cit._ iii. 543 sq.; Gibbon, _Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire_, v. 326; Lecky, _History of European Morals_, i. 219.]
[Footnote 171: Stäudlin, _Geschichte der Vorstellungen und Lehren
vom Selbstmorde_, p. 62 _sq._]
[Footnote 172: Cicero, _Cato Major_, 20 (72 _sq._).]
[Footnote 173: _Idem_, _De officiis_, i. 31 (112).]
In no question of morality was there a greater difference between
classical and Christian doctrines than in regard to suicide. The
earlier Fathers of the Church still allowed, or even approved of,
suicide in certain cases, namely, when committed in order to
procure martyrdom,[174] or to avoid apostacy, or to retain the
crown of virginity. To bring death upon ourselves voluntarily,
says Lactantius, is a wicked and impious deed; "but when urged to
the alternative, either of forsaking God and relinquishing faith,
or of expecting all torture and death, then it is that undaunted
in spirit we defy that death with all its previous threats and
terrors which others fear."[175] Eusebius and other
ecclesiastical writers mention several instances of Christian
women putting an end to their lives when their chastity was in
danger, and their acts are spoken of with tenderness, if not
approbation; indeed, some of them were admitted into the calendar
of saints.[176] This admission was due to the extreme honour in
which virginity was held by the Fathers; St. Jerome, who denied
that it was lawful in times of persecution to die by one's own
hands, made an exception for cases in which a person's chastity
was at stake.[177] But even this exception was abolished by St.
Augustine. He allows that the virgins who laid violent hands upon
themselves are worthy of compassion, but declares that there was
no necessity for their doing so, since chastity is a virtue of
{252} the mind which is not lost by the body being in captivity
to the will and superior force of another. He argues that there
is no passage in the canonical Scriptures which permits us to
destroy ourselves either with a view to obtaining immortality or
to avoiding calamity. On the contrary, suicide is prohibited in
the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," namely, "neither thyself
nor another"; for he who kills himself kills no other but a
man.[178] This doctrine, which assimilates suicide with murder,
was adopted by the Church.[179] Nay, self-murder was declared to
be the worst form of murder, "the most grievous thing of
all";[180] already St. Chrysostom had declared that "if it is
base to destroy others, much more is it to destroy one's
self."[181] The self-murderer was deprived of rights which were
granted to all other criminals. In the sixth century a Council at
Orleans enjoined that "the oblations of those who were killed in
the commission of any crime may be received, except of such as
laid violent hands on themselves";[182] and a subsequent Council
denied self-murderers the usual rites of Christian burial.[183]
It was even said that Judas committed a greater sin in killing
himself than in betraying his master Christ to a certain death.[184]
[Footnote 174: See Barbeyrac, _Traité de la morale des Pères de
l'Église_, pp. 18, 122 _sq._; Buonafede, _Istoria critica e
filosofica del suicidio_, p. 135 _sqq._; Lecky, _op. cit._
ii. 45 _sq._]
[Footnote 175: Lactantius, _Divines Institutiones_, vi. ('De vero
cultu') 17 (Migne, _Patrologiæ cursus_, vi. 697).]
[Footnote 176: Eusebius, _Historia ecclesiastica_, viii. 12
(Migne, _op. cit._ Ser. Graeca, xx. 769 _sqq._), 14 (_ibid._ col.
785 _sqq._). St. Ambrose, _De virginibus_, xiii. 7 (Migne, _op.
cit._ xvi. 229 _sqq._). St. Chrysostom, _Homilia encomiastica in
S. Martyrem Pelagiam_ (Migne, _op. cit._ Ser. Graeca, l. 579 sqq.).]
[Footnote 177: St. Jerome, _Commentarii in Jonam_, i. 12 (Migne,
_op. cit._ xxv. 1129).]
[Footnote 178: St. Augustine, _De Civitate Dei_, i. 16 _sqq._]
[Footnote 179: Gratian, _Decretum_, ii. 23. 5. 9. 3.]
[Footnote 180: Thomas Aquinas, _Summa theologica_, ii.-ii. 64. 5. 3.]
[Footnote 181: St. Chrysostom, _In Epistolam ad Galatas
commentarius_, i. 4 (Migne, _op. cit._ Ser. Graeca, lxi. 618 _sq._).]
[Footnote 182: _Concilium Aurelianense II._ A.D. 533, can. 15
(Labbe-Mansi, _Sacrorum Conciliorum collectio_, viii. 837). See
also _Concilium Autisiodorense_, A.D. 578, can. 17 (Labbe-Mansi,
ix. 913).]
[Footnote 183: _Concilium Bracarense II._ A.D. 563, cap. 16
(Labbe-Mansi, _op. cit._ ix. 779).]
[Footnote 184: Damhouder, _Praxis rerum criminalium_, lviii. 2
_sq._, p. 258. See Gratian, _op. cit._ ii. 33. 3. 3. 38. At the
trial of the Marquise de Brinvilliers in 1676, the presiding
judge said to the prisoner that "the greatest of all her crimes,
horrible as they were, was, not the poisoning of her father and
brothers, but her attempt to poison herself" (Ives,
_Classification of Crimes_, p. 36).]
According to the Christian doctrine, as formulated by Thomas
Aquinas, suicide is utterly unlawful for three reasons. First,
everything naturally loves itself and preserves itself in being;
suicide is against a natural inclination and contrary to the
charity which a man ought to bear towards himself, and
consequently a mortal sin. {253} Secondly, by killing himself a
person does an injury to the community of which he is a part.
Thirdly, "life is a gift divinely bestowed on man, and subject to
His power who 'killeth and maketh alive'; and therefore he who
takes his own life sins against God, as he who kills another
man's slave sins against the master to whom the slave belongs,
and as he sins who usurps the office of judge on a point not
referred to him; for to God alone belongs judgment of life and
death."[185] The second of these arguments is borrowed from
Aristotle, and is entirely foreign to the spirit of early
Christianity. The notion of patriotism being a moral duty was
habitually discouraged by it, and, as Mr. Lecky observes, "it was
impossible to urge the civic argument against suicide without at
the same time condemning the hermit life, which in the third
century became the ideal of the Church."[186] But the other
arguments are deeply rooted in some of the fundamental doctrines
of Christianity--in the sacredness of human life, in the duty of
absolute submission to God's will, and in the extreme importance
attached to the moment of death. The earthly life is a
preparation for eternity; sufferings which are sent by God are
not to be evaded, but to be endured.[187] The man who
deliberately takes away the life which was given him by the
Creator displays the utmost disregard for the will and authority
of his Master; and, worst of all, he does so in the very last
minute of his life, when his doom is sealed for ever. His deed,
as Thomas Aquinas says, is "the most dangerous thing of all,
because no time is left to expiate it by repentance."[188] He who
kills a fellow-creature does not in the same degree renounce the
protection of God; he kills only the body, whereas the
self-murderer kills both the body and the soul.[189] By denying
the latter the right of Christian {254} burial the Church
recognises that he has placed himself outside her pale.
[Footnote 185: Thomas Aquinas, _op. cit._ ii.-ii. 64. 5.]
[Footnote 186: Lecky, _History of European Morals_, ii. 44.]
[Footnote 187: _Cf._ St. Augustine, _De Civitate Dei_, i. 23.]
[Footnote 188: Thomas Aquinas, _op. cit._ ii.-ii. 64. 5. 3. _Cf._
St. Augustine, _De Civitate Dei_, i. 25.]
[Footnote 189: Damhouder, _op. cit._ lxxxviii. 1 _sq._, p. 258.]
The condemnation of the Church influenced the secular
legislation. The provisions of the Councils were introduced into
the law-books. In France Louis IX. enforced the penalty of
confiscating the self-murderer's property,[190] and laws to the
same effect were passed in other European countries.[191] Louis
XIV. assimilated the crime of suicide to that of _lèze
majesté_.[192] According to the law of Scotland, "self-murder is
as highly criminal as the killing our neighbour."[193] In England
suicide is still regarded by the law as murder committed by a man
on himself;[194] and, unless declared insane, the self-murderer
forfeited his property as late as the year 1870, when forfeitures
for felony were abolished.[195] In Russia, to this day, the
testamentary dispositions of a suicide are deemed void by the
law.[196]
[Footnote 190: _Les Établissements de Saint Louis_, i. 92, vol.
ii. 150.]
[Footnote 191: Bourquelot, _op. cit._ iv. 263. Morselli, _op.
cit._ p. 196 _sq._]
[Footnote 192: Louis XIV., 'Ordonnance criminelle,' A.D. 1670,
xxii. 1, in Isambert, Decrusy, and Taillandier, _Recueil général
des anciennes lois françaises_, xviii. 414.]
[Footnote 193: Erskine-Rankine, _Principles of the Law of
Scotland_, p. 559.]
[Footnote 194: Stephen, _History of the Criminal Law of England_,
iii. 104. For earlier times see Bracton, _De Legibus et
Consuetudinibus Angliæ_, fol. 150, vol. ii. 504 _sq._]
[Footnote 195: Stephen, _op. cit._ iii. 105.]
[Footnote 196: Foinitzki, in von Liszt, _La législation pénale
comparée_, p. 548.]
The horror of suicide also found a vent in outrages committed on
the dead body. Of a woman who drowned herself in Edinburgh in
1598, we are told that her body was "harled through the town
backwards, and thereafter hanged on the gallows."[197] In France,
as late as the middle of the eighteenth century, self-murderers
were dragged upon a hurdle through the streets with the face
turned to the ground; they were then hanged up with the head
downwards, and finally thrown into the common sewer.[198]
However, in most cases the treatment to which suicides bodies
were subject was not originally meant as a punishment, but was
intended to prevent their spirits {255} from causing mischief.
All over Europe wandering tendencies have been ascribed to their
ghosts.[199] In some countries the corpse of a suicide is
supposed to make barren the earth with which it comes in
contact,[200] or to produce hailstorms or tempests[201] or
drought.[202] At Lochbroom, in the North-West of Scotland, the
people believe that if the remains of a self-murderer be taken to
any burying-ground which is within sight of the sea or of
cultivated land, this would prove disastrous both to fishing and
agriculture, or, in the words of the people, would cause "famine
(or dearth) on sea and land"; hence the custom has been to inter
suicides in out-of-the-way places among the lonely solitudes of
the mountains.[203] The practice of burying them apart from other
dead has been very wide-spread in Europe, and in many cases there
are obvious indications that it arose from fear.[204] In the
North-East of Scotland a suicide was buried outside a churchyard,
close beneath the wall, and the grave was marked by a single
large stone, or by a small cairn, to which the passing traveller
was bound to cast a stone; and afterwards, when the suicide's
body was allowed to rest in the churchyard, it was laid below the
wall in such a position that no one could walk over the grave, as
the people believed that if a woman enceinte stepped over such a
{256} grave, her child would quit this earth by its own act.[205]
In England persons against whom a coroner's jury had found a
verdict of _felo de se_ were buried at cross-roads, with a stake
driven through the body so as to prevent their ghosts from
walking.[206] For the same purpose the bodies of {257} suicides
were in many cases burned.[207] And when removed from the house
where the act had been committed, they were commonly carried out,
not by the door, but by a window,[208] or through a perforation
specially made for the occasion in the door,[209] or through a
hole under the threshold,[210] in order that the ghost should not
find its way back into the house, or perhaps with a view to
keeping the entrance of the house free from dangerous infection.[211]
[Footnote 197: Ross, 'Superstitions as to burying Suicides in the
Highlands,' in _Celtic Magazine_, xii. 354.]
[Footnote 198: Serpillon, _Code Criminel_, ii. 223. _Cf._ Louis
XIV., 'Ordonnance criminelle,' A.D. 1670, xxii. 1, in Isambert,
Decrusy, and Taillandier, _op. cit._ xviii. 414.]
[Footnote 199: Ross, in _Celtic Magazine_, xii. 352 (Highlanders
of Scotland). Atkinson, _Forty Years in a Moorland Parish_,
p. 217. Hyltén-Cavallius, _Wärend och Wirdarne_, i. 472 _sq._
(Swedes). Allardt, 'Nyländska folkseder och bruk,' in _Nyland_,
iv. 114 (Swedish Finlanders). Wuttke, _Der deutsche
Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart_, §756, p. 474 _sq._ Schiffer,
'Totenfetische bei den Polen,' in _Am Ur-Quell_, iii. 50
(Polanders), 52 (Lithuanians). Volkov, 'Der Selbstmörder in
Lithauen,' _ibid._ v. 87. von Wlislocki, 'Tod und Totenfetische
im Volkglauben der Siebenbürger Sachsen,' _ibid._ iv. 53.
Lippert, _Christenthum, Volksglaube und Volksbrauch_, p. 391.
Dyer, _The Ghost World_, pp. 53, 151. Gaidoz, 'Le suicide,' in
_Mélusine_, iv. 12.]
[Footnote 200: Schiffer, in _Am Ur-Quell_, iii. 52 (Lithuanians).]
[Footnote 201: _Ibid._ pp. 50 (Polanders), 53 (Lithuanians). von
Wlislocki, _Volksglaube und religiöser Brauch der Magyaren_, p.
61. Strausz, _Die Bulgaren_, p. 455. Prexl, 'Geburts- und
Todtengebräuche der Rumänen in Siebenbürgen,' in _Globus_, lvii. 30.]
[Footnote 202: Strausz, _op. cit._ p. 455 (Bulgarians).]
[Footnote 203: Ross, in _Celtic Magazine_, xii. 350 _sq._]
[Footnote 204: Gaidoz, in _Mélusine_, iv. 12. Frank, _System
einer vollständigen medicinischen Polizey_, iv. 499. Moore, _op.
cit._ i. 310 (Danes). Schiffer, in _Am Ur-Quell_, iii. 50
(Polanders), 53 (Lithuanians). Volkov, _ibid._ v. 87
(Lithuanians). Strausz, _op. cit._ p. 455 (Bulgarians).]
[Footnote 205: Gregor, _Folk-Lore of the North-East of Scotland_,
p. 213 _sq._]
[Footnote 206: Stephen, _History of the Criminal Law of England_,
iii. 105. Atkinson, _op. cit._ p. 217. This custom was formally
abolished in 1823 by 4 Geo. IV. c. 52 (Stephen, _op. cit._ iii.
105). Why were suicides buried at cross-roads? Possibly because
the cross was supposed to disperse the evil energy ascribed to
their bodies. Both in Europe and India the cross-road has, since
ancient times, been a favourite place to divest oneself of
diseases or other influences (Wuttke, _Der deutsche
Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart_, §§ 483, 484, 492, 508, 514, 522,
545, pp. 325, 326, 331, 341, 345, 349, 361. _Hymns of the
Atharva-Veda_, pp. 272, 473, 519. Oldenberg, _Die Religion des
Veda_, pp. 267, 268 n. 1). In the sacred books of India it is
said that "a student who has broken the vow of chastity shall
offer an ass to Nirriti on a cross-road" (_Gautama_, xxiii. 17),
and that a person who has previously undergone certain other
purification ceremonies "is freed from all crimes, even mortal
sins, after looking on a cross-road at a pot filled with water,
and reciting the text, 'Simhe me manyuh'" (_Baudhâyana_, iv. 7.
