The origin and development of the moral ideas

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 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

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 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; 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

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 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 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