Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-07-31
PLAGUE AND PANIC.
How the Europeans and the OrientaIs
Face Death.
London Spectator.

London Spectator.
The panic which the cholera is ap-
parently exciting i'll Egypt will hardly
increase the respect in which the Western
world is held by Orientals who have to
submit to its guidance. The knoWledoe
OF life in which the West excels the East
Is In part compensated by the undignified
dlsmay and confusion with which any,
thing like general notice to quit is re-
celVed among the Western races. by
whom the art of living has been
so effectually studied. Mr.. King
lake described, with even more
IMAM ms ordinary vivacity, between
lorty and fifty years ago, in his
"Eothen," the contrast between the con-
duct OF the Levantines at Cairo, pallid
with terror, and shrinking from the touch
OF every 1uttering garment or rag i'm the
city, as II 1t were sentence of death
and as If, too, but for the plague. men
would be immortal-and the conduct of
the Mohammedans, who calmly pitched
thelr tents for the celebration of their re-
nglous festival, and hung swings for their
children, in the very burial ground where
the hoWls OF the arriving funerals were
heard, hour alter hour, prOclaiming the
rapid depOpulation of the great city. The
Oriental, whatever his faith, does not seem
to consider prolonged life as the only con-
ceivable and ineligible contingency for
himself, outside which all is unmeaning
and chaOtic-cOntingen not even
to be approached with dignity and pres
ence of mind. On the contrary. he seems
to regard life and death as alike contin
gences which he is bound to meet with
the same quanimity-alternatiy branch
es of the same inscrutable DEGREES. But
the average European can only die with
dignity where the steady pressure of Opin-
ION ana expectation in the class in which
a % H.
him to do so; and if that pressure is re-
moved by the cOntagion of a general
panic, such as is caused by the rout of an
army or by a frightful epidemic. all
restraints vanish at once. and the
result is general decentralization and
beWllderment, of which flight appears
to be the only fixed idea. Mr.
kinglake contrasts with this undignified
hight the grave demeanOr of the Moham-
medans. Il did not hear while was at
CAIRO that any prayer for remission of
the plague had been offered up in the
mosques. believe that, however fright
tul the ravages Of the disease NAV be. the
Mohammedans refrain from approaching
heaven with their complaints until the
prague mas endured for a long space,
Then at last they pray God. not that the
plague may cease, but that it NAV 90 TO
another city" We do not know how far
this may apply to the attitude of Moham-
medans of the present day. but nothing
could express better the belief that the
plague IS sent to answer some specific
purpose-of course purpose of destruc-
Ion-6ut that that purpose will in
all probability stop short of the complete
destruction of given CITY. and is likely
rather to involve the partial depopulation
OF other cities. According to Mr.. King
lake, the deaths at Cairo had reached
l,2OO day before he left, and even that
was not point at which it was thought
decent by the MOhammedans to assume
tnat the purpose OF God in sending the
plague had been sufficiently fulfilled TO
make it right to pray that it might pass to
new place. Thus, the average Oriental
evidently faces boldly the possibility that
1t may be the purpose of God that he
and a great number of his companions
should die, while the average European
ayerts his mind altogether from such a
possibility as purely unnatural, and bolts
from the danger which he perceiyes.
so soon as he understands its fatal
character, just as, without discipline. he
would bolt out of the line of fire off a
mltrallleuse, the moment he saw his
comrades falling thickly around him.
And those words without disciplinev tell
the whole secret of the average Euro
pean's strength and weakness. A dis
cIpllned force would be kept in its place
Dy the respect paid to the opinion of those
VINO had been trained to value courage
and fidelity to orders more highly
than life itself. An undisciplined
crowd flies. because there is no
such respect for trained opinion, no know
ledge that there is such body of opinion
worth. respecting, and, finally, because
there is no restraining instinct in the in
dlVldual strong enough to take the place |
OF that social discipline which governs a
trained body of men. The Oriental does
not fly; because there is in him such a
restraining lnstinct-an instinct consist
ing IN part, perhaps, of the feeling that
life Is hardly worth so ignominious a re-
treat from death; partly, again, of the |
feeling that life can not ultimately be so |
rescued, but will be shortly forfeited
again, under circumstances of still
greater lgnominy, even if for the mo-
ment death be delayed. In other words.
the value for life is less vehement and po-
tent IN the Oriental, while the belief in n
dlscernlDle destiny is stronger; the value |
Tor life is overwhelmingly predominant i'm
the European, while the belief in a desti- |
ny that in any sense overrules human ac-
ton is more theOretic than practical. The |
OrlentaI is less terrified by the prospect |
OF death and more profoundly impressed |
by the impossibility of escaping it |
when the time comes. The European |
Tears premature death as something alto |
gether irrational, unnatural and almost |
lntolerable except under the social CO. |
erclon OF professional instinct which |
mas become second and stronger nature: |
ana, therefore, except when this social |
coercion is in full force, a European mul |
titude is subject to much more disgrace |
ful panics than an Oriental people, being |
both more tenacious of lite and less te- |
naciOus of dignity.