Читать книгу The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas - Edward Westermarck - Страница 61

Table of Contents

IT was said in the last chapter that moral disapproval is a sub-species of resentment, and that resentment is, in its essence, an aggressive attitude of mind towards an assumed cause of pain. It was shown that, in the course of mental evolution, the true direction of the hostile reaction involved in moral disapproval has become more apparent. We shall now see that, at the same time, its aggressive character has become more disguised.

This is evidenced by the changed opinion about anger and revenge which we meet at the higher stages of moral development. Retaliation is condemned, and forgiveness of injuries is laid down as a duty.

The rule that a person should be forbearing and kind to his enemy has no place in early ethics.

“Let those that speak evil of us perish. Let the enemy be clubbed, swept away, utterly destroyed, piled in heaps. Let their teeth be broken. May they fall headlong into a pit. Let us live, and let our enemies perish.” Such were the requests which generally concluded the prayers of the Fijians.1 A savage would find nothing objectionable in them. On the contrary, he regards revenge as a duty,2 and forgiveness of enemies as a sign of weakness, or cowardice, or want of honour.3 Nor is this opinion restricted to the savage world. In the Old Testament the spirit of vindictiveness pervades both the men and their god. The last thing with which David on his death-bed charged Solomon was to destroy an enemy whom he himself had spared.4 Sirach counts among the nine causes of a man’s happiness to see the fall of his enemy.5 The enemies of Yahveh can expect no mercy from him, but utter destruction is their lot.6 To do good to a friend and to do harm to an enemy was a maxim of the ancient Scandinavians.7 It was taken for a matter of course by popular opinion in Greece8 and Rome. According to Aristotle, “it belongs to the courageous man never to be worsted”; to take revenge on a foe rather than to be reconciled is just, and therefore honourable.9 Cicero defines a good man as a person “who serves whom he can, and injures none except when provoked by injury.”10 Except in domestic life and in the case of friends, Professor Seeley observes, “people not only did not forgive their enemies, but did not wish to do so, nor think better of themselves for having done so. That man considered himself fortunate who on his deathbed could say, in reviewing his past life, that no one had done more good to his friends or more mischief to his enemies. This was the celebrated felicity of Sulla; this the crown of Xenophon’s panegyric on Cyrus the Younger.”11

1 Fison, quoted by Codrington, Melanesians, p. 147, n. 1.

2 See infra, on Blood-revenge.

3 Cf. Domenech, Great Deserts of North America, ii. 97, 338, 438 (Dacotahs); Boas, First General Report on the Indians of British Columbia, p. 38; Baker, Albert N’yanza i. 240 sq. (Latukas).

4 1 Kings, ii. 8 sq.

5 Ecclesiasticus, xxv. 7.

6 Cf. Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, p. 40.

7 Maurer, Bekehrung des Norwegischen Stammes, ii. 154 sq.

8 Maury, Histoire des religions de la Grèce antique, i. 383. Schmidt, Ethik der alten Griechen, ii. 309 sqq.

9 Aristotle, Rhetorica, i. 9. 24. Cf. Aeschylus, Choeophori, 309 sqq.; Plato, Meno, p. 71; Xenophon, Memorabilia, ii. 6. 35.

10 Cicero, De officiis, iii. 19. iii. 19. Cf. ibid. ii. 14; but cf. also ibid. i. 25, where it is said that nothing is more worthy of a great and a good man than placability and moderation.

11 Seeley, Ecce Homo, p. 273.

But side by side with the doctrine of resentment, we meet, among peoples of culture, the doctrine of forgiveness.

“Recompense injury with kindness,” says Lao-Tsze.12 According to Mencius, “a benevolent man does not lay up anger, nor cherish resentment against his brother, but only regards him with affection and love.”13 In the laws of Manu the following rule is laid down for the twice-born man:—“Against an angry man let him not in return show anger, let him bless when he is cursed.”14 It is said in the Buddhistic Dhammapada: “Hatred does not cease by hatred at any time; hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule. … Among men who hate us we dwell free from hatred. … Let a man overcome anger by love, let him overcome evil by good; let him overcome the greedy by liberality, the liar by truth.”15 According to one of the Pahlavi texts, we ought not to indulge in wrathfulness; wrath is one of the fiends besetting man, and “goodness is little in the mind of a man of wrath.”16

12 Tâo Teh King, ii. 63. 1. According to Thâi-Shang, 4, a bad man “broods over resentment without ceasing.”

13 Mencius, v. 1. 3. 2.

14 Laws of Manu, vi. 48. Cf. ibid. viii. 313; Monier-Williams, Indian Wisdom, pp. 444, 446; Muir, Additional Moral and Religious Passages, rendered from the Sanskrit, p. 30.

15 Dhammapada, i. 5; xv. 197; xvii. 223. Cf. Jātaka Tales, i. 22; Oldenberg, Buddha, p. 298.