XXXIII. I do not condemn that affection for our native soil, which does
not operate to prejudice a third person. Aristotle’s employing his
favour with Alexander, to procure the rebuilding the town of Stagira
his native country, ruined by the soldiers of Philip, always appeared
to me right and proper; and I condemn the indifference of Crates, whose
city had suffered the same misfortune, for having, when Alexander asked
him if he was desirous it should be rebuilt, answered, _Of what use
would the rebuilding it be, if there should come another Alexander to
destroy it afresh?_ How exceedingly and ridiculously affected was the
behaviour of that philosopher, who lost to his countrymen so signal a
benefit, for the sake of a cold apophthegm? The misfortune was, that
no other opportune sentence of a contrary tendency occurred to the
philosopher just at that time; for if there had, he would have accepted
the favour offered by Alexander. I have observed, that there are no
people more unfit to be consulted upon serious and weighty points of
business, than those who pride themselves in speaking with grace and
elegance; for they are always apt to warp their opinion towards that
side, on which a striking expression occurs to them, and provided they
deliver themselves with air and brilliancy, they do not embarrass
themselves about a little false reasoning.
XXXIV. I say once more, that I do not condemn any innocent or moderate
affection for our native land. A love extremely soft and tender, is
better suited to women, and more proper for children just rising up
in the world, than for men; and therefore I am of opinion, the divine
Homer humanizes Ulysses to a degree of excess, when he paints him,
amidst all the regales of Pheacia, panting and pining, to see the smoke
arise on the mountains of Ithaca, his own country:
_Exoptans oculis surgentem cernere fumum_
_Natalis terræ._
This tenderness in one of the wisest of the Greeks was very puerile;
but with all, there is not much inconvenience in viewing with
tenderness the smoke of one’s country, provided the smoke does not
blind the eyes of him who looks at it. Let him view the smoke of his
own country; but alas, do not let him prefer it to the light and
splendour of foreign ones; but this is what we see every day. He who
by being placed at the head of an eminent department, has the disposal
of various employments at his pleasure, can scarce find any persons
properly qualified for those employments, but people of his own
country. In vain it is represented to him, that these men are unfit to
fill the post, and that there are others better qualified. He finds the
smoke of his country so grateful an aromatick, that he would abandon
for it the most brilliant lights of other places. O how strangely does
this smoke blind men’s eyes! How wonderfully does it disorder and
affect their heads!
XXXV. In truth, some sin in this particular with their eyes wide open;
I speak of those, who with the view of forming a party to support their
authority, promote as many of their countrymen as they possibly can,
without paying the least attention to merit. This is not manifesting
their love to their country, but to themselves, and is benefiting their
own soil, as the earth is benefited by the labour of the husbandman,
who does not bestow it with a view of improving the land, but of
advantaging himself. These are open and declared enemies of a republic,
because it being next to impossible, that one district can furnish
people sufficiently qualified for such a variety of employments,
the places are filled with unworthy objects; this, if it is not the
greatest evil that can befall a state, at least ultimately disposes
towards producing such an evil.
XXXVI. Of those, who exercise their passion for their countrymen, from
a belief that they are the most deserving, I am at a loss what to say,
although the motive of their partiality in this matter frequently
appears to me a voluntary blindness; and if that is the case, they do
not stand excused. When the excess of merit in the person set aside,
is so notoriously superior to that of the man promoted, that it is
manifest to all the world, except to him who dispensed the preferment,
what doubt can there be, that he shut his eyes to avoid seeing it?
or else, that the microscope of his passion magnified to his view,
the virtues of the man preferred, and the defects of him neglected?
There is scarce any man, who has not a portion of good and bad in his
composition; a man without fault would be a miracle, and one without
a single virtue would be a monster. This made St. Austin say, that
gigantic vice was as rare to be found among us, as eminent virtue:
_Sicut magna pietas paucorum est, ita et magna impietas nihilominus
paucorum est._ (Serm. 10. de verbis Domini.) What happens then is, that
passion, being to chuse between persons of unequal merit, magnifies
what is good in the bad man, and also what is bad in the good one.
There is not a more unfaithful balance to weigh merit in, than that
of passion and prejudice; but this is what men commonly use for the
purpose. This caused David to say, men are false in their balances:
_Mendaces filii hominum in stateris._ Job, to express the greatness and
power of God, says, that he is able to give weight to the wind: _qui
fecit ventis pondus_. But I am not clear in what sense to understand
this, because I also see, that the powerful of the world in the
balance of their passion, frequently give weight, and much weight to
the air. What do you see in that person they have just raised? Nothing
solid, nothing but air and vanity; but to this air, the great man who
exalted him gave more weight, than to the gold of the other person who
was his competitor for the office. But how was this done? Why, together
with the air, he put earth into the scale, I mean the earth of the
country in which he was born, and this earth weighs very heavy in that
balance.
XXXVII. It happens in the contentions about occupying places, as it
happened in the conflict between Hercules and Antæus. Hercules was much
more valiant and powerful than the other, and threw him repeatedly to
the ground; but the falls, enabled Antæus to renew the combat with
redoubled vigour, because by his contact with the earth, his strength
was doubled. The explanation of the matter is this: The antients under
the veil of fables, concealed physical and moral maxims, and according
to the heathen mythology, which was the term they used to signify the
exposition of those mysterious fictions, Antæus was the son of the
Earth. I believe, to make this fable apply to the present question, we
need say no more, than that as things go in the world, every country by
its recommendation, gives strength to its sons to overcome strangers,
although they are people of superior abilities and vigour. Hercules
lifted Antæus from the ground, and kept him suspended in the air, by
which means he found no difficulty in overcoming him. It were much to
be wished, that upon many occasions, in order to determine the worth of
people, they should be examined divested of all favour and advantage
they can derive from belonging to a particular country, for then it
would be much better known to whom the preference is due.