7). In the hills of Northern India and as far as Madras, an
approved charm for getting rid of a disease of demoniacal origin
is to plant a stake where four roads meet, and to bury grains
underneath, which crows disinter and eat (_North Indian Notes and
Queries_, i. § 652, p. 100; Madden, 'The Turaee and Outer
Mountains of Kumaoon,' in _Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal_, xvii. pt.
i. 583; Crooke, _Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern
India_, i. 290). In the Province of Bih[=a]r, "in cases of
sickness various articles are exposed in a saucer at a
cross-road" (Grierson, _Bih[=a]r Peasant Life_, p. 407).
According to a Bulgarian tale, Lot was enjoined by the priest to
plant on a cross-road three charred twigs in order to free
himself from his sin (Strausz, _op. cit._ p. 115). The Gypsies of
Servia believe that a thief may divert from himself all
suspicions by painting with blood a cross and a dot above it on
the spot where he committed the theft (von Wlislocki,
'Menschenblut im Glauben der Zigeuner,' in _Am Ur-Quell_, iii. 64
_sq._). In Morocco the cross is used as a charm against the evil
eye, and the chief reason for this is, I believe, that it is
regarded as a conductor of the baneful energy emanating from the
eye, dispersing it in all the quarters of the wind and thus
preventing it from injuring the person or object looked at
(Westermarck, 'Magic Origin of Moorish Designs,' in _Jour. Anthr.
Inst._ xxxiv. 214). In Japan, if a criminal belonging to one of
the lower classes commits suicide, his body is crucified
(_Globus_, xviii. 197). When, under Tarquinius Priscus (or
Tarquinius Superbus), many Romans preferred voluntary death to
compulsory labour in the _cloaca_, or artificial canals by which
the sewage was carried into the Tiber, the king ordered that
their bodies should be crucified and abandoned to birds and
beasts of prey (Pliny, _Historia naturalis_, xxxvi. 24; Servius,
_Commentarii in Virgilii Æneidos_, xii. 603). The reason for thus
crucifying the bodies of self-murderers is not stated; but it is
interesting to notice, in this connection, the idea expressed by
some Christian writers that the cross of the Saviour symbolised
the distribution of his benign influence in all directions
(d'Ancona, _Origini del teatro italiano_, i. 646; Tauler, quoted
by Peltzer, _Deutsche Mystik und deutsche Kunst_, p. 191. I am
indebted to my friend Dr. Yrjö Hirn for drawing my attention to
this idea). With reference to persons who had killed a father,
mother, brother, or child, Plato says in his 'Laws' (ix.
873):--"If he be convicted, the servants of the judges and the
magistrates shall slay him at an appointed place without the city
where three ways meet, and there expose his body naked, and each
of the magistrates on behalf of the whole city shall take a stone
and cast it upon the head of the dead man, and so deliver the
city from pollution; after that, they shall bear him to the
borders of the land, and cast him forth unburied, according to
law." The duels by which the ancient Swedes were legally
compelled to repair their wounded honour were to be fought on a
place where three roads met (Leffler, _Om den fornsvenska
hednalagen_, p. 40 _sq._; _supra_, i. 502). In various countries
it has been the custom to bury the dead at cross-roads (Grimm,
'Ueber das Verbrennen der Leichen,' in _Kleinere Schriften_, ii.
288 (Bohemians). Lippert, _Die Religionen der europäischen
Culturvölker_, p. 310 (Slavonians); Winternitz, _Das altindische
Hochzeitsrituell_, p. 68; Oldenberg, _Die Religion des Veda_,
pp. 267, 268, 562 n. 3)--a custom which may have given rise to the
idea that cross-roads are haunted (Winternitz, _op. cit._ p. 68;
Oldenberg, _op. cit._ p. 267 _sq._; _cf._ Wuttke, _op. cit._
§ 108, p. 89 _sq._).]
[Footnote 207: Bourquelot, _loc. cit._ iv. 263. Hyltén-Cavallius,
_op. cit._ i. 459; Nordström, _Bidrag till den svenska
samhälls-författningens historia_, ii. 331 (Swedes), von
Wlislocki, 'Tod und Totenfetische im Volkglauben der Siebenbürger
Sachsen,' in _Am Ur-Quell_, iv. 53.]
[Footnote 208: Wuttke, _op. cit._ § 756, p. 474; Frank, _op.
cit._ iv. 498 _sq._; Lippert, _Der Seelencult_, p. 11 (people in
various parts of Germany). Schiffer, in _Am Ur-Quell_, iii. 50
(Polanders).]
[Footnote 209: Bourquelot, _loc. cit._ iv. 264 (at Abbeville).]
[Footnote 210: Grimm, _Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer_, p. 726 _sqq._
Hyltén-Cavallius, _op. cit._ i. 472 _sq._ (Swedes).]
[Footnote 211: See _infra_, on Regard for the Dead. Contact with
a self-murderer's body is considered polluting (Prexl, 'Geburts- und
Todtengebräuche der Rumänen in Siebenbürgen,' in _Globus_,
lvii. 30; Hyltén-Cavallius, _Wärend och Wirdarne_, i. 459, 460,
and ii. 412). We are told that in the eighteenth century people
did not dare to cut down a person who had hanged himself, though
he was found still alive (Frank, _op. cit._ iv. 499). Among the
Bannavs of Cambodia **everybody who takes part in the burial of a
self-murderer is obliged to undergo a certain ceremony of
purification, whereas no such ceremony is prescribed in the case
of other burials (_Mittheil. d. Geogr. Ges. zu Jena_, iii. 9).]
However, side by side with the extreme seventy with which suicide
is viewed by the Christian Church, we find, even in the Middle
Ages, instances of more humane feelings towards its perpetrator.
In mediæval tales and ballads true lovers die together and are
buried in the same grave; two roses spring through the turf and
twine lovingly together.[212] In the later Middle Ages, says M.
{258} Bourquelot, "on voit qu'à mesure qu'on avance,
l'antagonisme devient plus prononcé entre l'esprit religieux et
les idées mondaines relativement à la mort volontaire. Le clergé
continue à suivre la route qui a été tracée par Saint Augustin et
à déclarer le suicide criminel et impie; mais la tristesse et le
désespoir n'entendent pas sa voix, ne se souviennent pas de ses
prescriptions."[213] The revival of classical learning,
accompanied as it was by admiration for antiquity and a desire to
imitate its great men, not only increased the number of suicides,
but influenced popular sentiments on the subject.[214] Even the
Catholic casuists, and later on philosophers of the school of
Grotius and others, began to distinguish certain cases of
legitimate suicide, such as that committed to avoid dishonour or
probable sin, or that of a condemned person saving himself from
torture by anticipating an inevitable death, or that of a man
offering himself to death for the sake of his friend.[215] Sir
Thomas More, in his Utopia, permits a person who is suffering
from an incurable and painful disease to take his own life,
provided that he does so with the agreement of the priests and
magistrates; nay, he even maintains that these should exhort such
a man to put an end to a life which is only a burden to himself
and others.[216] Donne, the well-known Dean of St. Paul's, wrote
in his younger days a book in defence of suicide, "a
Declaration," as he called it, "of that paradoxe, or thesis, that
Self-homicide is not so naturally sin, that it may never be
otherwise." He there pointed out the fact--which ought never to
be overlooked by those who derive their arguments from
"nature"--that some things may be natural to the species, and yet
not natural to every individual member of it.[217] In one of his
essays Montaigne pictures classical cases of suicide with colours
of unmistakable sympathy. "La plus volontaire mort," he {259}
observes, "c'est la plus belle. La vie despend de la volonté
d'aultruy; la mort, de la nostre."[218] The rationalism of the
eighteenth century led to numerous attacks both upon the views of
the Church and upon the laws of the State concerning suicide.
Montesquieu advocated its legitimacy:--"La société est fondée sur
un avantage mutuel; mais lorsqu'elle me devient onéreuse, qui
m'empêche d'y renoncer? La vie m'a été donnée comme une faveur;
je puis donc la rendre lorsqu'elle ne l'est plus: la cause cesse,
l'effet doit donc cesser aussi."[219] Voltaire strongly opposed
the cruel laws which subjected a suicide's body to outrage and
deprived his children of their heritage.[220] If his act is a
wrong against society, what is to be said of the voluntary
homicides committed in war, which are permitted by the laws of
all countries? Are they not much more harmful to the human race
than self-murder, which nature prevents from ever being practised
by any large number of men?[221] Beccaria pointed out that the
State is more wronged by the emigrant than by the suicide, since
the former takes his property with him, whereas the latter leaves
his behind.[222] According to Holbach, he who kills himself is
guilty of no outrage on nature or its author; on the contrary, he
follows an indication given by nature when he parts from his
sufferings through the only door which has been left open. Nor
has his country or his family any right to complain of a member
whom it has no means of rendering happy, and from whom it
consequently has nothing more to hope.[223] Others eulogised
suicide when committed for a noble end,[224] or recommended it on
certain occasions. "Suppose," says Hume, "that it is no longer in
my {260} power to promote the interest of society; suppose that I
am a burthen to it; suppose that my life hinders some person from
being much more useful to society. In such cases my resignation
of life must not only be innocent but laudable."[225] Hume also
attacks the doctrine that suicide is a transgression of our duty
to God. "If it would be no crime in me to divert the Nile from
its course, were I able to do so, how could it be a crime to turn
a few ounces of blood from their natural channel? Were the
disposal of human life so much reserved as the peculiar province
of the Almighty that it were an encroachment on his right for men
to dispose of their own lives, would it not be equally wrong of
them to lengthen out their lives beyond the period which by the
general laws of nature he had assigned to it? My death, however
voluntary, does not happen without the consent of Providence;
when I fall upon my own sword, I receive my death equally from
the hands of the Deity as if it had proceeded from a lion, a
precipice, or a fever."[226]
[Footnote 212: See Bourquelot, _loc. cit._ iv. 248; Gummere,
_Germanic Origins_, p. 322.]
[Footnote 213: Bourquelot, _loc. cit._ iv. 253.]
[Footnote 214: _Ibid._ iv. 464. Morselli, _op. cit._ p. 35.]
[Footnote 215: Buonafede, _op. cit._ p. 148 _sqq._ Lecky, _op.
cit._ ii. 55.]
[Footnote 216: More, _Utopia_, p. 122.]
[Footnote 217: Donne, _Biathanatos_, p. 45. Donne's book was
first committed to the press in 1644, by his son.]
[Footnote 218: Montaigne, _Essais_, ii. 3 (_[OE]uvres_, p. 187).]
[Footnote 219: Montesquieu, _Lettres Persanes_, 76 (_[OE]uvres_,
p. 53).]
[Footnote 220: Voltaire, _Commentaire sur le livre Des délits et
des peines_, 19 (_[OE]uvres complètes_, v. 416). _Idem_, _Prix de
la justice et de l'humanité_, 5 (_ibid._ v. 424).]
[Footnote 221: _Idem_, _Note to Olympie acte v. scène_ 7
(_[OE]uvres complètes_, i. 826, n. _b_). _Idem_, _Dictionnaire
Philosophique_, art. Suicide (_ibid._ viii. 236).]
[Footnote 222: Beccaria, _Dei delitti e delle pene_, § 35
(_Opere_, i. 101).]
[Footnote 223: Holbach, _Système de la nature_, i. 369.]
[Footnote 224: In the early part of the nineteenth century this
was done by Fries, _Neue oder anthropologische Kritik der
Vernunft_, iii. 197.]
[Footnote 225: Hume, 'Suicide,'in _Philosophical Works_, iv. 413.]
[Footnote 226: _Ibid._ p. 407 _sqq._]
Thus the main arguments against suicide which had been set forth
by pagan philosophers and Christian theologians were scrutinised
and found unsatisfactory or at least insufficient to justify that
severe and wholesale censure which was passed on it by the Church
and the State. But a doctrine which has for ages been inculcated
by the leading authorities on morals is not easily overthrown;
and when the old arguments are found fault with new ones are
invented. Kant maintained that a person who disposes of his own
life degrades the humanity subsisting in his person and entrusted
to him to the end that he might uphold it.[227] Fichte argued
that it is our duty to preserve our life and to will to live, not
for the sake of life, but because our life is the exclusive
condition of the realisation of the moral law through us.[228]
According to Hegel it is a contradiction to speak of a person's
right over his life, since this would {261} imply a right of a
person over himself, and no one can stand above and execute
himself.[229] Paley, again, feared that if religion and morality
allowed us to kill ourselves in any case, mankind would have to
live in continual alarm for the fate of their friends and dearest
relations[230]--just as if there were a very strong temptation
for men to shorten their lives. But common sense is neither a
metaphysician nor a sophist. When not restrained by the yoke of a
narrow theology, it is inclined in most cases to regard the
self-murderer as a proper object of compassion rather than of
condemnation, and in some instances to admire him as a hero. The
legislation on the subject therefore changed as soon as the
religious influence was weakened. The laws against suicide were
abolished in France by the Revolution,[231] and afterwards in
various other continental countries;[232] whilst in England it
became the custom of jurymen to presume absence of a sound mind
in the self-murderer--perjury, as Bentham said, being the penance
which prevented an outrage on humanity.[233] These measures
undoubtedly indicate not only a greater regard for the innocent
relatives of the self-murderer, but also a change in the moral
ideas concerning the act itself**.
[Footnote 227: Kant, _Metaphysische Anfangungsgründe der
Tugendlehre_, p. 73.]
[Footnote 228: Fichte, _Das System der Sittenlehre_, p. 339
_sqq._ See also _ibid._ pp. 360, 391.]
[Footnote 229: Hegel, _Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts_,
§ 70, Zusatz, p. 72.]
[Footnote 230: Paley, _Principles of Moral and Political
Philosophy_, iv. 3 (_Complete Works_, ii. 230).]
[Footnote 231: Legoyt, _op. cit._ p. 109.]
[Footnote 232: Bourquelot, _loc. cit._ iv. 475.]
[Footnote 233: Bentham, _Principles of Penal Law_, ii. 4. 4
(_Works_, i. 479 _sq._).]
