pp. 108, 205.]

[Footnote 158: Edkins, _Religion in China_, p. 119. Legge, _Chinese Classics_, ii. 476, n. 45. de Groot, _Religious System of China_, (vol. ii. book) i. 684.]

[Footnote 159: _Thâi-Shang_, 3.]

[Footnote 160: Quoted by Rhys Davids, _Hibbert Lectures on the History of Buddhism_, p. 111.]

[Footnote 161: Muir, _Religious and Moral Sentiments rendered from Sanskrit Writers_, p. 109.]

[Footnote 162: Stobæus, _Florilegium_, xl. 7, vol. ii. 80. _Cf._ Natorp, _Die Ethika des Demokritos_, p. 117, n. 41.]

[Footnote 163: Diogenes Laertius, _Vitæ philosophorum_, ii. 98 _sq._]

[Footnote 164: _Ibid._ vi. 12, 63, 72, 98. Epictetus, _Dissertationes_, iii. 24. 66. Stobæus, xlv. 28, vol. ii. 252.]

[Footnote 165: Zeller, _Socrates and the Socratic Schools_, p. 326 _sq._ _Idem_, _Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics_, p. 327.]

[Footnote 166: _Cf._ Plutarch, _De Alexandri Magni fortuna aut virtute_, i. 6, p. 329.]

[Footnote 167: See Zeller, _Stoics, &c._ p. 327 _sq._]

[Footnote 168: Seneca, _Epistulæ_, xcv. 52.]

[Footnote 169: Marcus Aurelius, _Commentarii_, iv. 4. _Cf._ _ibid._ vi. 44, and ix. 9; Cicero, _De legibus_, i. 7 (23); Epictetus, _Dissertationes_, i. 13. 3.]

[Footnote 170: Marcus Aurelius, iii. 11.]

[Footnote 171: Seneca, _De otio_, iv. 1. _Idem_, _Epistulæ_, lxviii. 2. Epictetus, _Dissertationes_, iii. 22. 83 _sqq._]

But the Roman ideal of patriotism, with its utter disregard for foreign nations,[172] was not opposed by philosophy alone: it met with an even more formidable antagonist in the new religion. The Christian and the Stoic rejected it on different grounds: whilst the Stoic felt himself as a citizen of the world, the Christian felt himself as a citizen of heaven, to whom this planet was only a place of exile. Christianity was not hostile to the State.[173] At the very time when Nero committed his worst atrocities, St. Paul declared that there is no power but of God, and that whosoever resists the power resists the ordinance of God and shall be condemned;[174] and Tertullian says that all Christians send up their prayers for the life of the emperors, for their ministers, for magistrates, for the good of the {179} State and the peace of the Empire.[175] But the emperor should be obeyed only so long as his commands do not conflict with the law of God--a Christian ought rather to suffer like Daniel in the lions' den than sin against his religion;[176] and nothing is more entirely foreign to him than affairs of State.[177] Indeed, in the whole Roman Empire there were no men who so entirely lacked patriotism as the early Christians. They had no affection for Judea, they soon forgot Galilee, they cared nothing for the glory of Greece and Rome.[178] When the judges asked them which was their country they said in answer, "I am a Christian."[179] And long after Christianity had become the religion of the Empire, St. Augustine declared that it matters not, in respect of this short and transitory life, under whose dominion a mortal man lives, if only he be not compelled to acts of impiety or injustice.[180] Later on, when the Church grew into a political power independent of the State, she became a positive enemy of national interests. In the seventeenth century a Jesuit general called patriotism "a plague and the most certain death of Christian love."[181]

[Footnote 172: _Cf._ Lactantius, _Divinæ Institutiones_, vi. ('De vero cultu'), 6 (Migne, _Patrologiæ cursus_, vi. 655).]

[Footnote 173: _St. Matthew_, xxii. 21. _1 Peter_, ii. 13 _sq._]

[Footnote 174: _Romans_, xiii. 1 _sq._ See also _Titus_, iii. 1.]

[Footnote 175: Tertullian, _Apologeticus_, 39 (Migne, _op. cit._ i. 468). See also Ludwig, _Tertullian's Ethik_, p. 98 _sq._]

[Footnote 176: Tertullian, _De idololatria_, 15 (Migne, _op. cit._ i. 684).]

[Footnote 177: Tertullian, _Apologeticus_, 38 (Migne, _op. cit._ i. 465):--"Nec ulla magis res aliena, quam publica."]

[Footnote 178: See Renan, _Hibbert Lectures on the Influence of Rome on Christianity_, p. 28.]

