Page:The Psychology of Jingoism.djvu/89
'Never forget to slander those you have wronged.' This self-protective instinct in a nation which has reached a certain stage in the evolution of morals is aptly illustrated by Mr. Gilbert Murray in the following fable: –
Consider the fowls of the air. A very pretty small bird, the great Tit, when hungry, will lift up its beak, split open its brother's head, and proceed to eat his brains. It might then be satisfied, think you? Not at all! It has a moral nature, you must please to remember, which demands to be satisfied as well as the physical. When it has finished its brother's brains, it first gets very angry and pecks the dead body; then it flies off to a tree and exults. What is it angry with, and why does it exult? It is angry with the profound wickedness of that brother, in consequence of which it was obliged to kill him; it exults in the thought of its own courage, firmness, justice, moderation, generosity, and domestic sweetness.[1]
Depend upon it, the comedy thus provided is not lost upon our Continental neighbours, and it helps to swell the humour of another of our Jingo attitudes – our claim that the achievements of our arms in South Africa redound to the military prestige of the Empire. "See how all our Colonies rally round us, how brave and enduring are our soldiers, how skilful our commissariat, how scientific our generalship, how firm and successful our career of conquest." Our neighbours are convinced that we are
- ↑ International Journal of Ethics, October, 1900.