As appears from this survey of facts, the moral valuation of
suicide varies to an extreme degree. It depends partly on the
circumstances in which the act is committed, partly on the point
of view from which it is regarded and the notions held about the
future life. When a person sacrifices his life for the benefit of
a fellow-man or for the sake of his country or to gratify the
supposed desire of a god, his deed may be an object of the
highest praise. It may, further, call forth approval or
admiration as indicating a keen sense of honour or as a test of
courage; in Japan, says Professor Chamberlain, "the courage to
take {262} life--be it one's own or that of others--ranks
extraordinarily high in public esteem."[234] In other cases
suicide is regarded with indifference as an act which concerns
the agent alone. But for various reasons it is also apt to give
rise to moral disapproval. The injury which the person committing
it inflicts upon himself may excite sympathetic resentment
towards him; he may be looked upon as injurer and injured at the
same time. Plato asks in his 'Laws':--"What ought he to suffer
who murders his nearest and so-called dearest friend? I mean, he
who kills himself."[235] And the same point of view is
conspicuous in St. Augustine's argument, that the more innocent
the self-murderer was before he committed his deed the greater is
his guilt in taking his life[236]--an argument of particular
force in connection with a theology which condemns suicides to
everlasting torments and which regards it as a man's first duty
to save his soul. The condemnation of killing others may by an
association of ideas lead to a condemnation of killing one's
self,[237] as is suggested by the Christian doctrine that suicide
is prohibited in the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill." The
horror which the act inspires, the fear of the malignant ghost,
and the defiling effect attributed to the shedding of blood, also
tend to make suicide an object of moral reprobation or to
increase the disapproval of it;[238] and the same is the case
with the exceptional treatment to which the self-murderer's body
is subject and his supposed annihilation or miserable existence
after death, which easily come to be looked upon in the light of
a punishment.[239] Suicide is, moreover, blamed as an act of
moral cowardice,[240] and, especially, as an injury inflicted
upon other persons, to whom the agent {263} owed duties from
which he withdrew by shortening his life.[241] Even among savages
we meet with the notion that a person is not entitled to treat
himself just as he pleases. Among the Goajiro Indians of
Colombia, if anybody accidentally cuts himself, say with his own
knife, or breaks a limb, or otherwise does himself an injury, his
family on the mother's side immediately demands blood-money,
since, being of their blood, he is not allowed to spill it
without paying for it; the father's relatives demand tear-money,
and friends present claim compensation to repay their sorrow at
seeing a friend in pain.[242] That a similar view is sometimes
taken by savages with regard to suicide appears from a few
statements quoted above.[243] The opinion that suicide is an
offence against society at large is particularly likely to
prevail in communities where the interests of the individual are
considered entirely subordinate to the interests of the State.
The religious argument, again, that suicide is a sin against the
Creator, an illegitimate interference with his work and decrees,
comes to prominence in proportion as the moral consciousness is
influenced by theological considerations. In Europe this
influence is certainly becoming less and less. And considering
that the religious view of suicide has been the chief cause of
the extreme severity with which it has been treated in Christian
countries, I am unable to subscribe to the opinion expressed by
Professor Durkheim, that the more lenient judgment passed on it
by the public conscience of the present time is merely accidental
and transient. The argument adduced in support of this opinion
leaves out of account the real causes to which the valuation of
suicide is due: it is said that the moral evolution is not likely
to be retrogressive in this particular point after it has
followed {264} a certain course for centuries.[244] It is true
that moral progress has a tendency to increase our sense of duty
towards our fellow-men. But at the same time it also makes us
more considerate as regards the motives of conduct; and--not to
speak of suicides committed for the benefit of others--the
despair of the self-murderer will largely serve as a palliation
of the wrong which he may possibly inflict upon his neighbour.
[Footnote 234: Chamberlain, _Things Japanese_, p. 221.]
[Footnote 235: Plato, _Leges_, ix. 873.]
[Footnote 236: St. Augustine, _De Civitate Dei_, i. 17.]
[Footnote 237: See Simmel, _Einleitung in die Moralwissenschaft_,
i. 187.]
[Footnote 238: _Cf._ _supra_, i. 377.]
[Footnote 239: See _supra_, ii. 237 _sqq._; Josephus, _De bello
Judaico_, iii. 8. 5; Plato, _Leges_, ix. 873; Aristotle, _Ethica
Nicomachea_, v. 11. 2 _sq._]
[Footnote 240: Hegel, _Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts_, §
70, Zusatz, p. 72; Fowler, _Progressive Morality_, p. 151; &c.]
[Footnote 241: English lawyers have represented suicide as an
offence both against God and against the sovereign, who "has an
interest in the preservation of all his subjects" (Plowden,
_Commentaries_, i. 261; Blackstone, _Commentaries on the Laws of
England_, iv. 190. _Cf._ Ives, _op. cit._ p. 40 _sq._).]
[Footnote 242: Simons, 'Exploration of the Goajira Peninsula,' in
_Proceed. Roy. Geo. Soc._ N. Ser. vii. 790.]
[Footnote 243: _Supra_, ii. 240 _sq._]
[Footnote 244: Durkheim, _Le suicide_, p. 377.]
CHAPTER XXXVI
SELF-REGARDING DUTIES AND VIRTUES--INDUSTRY--REST
ACCORDING to current ideas men owe to themselves a variety of
duties similar in kind to those which they owe to their
fellow-creatures. They are not only forbidden to take their own
lives, but are also in some measure considered to be under an
obligation to support their existence, to take care of their
bodies, to preserve a certain amount of personal freedom, not to
waste their property, to exhibit self-respect, and, in general,
to promote their own happiness. And closely related to these
self-regarding duties there are self-regarding virtues, such as
diligence, thrift, temperance. In all these cases, however, the
moral judgment is greatly influenced by the question whether the
act, forbearance, or omission, which increases the person's own
welfare, conflicts or not with the interests of other people. If
it does conflict, opinions vary as to the degree of selfishness
which is recognised as allowable. But judgments containing moral
praise or the inculcation of duty are most commonly passed upon
conduct which involves some degree of self-sacrifice, not on such
as involves self-indulgence.
Moreover, the duties which we owe to ourselves are generally much
less emphasised than those which we owe to others. "Nature," says
Butler, "has not given us so sensible a disapprobation of
imprudence and folly, either in ourselves or others, as of
falsehood, injustice, and {266} cruelty."[1] Nor does a
prudential virtue receive the same praise as one springing from a
desire to promote the happiness of a fellow-man. Many moralists
even maintain that, properly speaking, there are no
self-regarding duties and virtues at all; that useful action
which is useful to ourselves alone is not matter for moral
notice; that in every case duties towards one's self may be
reduced into duties towards others; that intemperance and
extravagant luxury, for instance, are blamable only because they
tend to the public detriment, and that prudence is a virtue only
in so far as it is employed in promoting public interest.[2] But
this opinion is hardly in agreement with the ordinary moral
consciousness.
[Footnote 1: Butler, 'Dissertation on the Nature of Virtue,' in
_Analogy of Religion, &c._ p. 339.]
[Footnote 2: Hutcheson, _Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas
of Beauty and Virtue_, pp. 133, 201. Grote, _Treatise on the
Moral Ideals_, p. 77 _sqq._ Clifford, _Lectures and Essays_,
pp. 298, 335. von Jhering, _Der Zweck im Recht_, ii. 225.]
It is undoubtedly true that no mode of conduct is exclusively
self-regarding. No man is an entirely isolated being, hence
anything which immediately affects a person's own welfare affects
at the same time, in some degree, the welfare of other
individuals. It is also true that the moral ideas concerning such
conduct as is called self-regarding are more or less influenced
by considerations as to its bearing upon others. But this is
certainly not the only factor which determines the judgment
passed on it. In the education of children various modes of
self-regarding conduct are strenuously insisted upon by parents
and teachers. What they censure or punish is regarded as wrong,
what they praise or reward is regarded as good; for, as we have
noticed above, men have a tendency to sympathise with the
retributive emotions of persons for whom they feel regard.[3]
Moreover, as in the case of suicide,[4] so also in other
instances of self-inflicted harm, the injury committed may excite
sympathetic resentment towards the agent, although the victim of
it is his own self. Disinterested likes or dislikes often give
rise to moral {267} approval or disapproval of conduct which is
essentially self-regarding.[5] It has also been argued that no
man has a right to trifle with his own well-being even where
other persons interests are not visibly affected by it, for the
reason that he is not entitled wantonly to waste "what is not at
his unconditional disposal."[6] And in various other ways--as
will be seen directly--religious, as well as magical, ideas have
influenced moral opinions relating to self-regarding conduct. But
at the same time it is not difficult to see why self-regarding
duties and virtues only occupy a subordinate place in our moral
consciousness. The influence they exercise upon other persons'
welfare is generally too remote to attract much attention. In
education there is no need to emphasise any other self-regarding
duties and virtues but those which, for the sake of the
individual's general welfare, require some sacrifice of his
immediate comfort or happiness. The compassion which we are apt
to feel for the victim of an injury is naturally lessened by the
fact that it is self-inflicted. And, on the other hand,
indignation against the offender is disarmed by pity, imprudence
commonly carrying its own punishment along with it.[7]
[Footnote 3: _Supra_, i. 114 _sq._]
[Footnote 4: _Supra_, ii. 262.]
[Footnote 5: _Cf._ _supra_, i. 116 _sq._]
[Footnote 6: Martineau, _Types of Ethical Theory_, ii. 126.]
[Footnote 7: _Cf._ Butler, _op. cit._ p. 339 _sq._; Dugald
Stewart, _Philosophy of the Active and Moral Powers of Man_,
ii. 346 _sq._]
Being so little noticed by custom and public opinion, and still
less by law, most self-regarding duties hardly admit of a
detailed treatment. In a general way it may be said that progress
in intellectual culture has, in some respects, been favourable to
their evolution; Darwin even maintains that, with a few
exceptions, self-regarding virtues are not esteemed by
savages.[8] The less developed the intellect, the less apt it is
to recognise the remoter consequences of men's behaviour; hence
more reflection than that exercised by the savage may be needed
to see that modes of conduct which immediately concern a person's
own welfare at the same time affect the well-being {268} of his
neighbours or the whole community of which he is a member. So
also, owing to his want of foresight, the savage would often fail
to notice how important it may be to subject one's self to some
temporary deprivation or discomfort in order to attain greater
happiness in the future. We have noticed above that many savages
hardly ever correct their children,[9] and this means that one of
the chief sources from which the notions of self-regarding duties
spring is almost absent among them. But on the other hand it must
also be remembered that disinterested antipathies, another cause
of such notions, exercise more influence upon the unreflecting
than upon the reflecting moral consciousness, and that many
magical and religious ideas which at the lower stages of
civilisation give rise to duties of a self-regarding character
are no longer held by people more advanced in culture.
[Footnote 8: Darwin, _Descent of Man_, p. 118 _sq._]
[Footnote 9: _Supra_, i. 513 _sq._]
These general statements referring to the nature and origin of
self-regarding duties and virtues I shall now illustrate by a
short survey of moral ideas concerning some representative modes
of self-regarding conduct:--industry and rest; temperance,
fasting, and abstinence from certain kinds of food and drink;
cleanliness and uncleanliness; and ascetic practices generally.
* * * * *
Man is naturally inclined to idleness, not because he is averse
from muscular activity as such, but because he dislikes the
monotony of regular labour and the mental exertion it
implies.[10] In general he is induced to work only by some
special motive which makes him think the trouble worth his while.
Among savages, who have little care for the morrow,[11] who have
few comforts of life to provide for, and whose property is often
of such a kind as to prevent any great accumulation of it, almost
the sole inducement to industry is either necessity or
compulsion. Men are lazy or industrious according as the
necessaries of life are easy {269} or difficult to procure, and
they prefer being idle if they can compel other persons to work
for them as their servants or slaves.
[Footnote 10: _Cf._ Ferrero, 'Les formes primitives du travail,'
in _Revue scientifique_, ser. iv. vol. v. 331 _sqq._]
[Footnote 11: Buecher, _Die Entstehung der Volkswirtschaft_,
p. 21 _sqq._]
Australian natives "can exert themselves vigorously when hunting
or fishing or fighting or dancing, or at any time when there is a
prospect of an immediate reward; but prolonged labour with the
object of securing ultimate gain is distasteful to them."[12]
With reference to the Polynesians Mr. Hale observes that in those
islands which are situated nearest the equator, where the heat
with little or no aid from human labour calls into existence
fruits serving to support human life, the inhabitants are an
indolent and listless race; whilst "a severer clime and ruder
soil are favourable to industry, foresight, and a hardy
temperament. These opposite effects are manifested in the
Samoans, Nukahivans, and Tahitians, on the one side, and the
Sandwich Islanders and New Zealanders on the other."[13] Mr. Yate
likewise contrasts the industry of the Maoris with the proverbial
idleness of the Tonga Islanders: the former "are obliged to work,
if they would eat," whereas "in the luxurious climate of the
Friendly Islands, there is scarcely any need of labour, to obtain
the necessaries, and even many of the luxuries, of life."[14] The
Malays are described as fond of a life of slothful ease, because
"persevering toil is unnecessary, or would bring them no
additional enjoyments."[15] The natives of Sumatra, says Marsden,
"are careless and improvident of the future, because their wants
are few; for though poor {270} they are not necessitous, nature
supplying, with extraordinary facility, whatever she has made
requisite for their existence."[16] The Toda of the Neilgherry
Hills will not "work one iota more than circumstances compel him
to do";[17] and indolence seems to be a characteristic of most
peoples of India,[18] though there are exceptions to the
rule.[19] Burckhardt observes that it is not the southern sun, as
Montesquieu imagined, but the luxuriance of the southern soil and
the abundance of provisions that relax the exertions of the
inhabitants and cause apathy:--"By the fertility of Egypt,
Mesopotamia, and India, which yield their produce almost
spontaneously, the people are lulled into indolence; while in
neighbouring countries, of a temperature equally warm, as among
the mountains of Yemen and Syria, where hard labour is necessary
to ensure a good harvest, we find a race as superior in industry
to the former as the inhabitants of Northern Europe are to those
of Spain or Italy."[20] Indolence is a common,[21] though not
universal,[22] trait of the African character. Of the Negroes on
the Gold Coast Bosman says that "nothing {271} but the utmost
necessity can force them to labour."[23] The Waganda are
represented as excessively indolent, in consequence of the ease
with which they can obtain all the necessaries of life.[24] Of
the Namaquas we are told that "they may be seen basking in the
sun for days together, in listless inactivity, frequently almost
perishing from thirst or hunger, when with very little exertion
they may have it in their power to satisfy the cravings of
nature. If urged to work, they have been heard to say: 'Why
should we resemble the worms of the ground?'"[25] Most of the
American Indians are said to have a slothful disposition, because
they can procure a livelihood with but little labour.[26] But the
case is different with the Greenlanders and other Eskimo, who
have to struggle hard for their existence.[27]
[Footnote 12: Brough Smyth, _Aborigines of Victoria_, i. 29 _sq._
See also _ibid._ ii. 248; Collins, _English Colony in New South
Wales_, i. 601; Fison and Howitt, _Kamilaroi and Kurnai_,
p. 259 _sq._]
[Footnote 13: Hale, _U.S. Exploring Expedition. Vol. VI.
Ethnography and Philology_, p. 17. See also Williams, _Missionary
Enterprises in the South Sea Islands_, p. 534 (Samoans); Ellis,
_Polynesian Researches_, i. 130 _sq._ (Tahitians); Brenchley,
_Cruise of H.M.S. Curaçoa among the South Sea Islands_, p. 58
(natives of Tutuila); Melville, _Typee_, p. 287 (some Marquesas
Islanders); Anderson, _Notes of Travel in Fiji and New
Caledonia_, p. 236 (New Caledonians); Penny, _Ten Years in
Melanesia_, p. 74 (Solomon Islanders).]
[Footnote 14: Yate, _Account of New Zealand_, p. 105 _sq._]
[Footnote 15: McNair, _Perak and the Malays_, p. 201. Bock,
_Head-Hunters of Borneo_, p. 275. Raffles, _History of Java_, i.
251. St. John, _Life in the Forests of the Far East_, ii. 323.]
[Footnote 16: Marsden, _History of Sumatra_, p. 209. See also
_Glimpses of the Eastern Archipelago_, pp. 76, 87 (Bataks).]
[Footnote 17: Marshall, _A Phrenologist amongst the Todas_, p.
