The origin and development of the moral ideas

There are thus obvious reasons for the connection between filial submissiveness and religious beliefs; but the chief cause of this connection seems to be the extreme importance frequently attached to the curses and blessings of parents. Among the Nandi in Central Africa, “if a son refuses to obey his father in any serious matter, the father solemnly strikes the son with his fur mantle. This is equivalent to a most serious curse, and is supposed to be fatal to the son unless he obtains forgiveness, which he can only do by sacrificing a goat before his father.”223 Among the Mpongwe “there is nothing which a young person so much deprecates as the curse of an aged person, and especially that of a revered father.”224 The Barea and Kunáma are convinced that any undertaking which has not the blessing of the old people will fail, that every curse uttered by them must be destructive.225 Among the Bogos nobody takes an employment or gives it up, nobody engages in a business or contracts a marriage, before he has received the blessing of his father or his master.226 Among the Herero, “when a chief feels his dissolution approaching, he calls his sons to the bedside, and gives them his benediction.”227 The Moors have a proverb that “if the saints curse you the parents will cure you, but if the parents curse you the saints will not cure you.”

The ancient Hebrews believed that parents, and especially a father, could by their blessings or curses determine the fate of their children;228 indeed, we have reason to assume that the reward which in the fifth commandment is held out to respectful children was originally a result of parental blessings. We still meet with the original idea in Ecclesiasticus, where it is said: “Honour thy father and mother both in word and deed, that a blessing may come upon thee from them. For the blessing of the father establisheth the houses of children; but the curse of the mother rooteth out foundations.”229 The same notion that the parents’ blessings beget prosperity, and that their curses bring ruin, prevailed in ancient Greece. Plato says in his ‘Laws’:—“Neither God, nor a man who has understanding, will ever advise any one to neglect his parents…. If a man has a father or mother, or their fathers or mothers treasured up in his house stricken in years, let him consider that no statue can be more potent to grant his requests than they are, who are sitting at his hearth, if only he knows how to show true service to them….

Oedipus, as tradition says, when dishonoured by his sons, invoked on them curses which every one declares to have been heard and ratified by the gods, and Amyntor in his wrath invoked curses on his son Phoenix, and Theseus upon Hippolytus, and innumerable others have also called down wrath upon their children, whence it is clear that the gods listen to the imprecations of parents; for the curses of parents are, as they ought to be, mighty against their children as no others are. And shall we suppose that the prayers of a father or mother who is specially dishonoured by his or her children, are heard by the gods in accordance with nature; and that if a parent is honoured by them, and in the gladness of his heart earnestly entreats the gods in his prayers to do them good, he is not equally heard, and that they do not minister to his request?… Therefore, if a man makes a right use of his father and grandfather and other aged relations, he will have images which above all others will win him the favour of the gods.”230 Originally the efficacy of parents’ curses and blessings were ascribed to a magic power immanent in the spoken word itself, and their Erinyes, who were no less terrible than the Erinyes of neglected guests,231 were only personifications of their curses.232 But in this, as in other similar cases already noticed, the fulfilment of the curse or the blessing came afterwards to be looked upon as an act of divine justice.

According to Plato, “Nemesis, the messenger of justice,” watches over unbecoming words uttered to a parent;233 and Hesiod says that if anybody reproaches an aged father or mother “Zeus himself is wroth, and at last, in requital for wrong deeds, lays on him a bitter penalty.”234 It also seems to be beyond all doubt that the divi parentum of the Romans, like their dii hospitales, were nothing but personified curses. For it is said, “If a son beat his parent and he cry out, the son shall be devoted to the parental gods for destruction.”235 In aristocratic families in Russia children used to stand in mortal fear of their fathers’ curses;236 and the country people still believe that a marriage without the parents’ approval will call down the wrath of Heaven on the heads of the young couple.237 Some of the Southern Slavs maintain that if a son does not fulfil the last will of his father, the soul of the father will curse him from the grave.238 The Servians say, “Without reverence for old men, there is no salvation.”239

In various instances the rewards or punishments attached to the behaviour of children seem to spring from the belief in parental blessings and curses, although the cause is not expressly mentioned. According to ancient Hindu ideas, a father, mother, and spiritual teacher are equal to the three Vedas, equal to the three gods, Brahman, Vishnu, and Siva.240 A man who shows no regard for them derives no benefit from any religious observance; whereas, “by honouring his mother, he gains the present world; by honouring his father, the world of gods; and by paying strict obedience to his spiritual teacher, the world of Brahman.”241 As in Greece a person who had assaulted his parent was regarded as polluted by a curse,242 so according to the sacred law of India, those who quarrel with their father, and those who have forsaken their father, mother, or spiritual teacher, defile a company and must not be entertained at a Srâddha offering.243 Those who have struck any of these persons cannot be readmitted until they have been purified with water taken from a sacred lake or river.244 The stain of disobedience towards mother and father is purged away with barley-corns, like food which has been licked at by dogs or pigs, or defiled by crows and impure men.245 In the Dhammapada it is said that to him who always greets and constantly reveres the aged four things will increase, namely, life, beauty, happiness, and power.246 The Coreans believe that “the richest rewards on earth and brightest heaven hereafter await the filial child,” whereas “curses and disgrace in this life and the hottest

hell in the world hereafter are the penalties of the disobedient or neglectful child.”247 It seems to have been a notion of the ancient Egyptians that a son who accepted the word of his father would attain old age on that account.248 The following is an exhortation which an Aztec gave to his son:—“Guard against imitating the example of those wicked sons who, like brutes that are deprived of reason, neither reverence their parents, listen to their instruction, nor submit to their correction; because whoever follows their steps will have an unhappy end, will die in a desperate or sudden manner, or will be killed and devoured by wild beasts.”249 And if an Aztec married without the sanction of his parents, the belief was that he would be punished with some misfortune.250 The Aleuts were of opinion that those who were attentive to feeble old men, expecting in exchange their good advice only, would be long-lived and fortunate in the chase and in war, and would not be neglected when growing old themselves.251 In the Tonga Islands “disrespect to one’s superior relations is little short of sacrilege to the gods,” and to pay respect to chiefs is “a superior sacred duty, the non-fulfilment of which it is supposed the gods would punish almost as severely as disrespect to themselves.”252 In the same islands great efficacy is ascribed to curses which are uttered by a superior.253