Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1893-10-26
ODD HUMAN NATURE.
cAvAGE INSTINCTS STILL COAT ITS
VENEER OF CIVILIZATION.
The Worlds Fond Remains Unaltered SO
Far as Cruelty Goes, Except That an Ed
ucated Minority Has Shifted the Scenes
of Action and Glasses.

The first of modern historians, Thu
cydides, remarks that his study of events
in Greece will illustrate human nature
"as long as the nature of man IS the
same" 1t is tolerably clear that IN his
opinion human nature will always be
the same, and every one who reflects at
all must often ask himself, Was Thu
cydides right? The great political and
social changes of the world do not
disprove his theory. They only show
a change in mems views of their own
interest-a change in organization
Again. nothing is more common or
apparently more just than the assertion
that we must judge the people of the
mast by the current morality and prac-
flee of their age. 1t is added that NOR
ais and practice have altered and have
improved immensely. The two chief
points insisted on by advocates of the
notion that human nature has altered
are the idea of cruelty and the idea of
honor and good faith III politics. Yet
even in these obvious matters 1t Is most
difficult to come to conclusion.
Take the case of cruelty: You have
Assyrians. Romans, red Indians, massa-
cring ana torturing their captives taken
in war. Assyrians. civilized men, and
Pawnees, uncivilized men, are on a level
of abominable wickedness. David OF
Israel was as bad Che could not be worse)
according to sacred history. The Roman
treatment of prisoners-'How cold are
thy baths, O, Apollo" us chill
with horror. The middle ages show an
improvement here. Captives in war are
held to ransom and are treated with
courtesy.
But were the middle ages less cruel
than Pawnees, Hebrews, Romans or AS
svrians? Obviously the medieval tor
lures inflicted on political prisoners,
witches and heretics were as nefanous
as any known to ancient or savage con-
querors Nothing is changed but the
victims. Then you find Covenanters
tOrturing witches, Episcopalians in Eng
land or Scotland torturing Jesuits, wiz
ards or Catholics at large. You find
Covenanters burning naughty little boys
alive; you find William and Mary just
as ready with the boot as James IL
was. Then the burning of witches
slowly dies out as the educated class be-
comes skeptical.
But the hangman still flogged men
and women through the streets, and the
pillory endured. As late as Moliere's day
it was holiday to see criminal put to
the question. The cruelties of the French
revolution prove that the rack might
have gone out, but human nature had
not become milder. Then think of the
horrors of our jails and Australian penal
settlements. These denominations and
those of American slavery do not suggest
that man is really of milder mood.
Here, too, came humane reform; the pill
lory, the fogging of negroes, the rack,
the disemboweling of political ponents,
are all extinct for the moment, but mobs
still occasionally burn negro criminal
alive.
Then consider the records of the So.
ciety For the Protection of Children.
These awful pages prove that human ma
ture is now rather below the Pawnee or
Assvrian level. The facts about bully
ing at school are unfit to be told. Oneis
reluctantly driven to believe that there
is only thin veneer of humanity, that
the brute in mankind is what he always
has been. An educated minority has
shifted the scene of cruelty; has removed
some classes of victims, captives in war,
poor old women, political adyersaries,
from the sweepo of the whip, fame of fire,
from the torture pole and the rack.
SO far, well, but it does not follow that
mems hearts are altered The gladia-
torial games would be as popular today
as before the Monk Telemachus died if
it were not for the sensitive minority
who preach and print and palayer in par
Lament. After all, one would liefer see
a Zulu fight a Maori in circus than
scald or beat or starve a poor little child,
as many do. The Zulu and the Maori
would enjoy the contest; so would the
spectators if only they had the chance.
The great fond Of human nature is really
maltered as far as cruelty goes. We
can only do our infnitesimal best to keep
altering it, as not without hope.
If we turn to political morality, we
see no great cause for exultation. Take
the case of Marlborough, who is gener-
ally held up as the ideal traitor. 1t may
fairly be argued that he was merely
man of his age, who now shows worse
than most, because his genius was more
splendid and his opportunities were
greater He was King James creature,
his led captain, and he deliberately de-
moralized James army, correspondent
with James son-in-law perhaps, or prob
ably conspired to hand the king bodily
over to his rival, certainly deserted him
in the night after making profession of
fidelity.
William was not firm on the throne
before Marlborough was intriguing with
James, probably meaning to throw him
over again in the interests of Anne and
of his own advancement, and after Anne
wasqueen he intrigued with the Chevalier
de st. George AS a man, a subject,
soldier, statesman. he was false to the
core, but que voulez vous: He was not
more deeply and not more often stained
in falsehood than Charles III, James II,
William of Orange, and beside Suther-
land he seems a Bayard. But can we
say, in face of the memories of Dundee,
Montrose, Locheil, Wogan-nay, of the
honest troopers who have left their traitor
leaders with William and returned to
James-that all men We're traitors, that
loyalty was dead?
Clearly we cannot say so. Politicians
were false-and what are politicians to-
day? Give them Marlborough's oppor-
tunities, and we shall see whether or not
human nature has ered.-Andrew
Lang in London Illustrated News.
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