88. See also _ibid._ p. 86; Shortt, 'Hill Tribes of the
Neilgherries,' in _Trans. Ethn. Soc._ N.S. vii. 241; Mantegazza,
'Studii sull' etnologia dell' India,' in _Archivio per
l'antropologia e la etnologia_, xiii. 406.]
[Footnote 18: Cooper, _Mishmee Hills_, p. 100 (Assamese).
Tickell, 'Memoir on the Hodésum,' in _Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal_,
ix. 808 (Hos). Dalton, _Ethnology of Bengal_, pp. 57 (Jyntias and
Kasias), 101 (Lepchas). Burton, _Sindh_, p. 284. Moorcroft and
Trebeck, _Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan_, i.
321 (Ladakhis). Caldwell, _Tinnevelly Shanars_, p. 58.]
[Footnote 19: Man, _Sonthalia_, p. 19. Hodgson, _Miscellaneous
Essays_, i. 152 (Bódo and Dhimáls). Macpherson, _Memorials of
Service in India_, p. 81 (Kandhs).]
[Footnote 20: Burckhardt, _Arabic Proverbs_, p. 219.]
[Footnote 21: Beltrame, _Il Sénnaar_, i. 166. Tuckey, _Expedition
to Explore the River Zaire_, p. 369. Johnston, _The River Congo_,
p. 402 (Bakongo). Casati, _Ten Years in Equatoria_, i. 85 (Abaka
Negroes). Wilson and Felkin, _Uganda_, ii. 310 (Gowane people).
Burton, _Zanzibar_, ii. 96 (Wanika). Bonfanti, 'L'incivilimento
dei negri nell' Africa intertropicale,' in _Archivio per
l'antropologia e la etnologia_, xv. 133 (Bantu). Andersson, _Lake
Ngami_, p. 231 (Herero). Magyar, _Reisen in Süd-Afrika_, p. 290
(Kimbunda). Kropf, _Das Volk der Xosa-Kaffern_, p. 89. Tyler,
_Forty Years among the Zulus_, p. 194. Ellis, _History of
Madagascar_, i. 140. Shaw, 'Betsileo Country and People,' in
_Antananarivo Annual_, iii. 81.]
[Footnote 22: Baker, _Ismailïa_, p. 56 (Shilluk). Baumann,
_Usambara_, p. 244 (Wapare). Bosman, _Description of the Coast of
Guinea_, p. 318 (Negroes of Fida). Andersson, _Notes on Travel in
South Africa_, p. 235 (Ovambo). See also _infra_, p. 272.]
[Footnote 23: Bosman, _op. cit._ p. 101.]
[Footnote 24: Wilson and Felkin, _op. cit._ i. 225.]
[Footnote 25: Andersson, _Lake Ngami_, p. 335. See also Kolben,
_Present State of the Cape of Good-Hope_, i. 46, 324; Barrow,
_Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa_, i. 152; Fritsch,
_Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrika's_, p. 324 (Hottentots).]
[Footnote 26: Bridges, 'Manners and Customs of the Firelanders,'
in _A Voice for South America_, xiii. 203 (Fuegians).
Dobrizhoffer, _Account of the Abipones_, ii. 151; but he praises
the Abiponian women for their unwearied industry (_ibid._ ii. 151
_sq._). Brett, _Indian Tribes of Guiana_, p. 343; Kirke,
_Twenty-five Years in British Guiana_, p. 150. Domenech, _Seven
Years' Residence in the Great Deserts of North America_, ii. 190.
Burton, _City of the Saints_, p. 126 (Sioux). Harmon, _Voyages
and Travels in the Interior of North America_, p. 285
(Tacullies). Meares, _Voyages to the North-West Coast of
America_, p. 265 (Nootkas).]
[Footnote 27: Cranz, _History of Greenland_, i. 126. Armstrong,
_Narrative of the Discovery of the North-West Passage_, p. 196
(Western Eskimo).]
We have seen that savages consider it a duty for a married man to
support his family,[28] and this in most cases implies that he is
under an obligation to do a certain amount of work. We have also
seen that the various occupations of life are divided between the
sexes according to rules fixed by custom,[29] and this means that
absolute idleness is not generally tolerated in either men or
women, though the drudgeries of life are often imposed upon the
latter. Of some uncivilised peoples we are directly told that
they enjoin work as a duty or regard industry as a virtue. The
Greenlanders esteem addiction to labour as the chief of virtues
and believe that the industrious man {272} will have a very happy
existence after death.[30] The Atkha Aleuts prohibited
laziness.[31] Mr. Batchelor relates an Ainu fable which
encourages diligence and discourages idleness in young
people.[32] The Karens of Burma have a traditional precept which
runs, "Be not idle, but labour diligently, that you may not
become slaves."[33] The Maoris say, "Let industry be rewarded,
lest idleness gets the advantage."[34] The Malagasy likewise
inculcate industry in many of their proverbs.[35] The Basutos
have a saying that "perseverance always triumphs."[36] Among the
Bachapins, a Bechuana tribe conspicuous for its activity, "a
man's merit is estimated principally by his industry, and the
words _mún[)o]n[)a] usináach[)a]_ (an industrious man) are an
expression of high approbation and praise; while he who is seldom
seen to hunt, to prepare skins for clothing, or to sew koboes, is
accounted a worthless and disgraceful member of society."[37]
Among the Beni M'zab in the Sahara--an industrious people
inhabiting a sterile country--boys are already at the age of six
years compelled by law to begin to work, either in driving a
camel or ass, or in drawing water for the gardens.[38] We may
expect to find industry especially insisted upon by uncivilised
peoples who are habitually addicted to it, partly because it is a
necessity among them, partly owing to the influence of habit.
[Footnote 28: _Supra_, i. 526 _sqq._]
[Footnote 29: _Supra_, i. 634 _sqq._]
[Footnote 30: Cranz, _op. cit._ i. 186.]
[Footnote 31: Yakof, quoted by Petroff, _Report on Alaska_,
p. 158.]
[Footnote 32: Batchelor, _Ainu of Japan_, p. 111.]
[Footnote 33: Smeaton, _Loyal Karens of Burma_, p. 255.]
[Footnote 34: Taylor, _Te Ika a Maui_, p. 293. See also Johnston,
_Maoria_, p. 43.]
[Footnote 35: Clemes, 'Malagasy Proverbs,' in _Antananarivo
Annual_, iv. 29.]
[Footnote 36: Casalis, _Basutos_, p. 310.]
[Footnote 37: Burchell, _Travels in the Interior of Southern
Africa_, ii. 557.]
[Footnote 38: Tristram, _The Great Sahara_, p. 207 _sq._]
But instead of being regarded as a duty, industrial activity is
not infrequently looked down upon as disreputable for a free man.
This is especially the case among warlike nations, nomadic
tribes, and peoples who have many slaves. In Uganda, for
instance, the prevalence of slavery "causes all manual labour to
be looked upon as derogatory to the dignity of a free man."[39]
The {273} Masai[40] and Matabele[41] consider that the only
occupation which becomes a man is warfare. The Arabs of the
desert hold labour humiliating to anybody but a slave.[42]
Speaking of the Turkomans, Vámbéry observes that "in his domestic
circle, the nomad presents us a picture of the most absolute
indolence. In his eyes it is the greatest shame for a man to
apply his hand to any domestic occupation."[43] The Chippewas
"have ever looked upon agricultural and mechanical labours as
degrading," and "have regarded the use of the bow and arrow, the
war-club and spear, as the noblest employments of man."[44] Among
the Iroquois "the warrior despised the toil of husbandry, and
held all labour beneath him."[45] Though an industrious race, the
Maoris considered it more honourable, as well as more desirable,
to acquire property by war and plunder than by labour.[46] Among
the Line Islanders it is undignified for a landholder to do work
of any kind, except to make weapons, hence he employs persons of
the lower class to work for him.[47] In Nukahiva the people of
distinction "suffer the nails on the fingers to grow very long,
that it may be evident they are not accustomed to hard
labour."[48] This contempt for industrial activity is easy to
explain. A man who earns his livelihood by labour is considered
to be lacking in those qualities which are alone admired--courage
and strength;--or work is associated with the idea of servile
subjection. It is also universally held degrading for a man to
engage in any occupation which belongs to the women.[49] Thus
among hunting and pastoral peoples it would be quite out of place
for him to supply the household with vegetable food.[50] On the
other hand, when agriculture became an {274} indispensable means
to maintenance of life it at the same time became respectable.
But trade was scorned, probably, as Mr. Spencer suggests, because
it was carried on chiefly by unsettled persons, who were
detached, untrustworthy members of a community in which most men
had fixed positions.[51] The Kandhs "consider it beneath their
dignity to barter or traffic, and . . . . regard as base and
plebeian all who are not either warriors or tillers of the
soil."[52] The Javans "have a contempt for trade, and those of
higher rank esteem it disgraceful to be engaged in it; but the
common people are ever ready to engage in the labours of
agriculture, and the chiefs to honour and encourage agricultural
industry."[53]
[Footnote 39: Wilson and Felkin, _op. cit._ i. 186.]
[Footnote 40: Merker, _Die Masai_, p. 117.]
[Footnote 41: Holub, 'Die Ma-Atabele,' in _Zeitschr. f. Ethnol._
xxv. 198.]
[Footnote 42: Burton, _Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah_,
ii. 10.]
[Footnote 43: Vámbéry, _Travels in Central Asia_, p. 320.]
[Footnote 44: Schoolcraft, _Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge_,
v. 150.]
[Footnote 45: Morgan, _League of the Iroquois_, p. 329.]
[Footnote 46: Travers, 'Life and Times of Te Rauparaha,' in
_Trans. New Zealand Inst._ v. 29.]
[Footnote 47: Tutuila, 'Line Islanders,' in _Jour. Polynesian
Soc._ i. 266.]
[Footnote 48: von Langsdorf, _Voyages and Travels_, i. 174.]
[Footnote 49: _Supra_, i. 636 _sq._]
[Footnote 50: _Supra_, i. 634.]
[Footnote 51: Spencer, _Principles of Ethics_, i. 429.]
[Footnote 52: Campbell, _Wild Tribes of Khondistan_, p. 50.]
[Footnote 53: Raffles, _op. cit._ i. 246 _sq._]
Progress in civilisation implies an increase of industry. Both
the necessities and the comforts of life grow more numerous;
hence more labour is required to provide for them, and at the
same time there is more inducement to accumulate wealth. The
advantages, both private and public, accruing from diligence are
more clearly recognised, and the government, in particular, is
anxious that the people should work so as to be able to pay their
taxes. All this leads to condemnation of idleness and approbation
of industry; and the influence of habit must operate in the same
direction among a nation whose industrial propensities have been
the cause of its civilisation. But in the archaic State war is
still regarded as a nobler occupation than labour; and whilst
agriculture is held in honour, trade and handicraft are
frequently despised.
In the kingdom of the Peruvian Incas there was a law that no one
should be idle. "Children of five years old were employed at very
light work, suitable to their age. Even the blind and lame, if
they had no other infirmity, were provided with certain kinds of
work. The rest of the people, while they were healthy, were
occupied each at his own labour, and it was a most infamous and
degrading {275} thing among these people to be chastised in
public for idleness."[54] If any of them was slothful, or slept
in the day, he was whipped or had to carry the stone.[55] The
reason for these measures was that the whole duty of defraying
the expenses of the government belonged to the people, and that,
without money and with little property, they paid their taxes in
labour; hence to be idle was, in a manner, to rob the
exchequer.[56]
[Footnote 54: Blas Valera, quoted by Garcilasso de la Vega,
_First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas_, ii. 34. See
also _ibid._ ii. 14; Acosta, _Natural and Moral History of the
Indies_, ii. 413.]
[Footnote 55: Herrera, _General History of the West Indies_,
iv. 339.]
[Footnote 56: Prescott, _History of the Conquest of Peru_, i. 57.]
One of the characteristics of Zoroastrianism is its appreciation
of labour.[57] The faithful man must be vigilant, alert, and
active; sleep itself is merely a concession to the demons, and
should therefore be kept within the limits of necessity.[58] The
lazy man is the most unworthy of men, because he eats his food
through impropriety and injustice.[59] And of all kinds of labour
the most necessary is husbandry.[60] Man has been placed upon
earth to preserve Ahura Mazda's good creation, and this can only
be done by careful tilling of the soil, eradication of thorns and
weeds, and reclamation of the tracks over which Angra Mainyu has
spread the curse of barrenness. Zoroaster asked, "What is the
food that fills the Religion of Mazda?" and Ahura Mazda answered,
"It is sowing corn again and again, O Spitama Zarathustra! He who
sows corn sows righteousness."[61] According to Xenophon, the
king of the Persians considered the art of agriculture and that
of war to be the most honourable and necessary occupations, and
paid the greatest attention to both.[62] He appointed officers to
overlook the tillers of the ground, as well as to collect tribute
from them; for "those who {276} cultivate the ground
inefficiently will neither maintain the garrisons, nor be able to
pay their tribute."[63]
[Footnote 57: See Darmesteter, in _Sacred Books of the East_, iv.
p. lxvii.; Geiger, _Civilization of the Eastern Ir[=a]nians_, i.
70; Rawlinson, _Religions of the Ancient World_, p. 108; _Dînâ-î
Maînôg-î Khirad_, ii. 29, xxxvi. 15, xxxvii. 14, &c.]
[Footnote 58: _Vendîdâd_, xviii. 16.]
[Footnote 59: _Dînâ-î Maînôg-î Khirad_, xxi. 27.]
[Footnote 60: See _Vendîdâd_, iii. 23 _sqq._]
[Footnote 61: _Ibid._ iii. 30 _sq._]
[Footnote 62: Xenophon, _[OE]conomicus_, iv. 4, 8 _sqq._]
[Footnote 63: Xenophon, _[OE]conomicus_, iv. 9, 11.]
In his description of ancient Egypt Herodotus tells us that one
of its kings made a law to the effect that every Egyptian should
annually declare to the governor of his district by what means he
maintained himself, and that, if he failed to do this, or did not
show that he lived by honest means, he should be punished with
death.[64] Whether this statement be correct or not,[65] it seems
certain that the Egyptians were anxious to encourage
industry.[66] An ostracon which has often been quoted contains
the maxim, "Do not spare thy body whilst thou art young, for food
cometh by the arms and provisions by the legs."[67]
[Footnote 64: Herodotus, ii. 177. _Cf._ Diodorus Siculus,
_Bibliotheca historica_, i. 77. 5.]
[Footnote 65: _Cf._ Wiedemann, _Herodots zweites Buch_, p. 605.]
[Footnote 66: See Amélineau, _Essai sur l'évolution des idées
morales dans l'Égypte Ancienne_, p. 329.]
[Footnote 67: Gardiner, 'Egyptian Ethics,' in Hastings'
_Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, v. 484.]