[Footnote 179: Le Blant, _Inscriptions chrétiennes_, i. 128.]

[Footnote 180: St. Augustine, _De Civitate Dei_, v. 17.]

[Footnote 181: von Eicken, _Geschichte und System der mittelalterlichen Weltanschauung_, p. 809.]

With the fall of the Roman Empire patriotism died out in Europe, and remained extinct for centuries. It was a feeling hardly compatible either with the migratory life of the Teutonic tribes or with the feudal system, which grew up wherever they fixed their residence. The knights, it is true, were not destitute of the natural affection for home. When Aliaumes is mortally wounded by Géri li Sors he exclaims, "Holy Virgin, I shall never more see Saint-Quentin nor Néèle";[182] and the troubadour Bernard de Ventadour touchingly sings, "Quan la doussa aura venta--Deves nostre païs,--M'es veiaire que senta--Odor de {180} Paradis."[183] But to a man of the Middle Ages "his country" meant little more than the neighbourhood in which he lived.[184] Kingdoms existed, but no nations. The first duty of a vassal was to be loyal to his lord;[185] but no national spirit bound together the various barons of one country. A man might be the vassal of the king of France and of the king of England at the same time; and often, from caprice, passion, or sordid interest, the barons sold their services to the enemies of the kingdom. The character of his knighthood was also perpetually pressing the knight to a course of conduct distinct from all national objects.[186] The cause of a distressed lady was in many instances preferable to that of the country to which he belonged --as when the Captal de Bouche, though an English subject, did not hesitate to unite his troops with those of the Compte de Foix to relieve the ladies in a French town, where they were besieged and threatened with violence by the insurgent peasantry.[187] When a knight's duties towards his country are mentioned in the rules of Chivalry they are spoken of as duties towards his lord:--"The wicked knight," it is said, "that aids not his earthly lord and natural country against another prince, is a knight without office."[188] Far from being, as M. Gautier asserts,[189] the object of an express command in the code of Chivalry, true patriotism had there no place at all. It was not known as an ideal, still less did it exist as a reality, among either knights or commoners. As a duke of Orleans could bind himself by a fraternity of arms and alliance to a duke of Lancaster,[190] so English merchants were in the habit of supplying nations at war against England with provisions bought at English fairs, and weapons wrought by English hands.[191] If, as M. Gaston Paris maintains, a {181} deep feeling of national union had inspired the Chanson de Roland,[192] it is a strange, yet undeniable, fact that no distinct trace of this feeling displayed itself in the mediæval history of France before the English wars.

[Footnote 182: _Li Romans de Raoul de Cambrai_, 210, p. 185.]

[Footnote 183: Quoted by Gautier, _La Chevalerie_, p. 64.]

[Footnote 184: See Cibrario, _Della economia politica del medio eve_, i. 263; de Crozals, _Histoire de la civilization_, ii. 287.]

[Footnote 185: _Ordre of Chyualry_, foll. 13 b. 32 b.]

[Footnote 186: See Mills, _History of Chivalry_, i. 140 _sq._]

[Footnote 187: Scott, _Essay on Chivalry_, p. 31.]

[Footnote 188: _Ordre of Chyualry_, fol. 14 b.]

[Footnote 189: Gautier, _op. cit._ p. 33.]

[Footnote 190: Sainte-Palaye, _Mémoires sur l'ancienne Chevalerie_, ii. 72.]

[Footnote 191: Pike, _History of Crime in England_, i. 264 _sq._]

[Footnote 192: Paris, _La poésie du moyen age_, p. 107. M. Gautier says (_op. cit._ p. 61) that Roland is "la France faite homme."]

Besides feudalism and the want of political cohesion, there were other factors that contributed to hinder the development of national personality and patriotic devotion. This sentiment presupposes not only that the various parts of which a country is composed shall have a vivid feeling of their unity, but also that they, united, shall feel themselves as a nation clearly distinct from other nations. In the Middle Ages national differences were largely obscured by the preponderance of the Universal Church, by the creation of the Holy Roman Empire, by the prevalence of a common language as the sole vehicle of mental culture, and by the undeveloped state of the vernacular tongues. To make use of the native dialect was a sign of ignorance, and to place worldly interests above the claims of the Church was impious. When Macchiavelli declared that he preferred his country to the safety of his soul, people considered him guilty of blasphemy; and when the Venetians defied the Papal thunders by averring that they were Venetians in the first place, and only Christians in the second, the world heard them with amazement.[193]

[Footnote 193: 'National Personality,' in _Edinburgh Review_, cxciv. 133.]

