The Martyrdom of Man by Winwood Reade (mini ebook reader .TXT) π
The Egyptians were islanders, cut off from the rest of the world by sand and sea. They were rooted in their valley; they lived entirely upon its fruits, and happily these fruits sometimes failed. Had they always been able to obtain enough to eat, they would have remained always in the semi-savage state.
It may appear strange that Egypt should have suffered from famine, for there was no country in the ancient world where food was so abundant and so cheap. Not only did the land produce enormous crops of corn; the ditches and hollows which were filled by the overflowing Nile supplied a harvest of wholesome and nourishing aquatic plants, and on the borders of the des
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season and the duties of the nest. It is based entirely on
domestic life. But this sympathy is extended and intensified by
the struggle for existence; herd contends against herd,
community against community; that herd which best combines will
undoubtedly survive; and that herd in which sympathy is most
developed will most efficiently combine. Here, then, one herd
destroys another, not only by means of teeth and claws, but
also by means of sympathy and love. The affections, therefore,
are weapons, and are developed according to the Darwinian Law.
Love is as cruel as the sharkβs jaw, as terrible as the
serpentβs fang. The moral sense is founded on sympathy, and
sympathy is founded on self -preservation. With all gregarious
animals, including men, self-preservation is dependent on the
preservation of the herd. And so, in order that each may
prosper, they must all combine with affection and fidelity, or
they will be exterminated by their rivals.
In the first period of the human herd, co-operation was merely
instinctive, as it is in a herd of dog-faced baboons. But when
the intelligence of man was sufficiently developed, they
realised the fact that the welfare of each individual depended
on the welfare of the clan, and that the welfare of the clan
depended on the welfare of each efficient individual. They then
endeavoured to support by laws the interests of the
association; and though, owing to their defective
understandings, they allowed, and even enjoined, many customs
injurious to their own welfare, yet, on the whole, they lived
well and wisely within the circle of their clan. It will now be
seen that the moral laws by which we are guided are all due to
the law of self-preservation. It was considered wicked and
wrong to assault, to rob, to deceive, or in any way to ill-treat or offend an able-bodied member of the clan; for, if he
were killed or disabled, his services were lost to the clan,
and if he were made discontented he might desert to another
corporation. But these vices were wrong, merely because they
were injurious; even murder in the abstract was not regarded by
them as a sin. They killed their sickly children, and dined
upon their superannuated parents without remorse; for the
community was profited by their removal. This feeling of
fidelity to the clan, though, no doubt, often supported by
arguments addressed to the reason, was not with them a matter
of calculation. It was rooted in their hearts; it was a true
instinct inherited from animal and ancient days; it was with
them an idea of duty, obedience to which was prompted by an
impulse, neglect of which was punished by remorse. In all
fables there is some fact; and the legends of the noble savage
possess this element of truth, that savages within their own
communion do live according to the Golden Rule, and would, in
fact, be destroyed by their enemies if they did not. But they
are not in reality good men. They have no conscience outside
their clan. Their virtue after all is only a kind of honour
among thieves. They resemble those illustrious criminals who
were excellent husbands and fathers, and whose biographies
cannot be read without a shudder. Yet it is from these people
that our minds and our morals are descended. The history of
morals is the extension of the reciprocal or selfish virtues
from the clan to the tribe, from the tribe to the nation, from
the nation to all communities living under the same government,
civil or religious, then to people of the same colour, and
finally to all mankind.
In the primitive period, the males contended at the courting
season for the possession of the females; polygamy prevailed,
and thus the strongest and most courageous males were the
fathers of all the children that were born; the males of the
second class died βold maids.β The weakly members of the herd
were also unable to obtain their share of food. But when the
period of brute force was succeeded by the period of law, it
was found that the men of sickly frames were often the most
intelligent, and that they could make themselves useful to the
clan by inventing weapons and traps, or at least by
manufacturing them.
In return for their sedentary labour, they were given food; and
as they were too weak to obtain wives by force, females also
were given them; the system of love-duels was abolished; the
women belonged to the community, and were divided fairly, like
the food. The existence of the clan depended on the number of
its fighting men, and therefore on the number of children that
were born. The birth of a male child was a matter of rejoicing:
the mother was honoured as a public benefactress. Then breeding
began to be studied as an art; young persons were methodically
paired. It was observed that children inherit the qualities and
inclinations of their parents, and so the brave and the
intelligent were selected to be sires.
If food was scarce and if children were difficult to rear, the
new-born infants were carefully examined, and those that did
not promise well were killed. Promiscuous intercourse on the
part of the females was found to result in sterility, and was
forbidden. Cohabitation during the suckling period, which
lasted at least three years, was supposed to injure the
motherβs milk, on which the savage baby is entirely dependent;
and during that period the woman was set apart. Premature
unions among children were forbidden, and sometimes prevented
by infibulation, but savages seldom seem to be aware that for
the young to marry as soon as the age of puberty has been
attained is injurious to the womb and to the offspring. The
ancient Germans, however, had excellent laws upon this subject.
