We may assume that among beings capable of feeling moral emotions the general disposition to be kind to a benefactor will inevitably lead to the notion that ungrateful behaviour is wrong. Such behaviour is offensive to the benefactor; as Spinoza observes, “he who has conferred a benefit on anyone from motives of love or honour will feel pain, if he sees that the benefit is received without gratitude.”[97] This by itself tends to evoke in the bystander sympathetic resentment towards the offender; but his resentment is much increased by the retributive kindliness which he is apt to feel, sympathetically, towards the benefactor. He wants to see the latter’s kindness rewarded; and he is shocked by the absence of a similar desire in the very person who may be naturally expected to feel it more strongly than anybody else.
[97] Spinoza, Ethica, iii. 42. A Japanese proverb says that “thankless labour brings fatigue” (Reed, Japan, ii. 109).
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]
[98] Adair, History of the American Indians, p. 378 sq. Heriot, Travels through the Canadas, p. 317. Loskiel, History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians, i. 17 (Iroquois).
[99] Carver, Travels through the Interior Parts of North America, p. 412.
[100] Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 128.
[101] Angas, Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand, i. 338. See also Travers, ‘Life and Times of Te Rauparaha,’ in Trans. and Proceed. New Zealand Institute, v. 22.
[102] Bory de St. Vincent, Essais sur les Isles Fortunées, p. 70.