In England the national feeling developed earlier than on the Continent, no doubt owing to her insular position and freer institutions; as Montesquieu observes, patriotism thrives best in democracies.[194] At the time of the English Reformation the sense of corporate national life had evidently gained considerable strength, and the love of England has never been expressed in more exquisite form than it was by Shakespeare. At the same time the sense of patriotism was often grossly perverted by religious {182} bigotry and party spirit.[195] Even champions of liberty, like Lord Russell and Algernon Sidney, accepted French gold in the hope of embarrassing the King; and Sidney went so far as to try to instigate De Witt to invade England. Loyalism, in particular, proved a much stronger incentive than love of country. A loyalist like Strafford would have employed half-savage Irish troops against his own countrymen, and the Scotch Jacobites invited a French invasion.

[Footnote 194: Montesquieu, _De l'esprit des Lois_, iv. 5 (_[OE]uvres_, p. 206 _sq._).]

[Footnote 195: See _Edinburgh Review_, cxciv. 133, 136 _sq._; Pearson, _National Life and Character_, p. 190.]

In France the development of the national feeling was closely connected with the strengthening of the royal power and its gradual victory over feudalism. The word _patrie_ was for the first time used by Charles VII.'s chronicler, Jean Chartier, and he also condemned as _renégats_ those Frenchmen who, at the end of the hundred years war, fought on the side of the English.[196] But patriotism was for a long time inseparably confounded with loyalty to the sovereign. According to Bossuet "tout l'État est en la personne du prince";[197] and Abbé Coyer observes that Colbert believed _royaume_ and _patrie_ to signify one and the same thing.[198] In the eighteenth century the spirit of rebellion succeeded that of devotion to the king; but the key-note of the great movement which led to the Revolution was the liberty and equality of the individual, not the glory or welfare of the nation. Men were looked upon as members of the human race, rather than as citizens of any particular country. To be a citizen of every nation, and not to belong to one's native country alone, was the dream of French writers in the eighteenth century.[199] "The true sage is a cosmopolitan," says a writer of comedy.[200] Diderot asks which is the greater merit, to enlighten the human race, which remains for ever, or to save one's fatherland, which is {183} perishable.[201] According to Voltaire patriotism is composed of self-love and prejudice,[202] and only too often makes us the enemies of our fellow-men:--"Il est clair qu'un pays ne peut gagner sans qu'un autre perde, et qu'il ne peut vaincre sans faire des malheureux. Telle est donc la condition humaine, que souhaiter la grandeur de son pays, c'est souhaiter du mal à ses voisins."[203] In Germany, Lessing, Goethe, and Schiller felt themselves as citizens of the world, not of the German Empire, still less as Saxons or Suabians; and Klopstock, with his enthusiasm for German nationality and language, almost appeared eccentric.[204] Lessing writes point-blank:--"The praise of being an ardent patriot is to my mind the very last thing that I should covet; . . . I have no idea at all of love of the Fatherland, and it seems to me at best but an heroical weakness, which I can very readily dispense with."[205]

[Footnote 196: Guibal, _Histoire du sentiment national en France pendant la guerre de Cent ans_, p. 526 _sq._]

[Footnote 197: Legrand, _L'idée de patrie_, p. 20.]

[Footnote 198: Block, _Dictionnaire général de la politique_, ii. 518.]

[Footnote 199: Texte, _Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Cosmopolitan Spirit in Literature_, p. 79.]

[Footnote 200: Palissot de Montenoy, _Les philosophes_, iii. 4, p. 75.]

[Footnote 201: Diderot, _Essai sur les règnes de Claude et de Néron_, ii. 75 (_[OE]uvres_, vi. 244).]

[Footnote 202: Voltaire, _Pensées sur l'administration publique_, 14 (_[OE]uvres complètes_, v. 351).]

[Footnote 203: _Idem_, _Dictionnaire philosophique_, art. Patrie (_[OE]uvres complètes_, viii. 118).]

[Footnote 204: See Strauss, _Der alte und der neue Glaube_, p. 259 _sq._]

[Footnote 205: Lessing, quoted by Ziegler, _Social Ethics_, p. 121.]