A law against idleness resembling that which is reported to have
existed in Egypt was established at Athens, according to some
writers by Draco or Pisistratus,[68] according to others by
Solon, who is said to have borrowed it from the Egyptians.[69]
Plutarch states that, as the city was filled with persons who
assembled from all parts on account of the great security which
prevailed in Attica and the country withal was poor and barren,
Solon turned the attention of the citizens to manufactures. For
this purpose he ordered that trades should be accounted
honourable, that the council of the Areopagus should examine into
every man's means of subsisting and chastise the idle, and that
no son should be obliged to maintain his father if the father had
not taught him a trade.[70] Thucydides puts the following words
in the mouth of Pericles:--"To avow poverty with us is no
disgrace; the true disgrace is in doing nothing to avoid it. An
Athenian citizen does not neglect the State because he takes care
of his own household;{277} and even those of us who are engaged
in business have a very fair idea of politics."[71] In Xenophon's
'Memorabilia' Socrates recommends industry as a means of
supporting life, of maintaining the health and strength of the
body, of promoting temperance and honesty.[72] According to Plato
idleness is the mother of wantonness, whereas by labour the
aliment of passion is diverted into other parts of the body.[73]
Agriculture was highly praised. It is the best of all the
occupations and arts by which men procure the means of
living.[74] Where it flourishes all other pursuits are in full
vigour, but when the ground is allowed to lie barren other
occupations are almost stopped.[75] It is an exercise for the
body, and strengthens it for discharging the duties that become a
man of honourable birth.[76] It requires people to accustom
themselves to endure the colds of winter and the heats of
summer.[77] It renders them fit for running, throwing,
leaping.[78] It gives them the greatest gratification for their
labour, it is the most attractive of all employments.[79] It
receives strangers with the richest hospitality.[80] It offers
the most pleasing first-fruits to the gods, and the richest
banquets on festival days.[81] It teaches men justice, for it is
those who treat the earth best that she recompenses with the most
numerous benefits.[82] It instructs people to assist one another,
for it cannot be conducted without the aid of other men.[83] It
does not give such constant occupation to a person's mind as to
prevent him from attending to the interests of his friends or his
native land.[84] The possession of an estate stimulates men to
defend their country in arms.[85] In short, agriculture renders
citizens most useful, most virtuous, and best affected towards
the commonwealth.[86]
[Footnote 68: Pollux, _Onomasticum_, viii. 42. Diogenes Laertius,
_Vitæ philosophorum_, i. 55. Plutarch, _Solon_, xxxi. 6.]
[Footnote 69: Herodotus, ii. 177. Diodorus Siculus, i. 77. 5.]
[Footnote 70: Plutarch, _Solon_, xxii. 1, 3 _sq._]
[Footnote 71: Thucydides, _Historia belli Peloponnesiaci_,
ii. 40. 1 _sq._]
[Footnote 72: Xenophon, _Memorabilia_, ii. 7. 7 _sq._]
[Footnote 73: Plato, _Leges_, viii. 835, 841.]
[Footnote 74: Xenophon, _[OE]conomicus_, vi. 8.]
[Footnote 75: _Ibid._ v. 17.]
[Footnote 76: _Ibid._ v. 1; vi. 9.]
[Footnote 77: _Ibid._ v. 4.]
[Footnote 78: _Ibid._ v. 8.]
[Footnote 79: _Ibid._ v. 8, 11.]
[Footnote 80: _Ibid._ v. 8.]
[Footnote 81: _Ibid._ v. 10.]
[Footnote 82: _Ibid._ v. 12.]
[Footnote 83: _Ibid._ v. 14.]
[Footnote 84: _Ibid._ vi. 9.]
[Footnote 85: _Ibid._ v. 7.]
[Footnote 86: _Ibid._ vi. 10.]
{278} The argumentative manner in which these views were
expressed by the philosophers indicates, however, that industrial
occupations were deficient in public appreciation.[87] Herodotus
says that not only among most barbarians but also throughout
Greece those who are given wholly to war are honoured above
others.[88] This was especially the case at Sparta, where a
freeman was forbidden to engage in any industrial occupation.[89]
Contrasting Lycurgus' legislation with that of Solon, Plutarch
observes that in a state where the earth was sufficient to
support twice the number of inhabitants and where there were a
multitude of Helots to be worn out by servitude, it was right to
set the citizens free from laborious and mechanic arts and to
employ them in arms as the only art fit for them to learn and
exercise.[90] At Thebes there was a law that no man could hold
office who had not retired from business for ten years, because
it was looked upon as a mean employment.[91] Even at Athens, in
spite of its democratic institutions and its laws against
idleness, trade and handicrafts were despised, both by the
general public and by the philosophers. Xenophon's Socrates said
that the industrial arts are objectionable and justly held in
little repute in communities, because they weaken the bodies of
those who work at them by compelling them to sit and to live
indoors and in some cases to pass whole days by the fire; for
when the body becomes effeminate the mind loses its strength.[92]
Moreover, mechanical occupations leave those who practise them no
leisure to attend to the interests of their friends or the
commonwealth, hence men of that class seem unsuited alike to be
of advantage to their connections and to be defenders of their
country.[93] Plato maintains that manual arts are a reproach
because they "imply a natural weakness of the higher
principle";[94] by {279} their meanness they maim and disfigure
the souls as well as the bodies of those who are employed in
them.[95] When Hesiod said that "work is no disgrace,"[96] he
could certainly not have meant that there was no disgrace for
example in the manufacture of shoes or in selling pickles.[97]
And in his 'Laws' Plato lays down the regulation that no citizen
or servant of a citizen should be occupied in handicraft arts;
"for he who is to secure and preserve the public order of the
State has an art which requires much study and many kinds of
knowledge, and does not admit of being made a secondary
occupation."[98] Aristotle, again, observes that in a community
which has an aristocratic form of government the mechanic and the
labourer will not be citizens, because honours are there given
according to virtue and merit, and "no man can practise virtue
who is living the life of a mechanic or labourer."[99] Corinth
was the place in Greece where the mechanic's occupation was least
despised[100]--no doubt because its situation naturally led to
extensive trade and thence to that splendour of living by which
the useful and ornamental arts are most encouraged.[101]
[Footnote 87: _Cf._ Schmidt, _Die Ethik der alten Griechen_,
ii. 435 _sqq._]
[Footnote 88: Herodotus, ii. 167.]
[Footnote 89: _Ibid._ ii. 167. Xenophon, _Lacedæmoniorum
respublica_, vii. 2. Plutarch, _Lycurgus_, xxiv. 2. _Idem_,
_Agesilaus_, xxvi. 6. Aelian, _Varia historia_, vi. 6.]
[Footnote 90: Plutarch, _Solon_, xxii. 2.]
[Footnote 91: Aristotle, _Politica_, iii. 5. 7, p. 1278 a; vi. 7.
4, p. 1321 a.]
[Footnote 92: Xenophon, _[OE]conomicus_, iv. 2.]
[Footnote 93: _Ibid._ iv. 3.]
[Footnote 94: Plato, _Respublica_, ix. 590.]
[Footnote 95: _Ibid._ vi. 495.]
[Footnote 96: Hesiod, _Opera et dies_, 311.]
[Footnote 97: Plato, _Charmides_, p. 163.]
[Footnote 98: _Idem_, _Leges_, viii. 846.]
[Footnote 99: Aristotle, _Politica_, iii. 5. 5, p. 1278 a. See
also _ibid._ vi. 4. 12, p. 1319 a; vii. 8. 3, p. 1328 b; viii. 2.
4 _sq._ p. 1337 b.]
[Footnote 100: Herodotus, ii. 167.]
[Footnote 101: See Rawlinson's note in his translation of
Herodotus, ii. 252, n. 7.]
The Roman views on the subject were very similar to those of the
Greeks. With regard to what arts and means of acquiring wealth
are to be regarded as worthy and what disreputable, says Cicero,
we have been taught as follows. In the first place, those sources
of emolument which incur public hatred, such as those of
tax-gatherers and usurers, are condemned. We are likewise to
account as mean the gains of hired workmen, whose source of
profit is not their art but their labour; for their very wages
are the consideration of their servitude. We are further to
despise all who retail from merchants goods for prompt sale; for
they never can succeed unless they lie most abominably, {280} and
nothing is more disgraceful than insincerity. All mechanical
labourers are by their profession mean; for a workshop can
contain nothing befitting a gentleman. Least of all are those
trades to be approved that serve the purposes of sensuality, such
as the occupations of butchers, cooks, and fishermen. But those
professions that involve a higher degree of intelligence or a
greater amount of utility, such as medicine, architecture, and
the teaching of the liberal arts, are honourable in those to
whose rank in life they are suited. As to merchandising, if on a
small scale it is mean, but if it is extensive and rich, if it
brings numerous commodities from all parts of the world, and
gives bread to a multitude of people without fraud, it is not so
despicable. However, if a merchant, satisfied with his profits,
steps from the harbour into an estate, such a man seems most
justly deserving of praise. For of all gainful professions
nothing is better, nothing is more pleasing and more delightful,
nothing is more befitting a well-bred man than agriculture.[102]
[Footnote 102: Cicero, _De officiis_, i. 42. See also _Idem_,
_Cato Major_, ch. 15 _sqq._]
The contempt in which manual labour was held by the ancient
pagans could hardly be shared by early Christianity. Christ had
been born in a carpenter's family, his apostles belonged to the
working class, and so did originally most of his followers.
Origen accepts with pride the reproach of Celsus, when he accuses
Christians of worshipping the son of a poor workwoman, who had
earned her bread by spinning,[103] and contrasts with the wisdom
of Plato that of Paul, the tent-maker, of Peter, the fisherman,
of John, who had abandoned his father's nets.[104] St. Paul
presses on the Thessalonians the duty of personal industry; "if
any one would not work, neither should he eat."[105] But at the
same time the spirit of Christianity was not consistent with much
anxiety about earthly matters. The aim of a true disciple of
Christ was not to prosper in the world but {281} to seek the
kingdom of God, not to lay up for himself treasures upon earth
but to lay up for himself treasures in heaven.[106] Poverty
became an ideal, in conformity with both the example and
teachings of Christ. It was associated with godliness, whilst
wealth was associated with godlessness.[107] "The love of money,"
says St. Paul, "is the root of all evil";[108] and the same idea
was over and again expressed by Christian moralists.[109] In the
original sinless state of mankind property was unknown, and so
was labour. It was to punish man for his disobedience that God
caused him to eat daily bread in the sweat of his face.[110]
Since then work is a necessity; but the contemplative life is
better than the active life.[111] Bonaventura points out that
Jesus preferred the meditating Mary to the busy Martha,[112] and
that he himself seems to have done no work till his thirtieth
year.[113] Work is of no value by itself; its highest object is
to further contemplation, to macerate the body, to curb
concupiscence.[114] For this purpose, indeed, it was strongly
insisted upon by several founders of religious orders. According
to St. Benedict, "idleness is an enemy to the soul; and hence at
certain seasons the brethren ought to occupy themselves in the
labour of their hands, and at others in holy reading."[115] St.
Bernard writes:--"The handmaid of Christ ought always to pray, to
read, to work, lest haply the spirit of uncleanness should lead
astray the slothful mind. The delight of the flesh is overcome by
labour. . . . The body tired by work is less delighted with
vice."[116] But the active life must not be pursued to such an
extent as to hinder what it is intended to promote; {282} for it
is impossible for any man to be at once occupied with exterior
actions and at the same time apply himself to divine
contemplation.[117] And whilst he who has nothing else to live
upon is bound to work, it is a sin to try to acquire riches
beyond the limit which necessity has fixed.[118]
[Footnote 103: Origen, _Contra Celsum_, i. 28 _sq._ (Migne,
_Patrologiæ cursus_, Ser. Graeca, xi. 714 _sq._).]
[Footnote 104: _Ibid._ vi. 7 (Migne, Ser. Gr. xi. 1298 _sq_.).]
[Footnote 105: _1 Thessalonians_, iv. 11; _2 <Thessalonians_,
iii. 10.]
[Footnote 106: _St. Luke_, xii. 22 _sqq._ _St. Matthew_,
vi. 19 _sq._]
[Footnote 107: _St. Luke_, xvi. 19 _sqq._ _St. Matthew_, xix. 24.]
[Footnote 108: _1 Timothy_, vi. 10.]
[Footnote 109: von Eicken, _Geschichte der mittelalterlichen
Weltanschauung_, p. 498 _sqq._ Thomas Aquinas, _Summa
theologica_, ii.-ii. 186. 3.]
[Footnote 110: _Genesis_, iii. 19.]
[Footnote 111: Thomas Aquinas, _op. cit._ ii.-ii. 182. 1 _sq._
von Eicken, _op. cit._ p. 488 _sqq._]
[Footnote 112: Bonaventura, _Meditationes vitæ Christi_, ch. 45
(_Opera_, xii. 452).]
[Footnote 113: _Ibid._ ch. 15 (_Opera_, xii. 405).]
[Footnote 114: Guigo, _Epistola ad Fratres de Monte-Dei_, i. 8
(in St. Bernard, _Opera omnia_, ii. 214):--"Non spiritualia
exercitia sunt propter corporalia, sed corporalia propter
spiritualia." von Eicken, _op. cit._ p. 491 _sqq._]
[Footnote 115: St. Benedict, _Regula Monachorum_, 48.]
[Footnote 116: St. Bernard, _De modo bene vivendi_, ch. 51
(_Opera omnia_, ii. 883 _sq._).]
[Footnote 117: _Speculum Monachorum_, in St. Bernard, _Opera
omnia_, ii. 818. von Eicken, _op. cit._ p. 494 _sq._ _Cf._ Thomas
Aquinas, _op. cit._ ii.-ii. 182. 3.]
[Footnote 118: Thomas Aquinas, _op. cit._ ii.-ii. 187. 3; 118. 1.]
This doctrine was more or less realised in the monastic life, but
was hardly held applicable to laymen. The mediæval baron and
knight resembled the Teutonic warrior described by Tacitus, who
regarded it as "a dull and stupid thing to accumulate painfully
by the sweat of the brow what might be won by a little
blood."[119] In England, after the Conquest, the aristocracy in
general lived a life of idleness but indulged eagerly in hunting,
and its members continually sallied forth in parties to
plunder.[120] For a long time the lower classes, constituting the
mass of society, existed only for the benefit of the upper class.
It was considered honourable to live in sloth supported by the
exertions of others, it was held degrading to depend on the gains
of industry. The degradation really attached to the gains of
labour rather than labour itself; for labour ceased to be
degrading if not prosecuted for gain. "Louis XVI. may make locks,
the ladies of his court may make butter and cheese, provided it
is only for amusement. Lord Rosse may build a telescope as an
amateur in the interest of science, and still be noble. But if
the locks, the butter, or the telescope are sold, the makers are
degraded to the level of the tradesman."[121] However, as Mr.
Spencer observes, trade, while at first relatively unessential
(since essential things were mostly made at home) and
consequently lacking the sanction of necessity and of ancestral
custom, ceased to be despised when it grew in importance.[122]
Among ourselves the respect in which a certain occupation is held
is {283} largely determined by the degree of mental power implied
in it; hence manual labour, and especially unskilled labour, is
still in some degree looked down upon. But we do not regard as
dishonourable any kind of work which is not opposed to the
ordinary rules of morality. We distinguish more clearly than the
ancients did between social and moral inferiority. Our moral
judgments are less influenced by class antipathies. We recognise
that a high standard of duty is compatible even with the humblest
station in life. And when we duly reflect upon the matter, we
admit that the moral value of industry depends, not on the
occupation in which it is displayed, but on the purpose of the
labourer.
[Footnote 119: Tacitus, _Germania_, 14.]
[Footnote 120: Wright, _Domestic Manners and Sentiments in
England during the Middle Ages_, p. 102.]