Finally the breeders made a discovery from which has resulted
one of the most universal of moral laws, and one which of all
laws has been the least frequently infringed. Clans made war on
foreign clans not only for game-preserves, and fish waters, and
root, and berry grounds, but also for the purpose of making
female prisoners. A bachelor was expected to catch a wild wife
for his own benefit, and for that of the community. He
accordingly prowled round the village of the enemy, and when an
eligible person came down to the brook to fill her pitcher, or
went into the bush to gather sticks, he burst forth from his
ambush, knocked her down with his club, and carried her off in
triumph to his own people. It was observed that the foreign
wives produced more children, and stronger children, than the
home-born wives, and, also that the nearer the blood-relationship between husband and wife, the more weakly and the
less frequent were the offspring. On this account a law was
passed forbidding marriage between those who were closely
related to one another; sometimes even it was forbidden to
marry within the tribe at all; and all wives were obtained from
foreign tribes by means of capture or exchange. These laws
relating to marriage, enacted by the elders, and issued as
orders of the gods, were at first obeyed by the young merely
out of fear; but in the second generation they were ingrained
on the minds of children, and were taken under the protection
of the conscience.
When the clans or families first leagued together in order to
form a town, the conscience of each man was confined to his own
circle. He left it at home when he went out into the town. He
considered it laudable to cheat his fellow townsmen in a
bargain, or to tell them clever lies. If he committed a murder
or a theft, his conscience uttered no reproach. But each father
was responsible for the crimes of the members of his clan; he
might inflict what punishment he chose on the actual offender;
but he himself was the culprit in the eyes of the law, and was
condemned to pay the fine. If the municipal government was not
fully formed, the injured family took its own revenge; it did
not seek for the thief or murderer himself; the individual did
not exist; all the family to them were one. No man, therefore,
could break a law without exposing his revered father and all
the members of his family to expense, and even to danger of
their lives. No savage dares to be unpopular at home; the
weight of opprobrium is more than any man can bear. His
happiness depends on the approbation of those with whom he
lives; there is no world for him outside his clan. The town
laws were, therefore, respected by each man for the sake of his
family, and then by a well-known mental process they came to be
respected for themselves, and were brought under the moral law
which was written on the heart. Men ceased to be clansmen; they
became citizens. They next learnt to cherish and protect those
foreigners who came to trade and who thus conferred a benefit
upon the town; and at last the great discovery was made.
Offences against the Golden Rule are wrong in themselves, and
displeasing to the gods. It is wicked for a man to do that
which he would not wish a man to do to him; it is wrong for a
man to do that to a woman which he would not wish done to his
sister or his wife. Murder, theft, falsehood, and fraud, the
infliction of physical or mental pain, all these from time
immemorial had been regarded as crimes between clansmen and
clansmen; they were now regarded as crimes between man and man.
And here we come to a singular fact. The more men are sunk in
brutality the less frequently they sin against their
conscience; and as men become more virtuous, they also become
more sinful. With the primeval man the conscience is an
instinct; it is never disobeyed. With the savage the conscience
demands little; that little it demands under pain of death; it
is, therefore, seldom disobeyed. The savage seldom does that
which he feels to be wrong. But he does not feel it wrong to
commit incest, to eat βgrandfather soupβ, to kill a sickly child
like a kitten, to murder any one who lives outside his village.
In the next period, the matrimonial and religious laws which
have proceeded from the science of breeding and the fear of
ghosts place a frequent restraint upon his actions. He now
begins to break the moral law; he begins a career of sin;
yet he is, on the whole, a better man.
We finally arrive at the civilised man; he has refined sentiments and a
cultivated intellect; and now scarcely a day passes in which he
does not offend against his conscience. His life is passed in self-reproach. He censures himself for an hour that he has wasted;
for an unkind word that he has said; for an impure thought
which he has allowed to settle for a moment on his mind. Such
lighter sins do not indeed trouble ordinary men, and there are
few at present whose conscience reproaches them for sins
against the intellect. But the lives of all modern men are
tormented with desires which may not be satisfied; with
propensities which must be quelled. The virtues of man have
originated in necessity; but necessity developed the vices as
well. It was essential for the preservation of the clan that
its members should love one another, and live according to the
Golden Rule; men, therefore, are born with an instinct of
virtue. But it was also essential for the existence of the clan
that its members should be murderers and thieves, crafty and
ferocious; fraudulent and cruel. These qualities, therefore,
are transmitted by inheritance. But as the circle of the clan
widens, these qualities are rarely
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