The first French revolution marks the beginning of a new era in the history of patriotism. It inspired the masses with passion for the unity of the fatherland, the Republic "one and indivisible." At the same time it declared all nations to be brothers, and when it made war on foreign nations the object was only to deliver them from their oppressors.[206] But gradually the interest in the affairs of other countries grew more and more selfish, the attempt to emancipate was absorbed in the desire to subjugate; and this awoke throughout Europe a feeling which was destined to become the most powerful force in the history of the nineteenth century, the feeling of nationality. When Napoleon introduced French administration in the countries whose sovereigns he had deposed or degraded, the people resisted the change. The resistance was popular, as the rulers were absent or helpless, and it was national, being directed against foreign institutions.{184} It was stirred by the feeling of national rather than political unity, it was a protest against the dominion of race over race. The national element in this movement had in a manner been anticipated by the French Revolution itself. The French people was regarded by it as an ethnological, not as an historic, unit; descent was put in the place of tradition; the idea of the sovereignty of the people uncontrolled by the past gave birth to the idea of nationality independent of the political influence of history. But, as has been truly remarked, men were made conscious of the national element of the revolution by its conquests, not in its rise.[207]

[Footnote 206: Block, _op. cit._ ii. 376.]

[Footnote 207: See 'Nationality,' in _Home and Foreign Review_, i. 6 _sqq._]

Ever since, the racial feeling has been the most vigorous force in European patriotism, and has gradually become a true danger to humanity. Beginning as a protest against the dominion of one race over another, this feeling led to a condemnation of every state which included different races, and finally developed into the complete doctrine that state and nationality should so far as possible be coextensive.[208] According to this theory the dominant nationality cannot admit the inferior nationalities dwelling within the boundaries of the state to an equality with itself, because, if it did, the state would cease to be national, and this would be contrary to the principle of its existence; or the weaker nationalities are compelled to change their language, institutions, and individuality, so as to be absorbed in the dominant race. And not only does the leading nationality assert its superiority in relation to all others within the body politic, but it also wants to assert itself at the expense of foreign nations and races. To the nationalist all this is true patriotism; love of country often stands for a feeling which has been well described as love of more country.[209] But at the same time opposite ideals are at work. The fervour of nineteenth century nationalism has not been able to quench the {185} cosmopolitan spirit. In spite of loud appeals made to racial instincts and the sense of national solidarity, the idea has been gaining ground that the aims of a nation must not conflict with the interests of humanity at large; that our love of country should be controlled by other countries' right to prosper and to develop their own individuality; and that the oppression of weaker nationalities inside the state and aggressiveness towards foreign nations, being mainly the outcome of vainglory and greed, are inconsistent with the aspirations of a good patriot, as well as of a good man.

[Footnote 208: _Ibid._ p. 13 _sq._]

[Footnote 209: Robertson, _Patriotism and Empire_, p. 138.]

* * * * *

Our long discussion of moral ideas regarding such modes of conduct as directly concern other men's welfare has at last come to an end. We have seen that they may be ultimately traced to a variety of sources: to the influence of habit or education, to egoistic considerations of some kind or other which have given rise to moral feelings, to notions of social expediency, to disinterested likings or dislikes, and, above all, to sympathetic resentment or sympathetic approval springing from an altruistic disposition of mind. But how to account for this disposition? Our explanation of that group of moral ideas which we have been hitherto investigating is not complete until we have found an answer to this important question. I shall therefore in the next chapter examine the origin and development of the altruistic sentiment.

CHAPTER XXXIV

THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ALTRUISTIC SENTIMENT

THERE is one form of the altruistic sentiment which man shares with all mammals and many other animals, namely, maternal affection. As regards its origin various theories have been set forth.

According to Aristotle, parents love their children as being portions of themselves.[1] A similar explanation of maternal affection has been given by some modern writers.[2] Thus Professor Espinas regards this sentiment as modified self-love and love of property. The female, he says, at the moment when she gives birth to little ones resembling herself, has no difficulty in recognising them as the flesh of her flesh; the feeling she experiences towards them is made up of sympathy and pity, but we cannot exclude from it an idea of property which is the most solid support of sympathy. She feels and understands up to a certain point that these young ones which are herself at the same time belong to her; the love of herself, extended to those who have gone out from her, changes egoism into sympathy and the proprietary instinct into an affectionate impulse.[3] This hypothesis, however, seems to me to be very inadequate. It does not explain why, for instance, a bird takes more care of her eggs than of other matter segregated from {187} her body, which may equally well be regarded as a part of herself. Nor does it account for a foster-mother's affection for her adopted offspring.[4] Of this many instances have been noticed in the lower animals; and among some savage peoples adopted children are said to be treated by their foster-parents with the same affection as if they were their own flesh and blood.[5]

[Footnote 1: Aristotle, _Ethica Nicomachea_, viii. 12. 2 _sq._]

[Footnote 2: Hartley, _Observations on Man_, i. 496 _sq._ Fichte, _Das System der Sittenlehre_, p. 433.]