[Footnote 121: Harris, 'The Christian Doctrine of Labor,' in _New
Englander_, xxiv. 245.]
[Footnote 122: Spencer, _Principles of Ethics_, i. 429.]
* * * * *
But though industry is applauded or insisted on, rest is also in
certain circumstances regarded as a duty. By doing too much work
a person may injure himself and indirectly other persons as well.
In early society there is little inducement to overwork, but the
case is very different in modern civilisation. This accounts for
the persistence and general popularity of an institution which
originally sprang from quite different sources, namely, the
Sunday rest.
Among various peoples it is the custom to abstain from work, or
from some special kind of work, on certain occasions or days
which are regarded as defiling or inauspicious. Work is often
suspended after a death, partly perhaps because inactivity is a
natural accompaniment of sorrow,[123] or because a mourner is
supposed to be in a delicate state requiring rest,[124] but
chiefly, I presume, from fear lest the work done should be
contaminated by the pollution of death. Among the Arabs of
Morocco no work must be performed in the village till the dead is
buried. In Greenland everyone who had lived in the same house
with the deceased was obliged to be idle for a certain period,
according to the directions of the priests or wizards.[125] Among
the Eskimo of Behring Strait none of the relatives of the dead
must do any work during the time in which the shade is {284}
believed to remain with the body, that is, for four or five
days.[126] Among the Seminole Indians of Florida the relatives
remained at home and refrained from work during the day of the
burial and for three days thereafter, when the dead was supposed
to stay in his grave.[127] The Kar Nicobarese abstain from work
as a sign of mourning.[128] In Samoa all labour was suspended in
the settlement on the death of a chief.[129] So also the Basutos
do no work on the day when an influential person dies. They,
moreover, refrain from going to their fields, or hasten to leave
them, at the approach of clouds which give promise of rain, "in
order quietly to await the desired benediction, fearing to
disturb Nature in her operations. This idea is carried to such an
extent, that most of the natives believe that, if they
obstinately persist in their labour at such a moment, the clouds
are irritated and retire, or send hail instead of rain. Days of
sacrifice, or great purification, are also holidays. Hence it is
that the law relative to the repose of the seventh day, so far
from finding any objection in the minds of the natives, appears
to them very natural, and perhaps even more fundamental, than it
seems to certain Christians."[130]
[Footnote 123: _Cf._ _infra_, p. 308.]
[Footnote 124: _Cf._ _infra_, p. 307.]
[Footnote 125: Egede, _Description of Greenland_, p. 149 _sq._]
[Footnote 126: Nelson, 'Eskimo about Bering Strait,' in _Ann.
Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xviii. 319.]
[Footnote 127: Maccauley, 'Seminole Indians of Florida,' in _Ann.
Rep. Bur. Ethn._ v. 52.]
[Footnote 128: Kloss, _In the Andamans and Nicobars_, p. 305.]
[Footnote 129: Turner, _Nineteen Years in Polynesia_, p. 229.
_Idem_, _Samoa_, p. 146.]
[Footnote 130: Casalis, _Basutos_, p. 260 _sq._]
Changes in the moon are frequently considered unfavourable for
work. Among the Bechuanas, "when the new moon appears, all must
cease from work, and keep what is called in England a
holiday."[131] The people of Thermia, in the Cyclades, maintain
that all work, so far as possible, should be suspended on the
days immediately preceding the full moon.[132] In the Vishnu
Purana it is said that one who attends to secular affairs on the
days of the full or new moon goes to the Rudhirándha hell, whose
wells are blood.[133] In Northern India it is considered bad to
undertake any business of importance at the new moon {285} or at
an eclipse.[134] According to the 'Laws of Manu,' a Brâhmana is
not allowed to study "on the new-moon day, nor on the fourteenth
and the eighth days of each half-month, nor on the full-moon
day." It is said that "the new-moon day destroys the teacher, the
fourteenth day the pupil, the eighth and the full-moon days
destroy all remembrance of the Veda; let him therefore avoid
reading on those days."[135] The Buddhists have their Sabbath, or
_Uposatha_, which occurs four times in the month, namely, on the
day of full moon, on the day when there is no moon, and on the
two days which are eighth from the full and new moon. On these
days selling and buying, work and business, hunting and fishing,
are forbidden, and all schools and law-courts are closed.[136] In
Ashantee and neighbouring districts, where the people reckon time
by moons, there is a weekly "fetish-day" or sabbath, which seems
to be of native origin. "In all the countries along the coast,
the regular fetish-day is Tuesday, the day which is observed by
the king of Ashantee. Other days in the week are held sacred in
the bush. On this weekly sabbath, or fetish-day, the people
generally dress themselves in white garments, and mark their
faces, and sometimes their arms, with white clay. They also rest
from labour. The fishermen would expect, that were they to go out
on that day, the fetish would be angry, and spoil their
fishing."[137] The natives of Coomassie, on the Gold Coast, have
a law according to which no agricultural work may be done on a
Thursday.[138] In Hawaii, where each month contained thirty
nights and the different days and nights derived their names from
the varying aspects of the moon according to her age, there were
during every month four periods lasting from two to four nights
in which the nights were consecrated or made taboo. So also there
were tabooed seasons on certain other {286} occasions, as when a
high chief was ill, or preparations were made for war, or on the
approach of important religious ceremonies. These taboos were
either "common" or "strict." In the case of the former men were
only required to abstain from their common pursuits and to attend
prayers morning and evening, whereas when the season of strict
taboo was in force a general gloom and silence pervaded the whole
district or island. "Not a fire or light was to be seen, or canoe
launched; none bathed; the mouths of dogs were tied up, and fowls
put under calabashes, or their heads enveloped in cloth; for no
noise of man or animal must be heard. No persons, excepting those
who officiated at the temple, were allowed to leave the shelter
of their roofs. Were but one of these rules broken, the taboo
would fail and the gods be displeased."[139]
[Footnote 131: Campbell, _Second Journey in the Interior of South
Africa_, ii. 205.]
[Footnote 132: Bent, _Cyclades_, p. 438.]
[Footnote 133: _Vish['n]u Purá['n]a_, p. 209.]
[Footnote 134: Crooke, _Popular Religion of Northern India_, i. 23.]
[Footnote 135: _Laws of Manu_, iv. 113 _sq._]
[Footnote 136: Childers, _Dictionary of the Pali Language_, p.
535. Kern, _Der Buddhismus_, ii. 258.]
[Footnote 137: Beecham, _Ashantee_, p. 185 _sq._ _Cf._ Bosman,
_op. cit._ p. 131 (Gold Coast natives).]
[Footnote 138: Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast_,
p. 304.]
[Footnote 139: Jarves, _History of the Hawaiian Islands_, pp. 40,
28. The word _tapua'i_ means "to abstain from all work, games,
&c." (Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Dictionary_, p. 472).]
The peoples of Semitic stock or with Semitic culture also have
their tabooed days. In Morocco work, or certain kinds of work,
are avoided on holy days or in holy periods, as being
unsuccessful or, in some cases, even dangerous to him who
performs it; there is a saying that "work at a feast are like the
stab of a dagger." Nobody likes to start on a journey on a Friday
before the midday prayer has been said, and it is considered bad
to commence any work on that day.[140] I was also told that
clothes will not remain clean if they are washed on a Saturday.
Among the modern Egyptians Saturday is held to be the most
unfortunate of days, and particularly unfavourable for shaving,
cutting the nails, and starting on a journey.[141] At Kheybar, in
Arabia, again, Sunday is considered an unlucky day for beginning
any kind of work.[142] There can be little doubt that the Jewish
Sabbath originated in the belief that it was inauspicious or
dangerous to work on the seventh day, and that the reason for
this belief was the mystic connection which in {287} the opinion
of the ancient Hebrews, as of so many other peoples, existed
between human activity and the changes in the moon.[143] It has
been sufficiently demonstrated that the Sabbath originally
depended upon the new moon, and this carries with it the
assumption that the Hebrews must at one time have observed a
Sabbath at intervals of seven days corresponding with the moon's
phases.[144] In the Old Testament the new moon and Sabbath are
repeatedly mentioned side by side;[145] thus the oppressors of
the poor are represented as saying, "When will the new moon be
gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may set
forth wheat?"[146] Among modern Jews, at the feast of the New
Moon, which is held every month on the first or on the first and
second days of the month, the women are obliged to suspend all
servile work, though the men are not required to interrupt their
secular employments.[147] That the superstitious fear of doing
work on the seventh day developed into a religious prohibition,
is only another instance of a tendency which we have noticed
often before--the tendency of magic forces to be transformed into
divine volitions.[148] Like the ancient Hebrews, the Assyrians
and Babylonians looked upon the seventh day as an "evil day"; and
though they do not seem generally to have abstained from work on
that day, there were various royal taboos connected with it. The
{288} King was not to show himself in his chariot, not to hold
court, not to bring sacrifices, not to change his clothes, not to
eat a good dinner, and not even to curse his enemies.[149]
[Footnote 140: See Westermarck, _The Moorish Conception of
Holiness (Baraka)_, p. 140 _sqq._]
[Footnote 141: Lane, _Modern Egyptians_, p. 272.]
[Footnote 142: Doughty, _Arabia Deserta_, ii. 197 _sq._]
[Footnote 143: See Jastrow, 'Original Character of the Hebrew
Sabbath,' in _American Journal of Theology_, ii. 321 _sqq._]
[Footnote 144: Wellhausen, _Prolegomena to the History of
Israel_, p. 112 _sqq._ Jastrow, _loc. cit._ pp. 314, 327.]
[Footnote 145: _2 Kings_, iv. 23. _Isaiah_, i. 13. _Hosea_,
ii. 11.]
[Footnote 146: _Amos_, viii. 5.]
[Footnote 147: Allen, _Modern Judaism_, p. 390 _sq._]
[Footnote 148: Prof. Jastrow seems to have failed to see this
when he says (_loc. cit._ p. 323) that "if the Sabbath was
originally an 'unfavourable' day on which one must avoid showing
one's self before Yahwe, it would naturally be regarded as
dangerous to provoke his anger by endeavouring to secure on that
day personal benefits through the usual forms of activity."
Wellhausen, again, suggests (_op. cit._ p. 114) that the rest on
the Sabbath was originally the consequence of that day being the
festal and sacrificial day of the week, and only gradually became
its essential attribute on account of the regularity with which
it every eighth day interrupted the round of everyday work. He
argues that the Sabbath as a day of rest cannot be very
primitive, because such a day "presupposes agriculture and a
tolerably hard-pressed working-day life." But this argument
appears very futile when we consider how commonly changes in the
moon are believed to exercise an unfavourable influence upon work
of any kind. See _infra_, Additional Notes.]
[Footnote 149: Schrader, _Die Keilinschriften und das Alte
Testament_, p. 592 _sq._ Hirschfeld, 'Remarks on the Etymology of
[vS]abb[)a]th,' in _Jour. Roy. Asiatic Soc._ 1896, p. 358. Jastrow,
_loc. cit._ pp. 320, 328.]
The Jewish Sabbath was abolished by Christ. "The Sabbath was made
for man, and not man for the Sabbath";[150] "My father worketh
[on it] hitherto, and I work."[151] Jewish converts no doubt
continued to observe the Sabbath, but this met with disapproval.
In one of the Epistles of Ignatius we find the exhortation not to
"sabbatise," which was expanded by the subsequent paraphraser of
these compositions into a warning against keeping the Sabbath,
after the manner of the Jews, "as if delighting in
idleness."[152] And in the fourth century a Council of the Church
enacted "that the Christians ought not to judaise, and rest on
the Sabbath, but ought to work on that day."[153] On the other
hand, it was from early times a recognised custom among the
Christians to celebrate the first day of the week in memory of
Christ's resurrection, by holding a form of religious service;
but there was no sabbatic regard for it, and it was chiefly
looked upon as a day of rejoicing.[154] Tertullian is the first
writer who speaks of abstinence from secular care and labour on
Sunday as a duty incumbent upon Christians, lest they should
"give place to the devil."[155] But it is extremely doubtful
whether the earliest Sunday law really had a Christian origin. In
321 the Emperor Constantine issued an edict to the effect that
all judges and all city people and tradesmen should rest on "the
venerable Day of the Sun," whereas those living in the country
should have full liberty to attend to the culture of their
fields, "since it frequently happens {289} that no other day is
so fit for the sowing of grain or the planting of vines."[156] In
this rescript nothing is said of any relation to Christianity,
nor do we know that it in any way was due to Christian
influence.[157] It seems that Constantine, in his capacity of
Pontifex Maximus, only added the day of the sun--whose worship
was the characteristic of the new paganism--to those inauspicious
days, _religiosi dies_, which the Romans of old regarded as
unsuitable for worldly business and especially for judicial
proceedings.[158] But though the obligatory Sunday rest in no
case was a continuance of the Jewish Sabbath, it gradually was
confounded with it, owing to the recognition of the decalogue,
with its injunction of a weekly day of rest, as the code of
divine morality. From the sixth century upwards vexatious
restrictions were made by civil rulers, councils, and
ecclesiastical writers;[159] until in Puritanism the Christian
Sunday became a perfect image of the pharisaic Sabbath, or even
excelled it in the rigour with which abstinence from every kind
of worldly activity was insisted upon. The theory that the
keeping holy of one day out of seven is the essence of the Fourth
Commandment reconciled people to the fact that the Jewish Sabbath
was the seventh day and Sunday the first. In England, in the
seventeenth century, persons were punished for carrying coal on
Sunday, for hanging out clothes to dry, for travelling on
horseback, for rural strolls and walking about.[160] And Scotch
clergymen taught their congregations that on that day it was
sinful to save a vessel in distress, and that it was proof of
religion to leave ship and crew to perish.[161]
[Footnote 150: _St. Mark_, ii. 27.]
[Footnote 151: _St. John_, v. 17.]
[Footnote 152: Ignatius, _Epistola ad Magnesios_, 9 (Migne, _op.
cit._ Ser. Graeca, v. 768). Neale, _Feasts and Fasts_, p. 89.]
[Footnote 153: _Concilium Laodicenum_, can. 29 (Labbe-Mansi,
_Sacrorum Conciliorum collectio_, ii. 580).]
[Footnote 154: Justin Martyr, _Apologia I. pro Christianis_, 67
(Migne, _op. cit._ Ser. Graeca, vi. 429). Schaff, _History of the
Christian Church_, 'Ante-Nicene Christianity,' p. 202 _sqq._
Hessey, _Sunday_, p. 29 _sqq._]
[Footnote 155: Tertullian, _De oratione_, 23 (Migne, _op. cit._
i. 1191).]
[Footnote 156: _Codex Justinianus_, iii. 12. 2 (3).]
[Footnote 157: _Cf._ Lewis, _Critical History of Sunday
Legislation_, p. 18 _sqq._; Milman, _History of Christianity_,
ii. 291 _sq._]
[Footnote 158: Gellius, _Noctes Atticæ_, iv. 9. 5; vi. 9. 10.
Varro, _De lingua Latina_, vi. 30. Neale, _op. cit._ pp. 5, 6,
86, 87, 206. Fowler, _Roman Festivals of the Period of the
Republic_, p. 8 _sq._ The Greeks, also, had "unblest and
inauspicious" days, when no court or assembly was to be held, and
work was to be abstained from (Plato, _Leges_, vii. 800; Karsten,
_Studies in Primitive Greek Religion_, p. 90).]
