The origin and development of the moral ideas

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 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 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

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 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

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.

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 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 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’-pĭk, meaning fine or complete people, whereas an Indian is termed iñ-kĭ-lĭk, 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