Page:The Psychology of Jingoism.djvu/110

a somewhat subtle one, and is not to be determined in an offhand way. It does not arise in any real shape in the Jingoism of the 'masses,' which no one seriously pretends is based upon any information or understanding of the actual issues. The ebullition of passion there is merely temperamental violence, without any real substratum of intellectual conviction. 'Avenge Majuba' stirs fiercely the minds of men who have no knowledge of the historic incident. 'Save the British Empire' provokes powerful feeling among those who could not even name our major colonies, and know nothing of the danger to which that Empire is or is not exposed. This childish patriotism, untempered by knowledge, is a dangerous force in the hands of unscrupulous politicians, but it contains nothing that can be called dishonest; the hypnotic influence of certain phrases upon the mob-mind can hardly be dignified by such a term.

But how is it with educated persons who have abandoned themselves to the same passions, and who profess to be 'convinced' of the justice and inevitability of the war? Are they equally honest in their 'convictions'? Here one distinction must be made upon the threshold of the inquiry.