[Footnote 159: Hessey, _op. cit._ p. 87 _sqq._]
[Footnote 160: Roberts, _Social History of the People of the
Southern Counties of England_, p. 244 _sqq._]
[Footnote 161: Buckle, _History of Civilization in England_,
iii. 76.]
CHAPTER XXXVII
RESTRICTIONS IN DIET
TRAVELLERS have often noticed with astonishment the immense
quantities of food which uncivilised people are able to consume.
Sir George Grey has described the orgies which follow the
stranding of a whale in Australia, when the natives remain by the
carcase for many days, fairly eating their way into it.[1] The
Rocky Mountain Indians, though they often subsist for a great
length of time on a very little food, will at their feasts "gorge
down an incredible quantity."[2] A Mongol "will eat more than ten
pounds of meat at one sitting, but some have been known to devour
an average-sized sheep in the course of twenty-four hours."[3]
The Waganda in Central Africa "sometimes gorge themselves to such
an extent that they are unable to move, and appear just as if
intoxicated."[4] It has been justly observed that what would
among ourselves be condemned as disgusting gluttony is, under the
conditions to which certain races of men are exposed, quite
normal and in fact necessary. As Mr. Spencer observes, "where the
habitat is such as at one time to supply very little food and at
another time food in great abundance, survival depends on the
ability to consume immense quantities when the opportunities
occur."[5] When this is the case gluttony can hardly be {291}
stigmatised as a vice; and I find no direct evidence that it is
so even among savages who are described as generally moderate in
their diet. The lack of foresight, which is a characteristic of
uncivilised peoples, must prevent them from attaching much moral
value to temperance. On the other hand, gluttony is sometimes
said to be regarded with admiration. Mr. Torday informs me that
the Bambala in South-Western Congo, when praising a man for his
strength, are in the habit of saying, "He eats a whole goat with
its skin."
[Footnote 1: Grey, _Journals of Expeditions in North-West and
Western Australia_, ii. 277 _sqq._]
[Footnote 2: Harmon, _Journal of Voyages in the Interior of North
America_, p. 329.]
[Footnote 3: Prejevalsky, _Mongolia_, i. 55.]
[Footnote 4: Wilson and Felkin, _Uganda_, i. 185.]
[Footnote 5: Spencer, _Principles of Ethics_, i. 436.]
At higher stages of culture intemperance is often subject to
censure--because it is detrimental to health or prosperity, or
because it calls forth an instinctive feeling of disgust, or
because indulgence in sensual pleasures is considered degrading,
or, generally, because it is inconsistent with an ascetic ideal
of life. It is said in the Proverbs that "the glutton shall come
to poverty."[6] According to the Laws of Manu, "excessive eating
is prejudicial to health, to fame, and to bliss in heaven; it
prevents the acquisition of spiritual merit, and is odious among
men; one ought, for these reasons, to avoid it carefully."[7]
Aristotle maintains that the pleasure with which intemperance is
concerned is justly held in disgrace, "since it belongs to us in
that we are animals, not in that we are men."[8] Cicero observes
that, as mere corporeal pleasure is unworthy the excellency of
man's nature, the nourishment of our bodies "should be with a
view not to our pleasure, but to our health and our strength."[9]
The same opinion is at least nominally shared by many among
ourselves; whereas others, though denying that the gratification
of appetite is to be sought for its own sake, admit as legitimate
ends for it not only the maintenance of health and strength but
also "cheerfulness and the cultivation of the social
affections."[10] But most of us are undoubtedly less exacting, if
not in theory at least in practice, and really find nothing
blamable in pleasures of the {292} table which neither impair
health, nor involve a perceptible loss of some greater
gratification, nor interfere with duties towards neighbours.[11]
[Footnote 6: _Proverbs_, xxiii. 21.]
[Footnote 7: _Laws of Manu_, ii. 57.]
[Footnote 8: Aristotle, _Ethica Nicomachea_, iii. 10. 10.]
[Footnote 9: Cicero, _De officiis_, i. 30.]
[Footnote 10: Whewell, _Elements of Morality_, p. 124 _sq._]
[Footnote 11: See Sidgwick, _Methods of Ethics_, p. 328 _sq._]
Sometimes temperance has been inculcated on grounds which in
other cases lead to the duty of fasting, that is, abstinence from
all food and drink, or at least (in a looser sense of the word)
from certain kinds of food, for a determined period. The custom
of fasting is wide-spread, and deserves special attention in a
study of moral ideas.
Fasting is practised or enjoined for a variety of purposes. It is
frequently adopted as a means of having supernatural converse, or
acquiring supernatural powers.[12] He who fasts sees in dreams or
visions things that no ordinary eye can see. The Hudson Bay
Eskimo "discovered that a period of fasting and abstinence from
contact with other people endowed a person with supernatural
powers and enabled him to learn the secrets of Tung ak [the great
spirit]. This is accomplished by repairing to some lonely spot,
where, for a greater or less period, the hermit abstains from
food or water until the imagination is so worked upon that he
believes himself imbued with the power to heal the sick and
control all the destinies of life. Tung ak is supposed to stand
near and reveal those things while the person is undergoing the
test."[13] The Naudowessies totally abstain from every kind of
either victuals or drink before a hunting expedition, because
they think that "it enables them freely to dream, in which dreams
they are informed where they shall find the greatest plenty of
game."[14] The Tsimshian of British Columbia, if a special object
is to be attained, {293} believe they can compel the deity to
grant it by a rigid fasting.[15] The Amazulu have a saying that
"the continually stuffed body cannot see secret things," and, in
accordance with this belief, put no faith in a fat diviner.[16] A
Tungus shaman, who is summoned to treat a sick person, will for
several days abstain from food and maintain silence till he
becomes inspired.[17] Among the Santals the person or persons who
have to offer sacrifices at their feasts prepare themselves for
this duty by fasting and prayer and by placing themselves for
some time in a position of apparent mental absorption.[18] The
savage, as Sir E. B. Tylor remarks, has many a time, for days and
weeks together, to try involuntarily the effects of fasting,
accompanied with other privations and with prolonged solitary
contemplation in the desert or the forest. Under these
circumstances he soon comes to see and talk with phantoms, which
are to him visible personal spirits, and, having thus learnt the
secret of spiritual intercourse, he thenceforth reproduces the
cause in order to renew the effects.[19] The Hindus believe that
a fasting person will ascend to the heaven of that god in whose
name he observes the fast.[20] The Hebrews associated fasting
with divine revelations.[21] St. Chrysostom says that fasting
"makes the soul brighter, and gives it wings to mount up and soar
on high."[22]
[Footnote 12: Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii. 410 _sqq._ Spencer,
_Principles of Sociology_, i. 261. Avebury, _Origin of
Civilisation_, p. 266 _sqq._ Landtman, _Origin of Priesthood_,
pp. 118-123, 158 _sqq._ Müller, _Geschichte der Amerikanischen
Urreligionen_, pp. 285, 651. Dorsey, 'Siouan Cults,' in _Ann.
Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xi. 390. Mooney, 'Myths of the Cherokee,'
_ibid._ xix. 480. Herrera, _General History of the West Indies_,
1. 165 (ancient natives of Hispaniola). Niebuhr, _Travels through
Arabia_, ii. 282.]
[Footnote 13: Turner, 'Ethnology of the Ungava District,' in
_Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xi. 195.]
[Footnote 14: Carver, _Travels through the Interior Parts of
North America_, p. 285.]
[Footnote 15: Boas, in _Fifth Report on the North-Western Tribes
of Canada_, p. 50.]
[Footnote 16: Callaway, _Religious System of the Amazulu_,
p. 387, n. 41.]
[Footnote 17: Krivoshapkin, quoted by Landtman, _op. cit._
p. 159.]
[Footnote 18: Dalton, _Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 213. See also
Rowney, _Wild Tribes of India_, p. 77.]
[Footnote 19: Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii. 410.]
[Footnote 20: Ward, _View of the History, &c. of the Hindoos_,
ii. 77.]
[Footnote 21: _Exodus_, xxxiv. 28. _Deuteronomy_, ix. 9.
_Daniel_, ix. 3.]
[Footnote 22: St. Chrysostom, _In Cap. I. Genes. Homil. X._
(Migne, _Patrologiæ cursus_, Ser. Graeca, liii. 83). _Cf._
Tertullian, _De jejuniis_, 6 _sqq._ (Migne, ii. 960, 961, 963);
Haug, _Alterthümmer der Christen_, pp. 476, 482.]
Ideas of this kind partly underlie the common practice of
abstaining from food before or in connection with the performance
of a magical or religious ceremony;[23] but there {294} is yet
another ground for this practice. The effect attributed to
fasting is not merely psychical, but it also prevents pollution.
Food may cause defilement, and, like other polluting matter, be
detrimental to sanctity. Among the Maoris "no food is permitted
to touch the head or hair of a chief, which is sacred; and if
food is mentioned in connection with anything sacred (or 'tapu')
it is considered as an insult, and revenged as such."[24] So also
a full stomach may be polluting.[25] This is obviously the reason
why in Morocco and elsewhere[26] certain magical practices, in
order to be efficacious, have to be performed before breakfast.
The Masai use strong purges before they venture to eat holy
meat.[27] The Caribs purified their bodies by purging,
bloodletting, and fasting; and the natives of the Antilles, at
certain religious festivals, cleansed themselves by vomiting
before they approached the sanctuary.[28] The true object of
fasting often appears from the fact that it is practised hand in
hand with other ceremonies of a purificatory character. A Lappish
_noaide_, or wizard, prepares himself for the offering of a
sacrifice by abstinence from food and ablutions.[29] Herodotus
tells us that the ancient Egyptians fasted before making a
sacrifice to Isis, and beat their bodies while the victims were
burnt.[30] When a Hindu resolves to visit a sacred place, he has
his head shaved two days preceding the commencement of his
journey, and fasts the next day; on the last day of his journey
he fasts again, and on his {295} arrival at the sacred spot he
has his whole body shaved, after which he bathes.[31] In
Christianity we likewise meet with fasting as a rite of
purification. At least as early as the time of Tertullian it was
usual for communicants to prepare themselves by fasting for
receiving the Eucharist;[32] and to this day Roman Catholicism
regards it as unlawful to consecrate or partake of it after food
or drink.[33] The Lent fast itself was partly interpreted as a
purifying preparation for the holy table.[34] And in the early
Church catechumens were accustomed to fast before baptism.[35]
[Footnote 23: Bossu, _Travels through Louisiana_, i. 38
(Natchez). Clavigero, _History of Mexico_, i. 285 _sq._;
Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_, iii. 440 _sq._
(ancient Mexicans). Landa, _Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan_, p.
156. Junghuhn, _Die Battaländer auf Sumatra_, ii. 311 _sq._
(natives of Tjumba). Beauchamp, in the Madras Government Museum's
_Bulletin_, iv. 56 (Hindus of Southern India). Ward, _op. cit._
ii. 76 _sq._ (Hindus). Wassiljew, quoted by Haberland, 'Gebräuche
und Aberglauben beim Essen,' in _Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie_,
xviii. 30 (Buddhists). Porphyry, _De abstinentia ab esu
animalium_, ii. 44; Wachsmuth, _Hellenische Alterthumskunde_, ii.
560, 576; Hermann-Stark, _Lehrbuch der gottesdienstlichen
Alterthümer der Griechen_, p. 381; Anrich, _Das antike
Mysterienwesen_, p. 25; Diels, 'Ein orphischer Demeterhymnus,' in
_Festschrift Theodor Gomperz dargebracht_, p. 6 _sqq._ Chwolsohn,
_Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus_, ii. 23, 74.]
[Footnote 24: Angas, _Polynesia_, p. 149.]
[Footnote 25: See Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_,
p. 434 _sq._; Westermarck, _The Moorish Conception of Holiness_,
p. 127.]
[Footnote 26: Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der
gegenwart_, § 219, p. 161.]
[Footnote 27: Thomson, _Masai Land_, p. 430.]
[Footnote 28: Waitz, _Anthropologie der Naturvölker_, iv. 330;
iii. 384.]
[Footnote 29: von Düben, _Lappland_, p. 256. Friis, _Lappisk
Mythologi_, p. 145 _sq._]
[Footnote 30: Herodotus, ii. 40.]
[Footnote 31: Ward, _op. cit._ ii. 130 _sq._ _Cf._ _Institutes of
Vishnu_, xlvi. 17, 24 _sq._]
[Footnote 32: Tertullian, _De oratione_, 19 (Migne, _op. cit._
i. 1182).]
[Footnote 33: _Catechism of the Council of Trent_, ii. 4. 6.]
[Footnote 34: St. Jerome, _In Jonam_, 3 (Migne, _op. cit._
xxv. 1140).]
[Footnote 35: Justin Martyr, _Apologia I. pro Christianis_, 61
(Migne, _op. cit._ Ser. Graeca, vi. 420). St. Augustine, _De fide
et operibus_, vi. 8 (Migne, xl. 202).]
In the case of a sacrifice it is considered necessary not only
that he who offers it, but that the victim also, should be free
from pollution. In ancient Egypt a sacrificial animal had to be
perfectly clean.[36] According to Hindu notions the gods enjoy
pure sacrifices only.[37] In the Kalika-Purana, a work supposed
to have been written under the direction of Siva, it is said that
if a man is offered he must be free from corporal defect and
unstained with great crimes, and that if an animal is offered it
must have exceeded its third year and be without blemish or
disease; and in no case must the victim be a woman or a she
animal, because, as it seems, females are regarded as naturally
unclean.[38] According to the religious law of the Hebrews, no
leaven or honey should be used in connection with vegetable
offerings, on the ground that these articles have the effect of
producing fermentation and tend to acidify and spoil anything
with which they are mixed;[39] and the animal which was intended
for sacrifice should be absolutely free from blemish[40] and at
least eight days old,[41] that is, untainted with the impurity of
birth. Quite in harmony with these prescriptions is the notion
that human or {296} animal victims have to abstain from food for
some time before they are offered up. Among the Kandhs the man
who was destined to be sacrificed was kept fasting from the
preceding evening, but on the day of the sacrifice he was
refreshed with a little milk and palm-sago; and before he was led
forth from the village in solemn procession he was carefully
washed and dressed in a new garment.[42] In Morocco it is not
only considered meritorious for the people to fast on the day
previous to the celebration of the yearly sacrificial feast,
_l-[(][)a]îd l-kbîr_, but in several parts of the country the
sheep which is going to be sacrificed has to fast on that day or
at least on the following morning, till some food is given it
immediately before it is slaughtered. The Jewish custom which
compels the firstborn to fast on the eve of Passover[43] may also
perhaps be a survival from a time when all the firstborn belonged
to the Lord.[44]
[Footnote 36: Herodotus, ii. 38.]
[Footnote 37: _Baudhâyana_, i. 6. 13. 1 _sq._]
[Footnote 38: Dubois, _Description of the Character, &c. of the
People of India_, p. 491.]
[Footnote 39: Keil, _Manual of Biblical Archæology_, i. 262.]
[Footnote 40: _Leviticus_, xxii. 19 _sqq._]
[Footnote 41: _Ibid._ xxii. 27.]
[Footnote 42: Macpherson, _Memorials of Service in India_, p. 118.]
[Footnote 43: Greenstone, 'Fasting,' in _Jewish Encyclopedia_, v.
348. Allen, _Modern Judaism_, p. 394.]
[Footnote 44: _Supra_, i. 459.]
In some cases the custom of fasting before the performance of a
sacrifice may be due to the idea that it is dangerous or improper
for the worshipper to partake of food before the god has had his
share.[45] In India a regular performance of two half-monthly
sacrifices is enjoined on the Brahmanical householder for a
period of thirty years from the time when he has set up a fire of
his own--according to some authorities even for the rest of his
life. The ceremony usually occupies two consecutive days, the
first of which is chiefly taken up with preparatory rites and the
vow of abstinence (_vrata_) by the sacrificer and his wife,
whilst the second day is reserved for the main performance of the
sacrifice. The _vrata_ includes the abstention from certain kinds
of food, especially meat, which will be offered to the gods on
the following day, as also from other carnal pleasures. The
Satapatha-Brâhmana gives the following explanation of it:--"The
gods see through the mind of man; they know that, when {297} he
enters on this vow, he means to sacrifice to them the next
morning. Therefore all the gods betake themselves to his house,
and abide by him or the fires (_upa-vas_) in his house; whence
this day is called _upa-vasatha_. Now, as it would even be
unbecoming for him to take food before men who are staying with
him as his guests have eaten; how much more would it be so, if he
were to take food before the gods who are staying with him have
eaten: let him therefore take no food at all."[46] It is hardly
probable, however, that this is the original meaning of the
abstinence in question. It occurs about the time of new moon and
full moon; according to some native authorities the abstinence
and sacrifice take place on the last two days of each half of the
lunar month, whilst the generality of ritualistic writers
consider the first day of the half-month that is, the first and
sixteenth days of the month to be the proper time for the
sacrifice.[47] We shall presently see how frequently fasting is
observed on these occasions, presumably for fear of eating food
which is supposed to have been polluted by the moon; hence it
seems to me by no means improbable that the _vrata_ has a similar
origin, instead of being merely a rite preparatory to the
sacrifice which follows it. But at the same time the idea that
spirits or gods should have the first share of a meal is
certainly very ancient, and may lead to actual fasting in case
the offering for some reason or other is to be delayed. A
Polynesian legend tells us that a man by name Maui once caught an
immense fish. Then he left his brothers, saying to them:--"After
I am gone, be courageous and patient; do not eat food until I
return, and do not let our fish be cut up, but rather leave it
until I have carried an offering to the gods from this great haul
of fish, and until I have found a priest, that fitting prayers
and sacrifices may be offered to the god, and the necessary rites
be completed in order. We shall thus all be purified. I will then
{298} return, and we can cut up this fish in safety, and it shall
be fairly portioned out to this one, and to that one, and to that
other." But as soon as Maui had gone, his brothers began at once
to eat food, and to cut up the fish. Had Maui previously reached
the sacred place, the heart of the deity would have been appeased
with the offering of a portion of the fish which had been caught
by his disciples, and all the male and female deities would have
partaken of their portions of the sacrifice. But now the gods
turned with wrath upon them, on account of the fish which they
had thus cut up without having made a fitting sacrifice.[48]
[Footnote 45: _Cf._ Oldenberg, _Die Religion des Veda_, p. 414.]
[Footnote 46: _Satapatha-Brâhmana_, i. 1. 1. 7 _sq._ Eggeling, in
_Sacred Books of the East_, xii. 1 _sq._ Oldenberg, _op. cit._
p. 413, n. 1.]
[Footnote 47: Eggeling, in _Sacred Books of the East_, xii. 1.]
[Footnote 48: Grey, _Polynesian Mythology_, p. 26 _sq._]
Among many peoples custom prescribes fasting after a death.
Lucian says that at the funeral feast the parents of the deceased
are prevailed upon by their relatives to take food, being almost
prostrated by a three days' fast.[49] We are told that among the
Hindus children fast three days after the death of a parent, and
a wife the same period after the death of her husband;[50] but
according to a more recent statement, to be quoted presently,
they do not altogether abstain from food. In one of the sacred
books of India it is said that mourners shall fast during three
days, and that, if they are unable to do so, they shall subsist
on food bought in the market or given unasked.[51] Among the
Nay[=a]dis of Malabar "from the time of death until the funeral
is over, all the relations must fast."[52] Among the Irulas of
the Neilgherries "the relatives of the deceased fast during the
first day, that is, if . . . . the death occur after the morning
meal, they refrain from the evening one, and eat nothing till the
next morning. If it occur during the night, or before the morning
meal, they refrain from all food till the evening. Similar
fasting is observed on every return of the same day of the week,
till the obsequies take place."[53] Among {299} the Bogos of
Eastern Africa a son must fast three days after the death of his
father.[54] On the Gold Coast it is the custom for the near
relatives of the deceased to perform a long and painful fast, and
sometimes they can only with difficulty be induced to have
recourse to food again.[55] So also in Dahomey they must fast
during the "corpse time," or mourning.[56] Among the Brazilian
Paressí the relatives of a dead person remain for six days at his
grave, carefully refraining from taking food.[57] Among the
aborigines of the Antilles children used to fast after the death
of a parent, a husband after the death of his wife, and a wife
after the death of her husband.[58] In some Indian tribes of
North America it is the custom for the relatives of the deceased
to fast till the funeral is over.[59] Among the Snanaimuq, a
tribe of the Coast Salish, after the death of a husband or wife
the surviving partner must not eat anything for three or four
days.[60] In one of the interior divisions of the Salish of
British Columbia, the Stlatlumh, the next four days after a
funeral feast are spent by the members of the household of the
deceased person in fasting, lamenting and ceremonial
ablutions.[61] Among the Upper Thompson Indians in British
Columbia, again, those who handled the dead body and who dug the
grave had to fast until the corpse was buried.[62]
[Footnote 49: Lucian, _De luctu_, 24.]
[Footnote 50: Ward, _View of the History, &c. of the Hindoos_,
ii. 76 _sq._]
[Footnote 51: _Vasishtha_, iv. 14 _sq._ _Cf._ _Institutes of
Vishnu_, xix. 14.]
[Footnote 52: Thurston, in the Madras Government Museum's
_Bulletin_, iv. 76.]
[Footnote 53: Harkness, _Description of a Singular Race
inhabiting the Neilgherry Hills_, p. 97.]
[Footnote 54: Munzinger, _Die Sitten und das Recht der Bogos_,
p. 29.]
[Footnote 55: Cruickshank, _Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast_,
ii. 218.]
[Footnote 56: Burton, _Mission to Gelele_, ii. 163.]
[Footnote 57: von den Steinen, _Unter den Naturvölkern
Zentral-Brasiliens_, p. 435. _Cf._ _ibid._ p. 339 (Bakaïri).]
[Footnote 58: Du Tertre, _Histoire générale des Antilles_, ii. 371.]
[Footnote 59: Charlevoix, _Voyage to North-America_, ii. 187.]
[Footnote 60: Boas, in _Fifth Report on the North-Western Tribes
of Canada_, p. 45.]
[Footnote 61: Tout, 'Ethnology of the Stlatlumh of British
Columbia,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxv. 138.]
[Footnote 62: Teit, 'Thompson Indians of British Columbia,' in
_Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History_,
Anthropology, i. 331.]
In several instances fasting after a death is observed only in
the daytime.
David and his people fasted for Saul and Jonathan until even on
the day when the news of their death arrived.[63] Among the Arabs
of Morocco it is the custom that if a death takes place in the
morning everyone in the village refrains from food until {300}
the deceased is buried in the afternoon or evening; but if a
person dies so late that he cannot be buried till the next
morning the people eat at night. In the Pelew Islands, as long as
the dead is unburied, fasting is observed in the daytime but not
in the evening.[64] In Fiji after a burial the _kana-bogi_, or
fasting till evening, is practised for ten or twenty days.[65] In
Samoa it was common for those who attended the deceased to eat
nothing during the day, but to have a meal at night.[66] In the
Tuhoe tribe of the Maoris, "when a chief of distinction died his
widow and children would remain for some time within the _whare
potae_ [that is, mourning house], eating food during the night
time only, never during the day."[67] The Sacs and Foxes in
Nebraska formerly required that children should fast for three
months after the death of a parent, except that they every day
about sunset were allowed to partake of a meal made entirely of
hominy.[68] Among the Kansas a man who loses his wife must fast
from sunrise to sunset for a year and a half, and a woman who
loses her husband must observe a similar fast for a year.[69] In
some tribes of British Columbia and among the Thlinkets, until
the dead body is buried the relatives of the deceased may eat a
little at night but have to fast during the day.[70] Among the
Upper Thompson Indians a different custom prevailed: "nobody was
allowed to eat, drink, or smoke in the open air after sunset
(others say after dusk) before the burial, else the ghost would
harm them."[71]
[Footnote 63: _2 Samuel_, i. 12. _Cf._ _ibid._ iii. 35.]
[Footnote 64: Waitz, _op. cit._ v. 153.]
[Footnote 65: Williams and Calvert, _Fiji_, p. 169.]
[Footnote 66: Turner, _Nineteen Years in Polynesia_, p. 228.
_Idem_, _Samoa_, p. 145.]
[Footnote 67: Best, 'Tuhoe Land,' in _Trans. and Proceed. of the
New Zealand Institute_, xxx. 38.]
[Footnote 68: Yarrow, 'Mortuary Customs of the North American
Indians,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ i. 95.]
[Footnote 69: Dorsey, 'Mourning and War Customs of the Kansas,'
in _American Naturalist_, xix. 679 _sq._]
[Footnote 70: Boas, _loc. cit._ p. 41.]
[Footnote 71: Teit, _loc. cit._ p. 328.]
Very frequently mourners have to abstain from certain victuals
only, especially flesh or fish, or some other staple or favourite
food.
In Greenland everybody who had lived in the same house with the
dead, or who had touched his corpse, was for some time forbidden
to partake of certain kinds of food.[72] Among the Upper Thompson
Indians "parents bereft of a child did not eat fresh meat for
several months."[73] Among the Stlatlumh of {301} British
Columbia a widow might eat no fresh food for a whole year, whilst
the other members of the deceased person's family abstained from
such food for a period of from four days to as many months. A
widower was likewise forbidden to eat fresh meats for a certain
period, the length of which varied with the age of the
person--the younger the man, the longer his abstention.[74] In
some of the Goajiro clans of Colombia a person is prohibited from
eating flesh during the mourning time, which lasts nine days.[75]
Among the Abipones, when a chief died, the whole tribe abstained
for a month from eating fish, their principal dainty.[76] While
in mourning, the Northern Queensland aborigines carefully avoid
certain victuals, believing that the forbidden food, if eaten,
would burn up their bowels.[77] In Easter Island the nearest
relatives of the dead are for a year or even longer obliged to
abstain from eating potatoes, their chief article of food, or
some other victuals of which they are particularly fond.[78]
Certain Papuans and various tribes in the Malay Archipelago
prohibit persons in mourning from eating rice or sago.[79] In the
Andaman Islands mourners refuse to partake of their favourite
viands.[80] After the death of a relative the Tipperahs abstain
from flesh for a week.[81] The same is the case with the Arakh, a
tribe in Oudh, during the fifteen days in the month of Kuâr which
are sacred to the worship of the dead.[82] Among the Nay[=a]dis
of Malabar the relatives of the deceased are not allowed to eat
meat for ten days after his death.[83] According to Toda custom
the near relatives must not eat rice, milk, honey, or gram until
the funeral is over.[84] Among the Hindus described by Mr.
Chunder Bose a widow is restricted to one scanty meal a day, and
this is of the coarsest description and always devoid of fish,
the most esteemed article of food in a Hindu lady's bill of fare.
The son, again, from {302} the hour of his father's death to the
conclusion of the funeral ceremony, is allowed to take only a
meal consisting of _atab_ rice, a sort of inferior pulse, milk,
ghee, sugar, and a few fruits, and at night a little milk, sugar,
and fruits--a _régime_ which lasts ten days in the case of a
Brahmin and thirty-one days in the case of a Sûdra.[85] In some
of the sacred books of India it is said that, during the period
of impurity, all the mourners shall abstain from eating meat.[86]
In China "meat, must, and spirits were forbidden even in the last
month of the deepest mourning, when other sorts of food had long
been allowed already."[87]
[Footnote 72: Egede, _Description of Greenland_, p. 149 _sq._
Cranz, _History of Greenland_, i. 218.]
[Footnote 73: Teit, _loc. cit._ p. 332.]
[Footnote 74: Tout, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxv. 138 _sq._]
[Footnote 75: Candelier, _Rio-Hacha_, p. 220.]
[Footnote 76: Charlevoix, _History of Paraguay_, i. 405.]
[Footnote 77: Lumholtz, _Among Cannibals_, p. 203.]
[Footnote 78: Geiseler, _Die Oster-Insel_, pp. 28, 30.]
[Footnote 79: Wilken, 'Ueber das Haaropfer, und einige andere
Trauergebräuche bei den Völkern Indonesien's,' in _Revue
coloniale internationale_, iv. 348 _sq._]
[Footnote 80: Man, 'Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman
Islands,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xii. 142**, 353.]
[Footnote 81: Browne, quoted by Dalton, _op. cit._ p. 110.]
[Footnote 82: Crooke, _Tribes and Castes of the North-Western
Provinces and Oudh_, i. 84.]
[Footnote 83: Thurston, in the Madras Government Museum's
_Bulletin_, iv. 76.]
[Footnote 84: _Idem_, _ibid._ i. 174. Dr. Rivers says (_Todas_,
p. 370) that, among the Todas, a widower is not allowed to eat
rice nor drink milk, and that on every return of the day of the
week on which his wife died he takes no food in the morning but
only has his evening meal. The same holds good for a widow.]
[Footnote 85: Bose, _The Hindoos as they are_, pp. 244, 254 _sq._]
[Footnote 86: _Gautama_, xiv. 39. _Institutes of Vishnu_, xix. 15.]
[Footnote 87: de Groot, _Religious System of China_, (vol. ii.
book) i. 651.]
The custom of fasting after a death has been ascribed to
different causes by different writers. Mr. Spencer believes that
it has resulted from the habit of making excessive provision for
the dead.[88] But although among some peoples the funeral
offerings no doubt are so extensive as to reduce the survivors to
poverty and starvation,[89] I have met with no statement to the
effect that they are anxious to give to the deceased all the
eatables which they possess, or that the mourning fast is a
matter of actual necessity. It is always restricted to some fixed
period, often to a few days only, and it prevails among many
peoples who have never been known to be profuse in their
sacrifices to the dead. With reference to the Chinese, Dr. de
Groot maintains that the mourners originally fasted with a view
to being able to sacrifice so much the more at the tomb; and he
bases this conclusion on the fact that the articles of food which
were forbidden till the end of the deepest mourning were the very
same as those which in ancient China played the principal part at
every burial sacrifice.[90] But this prohibition may also perhaps
be due to a belief that the offering of certain victuals to the
dead pollutes all food belonging to the same species.
[Footnote 88: Spencer, _Principles of Sociology_, i. 261 _sqq._]
[Footnote 89: _Ibid._ i. 262.]
[Footnote 90: de Groot, _op. cit._, (vol. ii. book) i. 652.]