The Chinese surpass all nations in pride. ments and qualifications of which human nature is scarcely susceptible. So excessively are they prejudiced in favor of their customs and opinions, that they are incapable of conceiving, how any thing can be right or true, which is not customary among them or known to their literati. Thus the most scanty attainments become a source of pride to a nation, which is conscious of no deficiency in itself and can discover no excellency in others, which considers itself as alone endued with sight and all other nations as blind. Advantages of national pride arising from imaginary superiority. CHAP. X. OBSERVATIONS ON SOME ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF NATIONAL PRIDE ARISING FROM IMAGINARY SUPERIORITY. EVERY philosopher wishes the prejudices of the rest of mankind at Terra del Fuego or at the devil, but is indulgent towards his own. It is, however, proper and necessary that prejudices should exist, as far as they are beneficial. There is a national pride, which, though arising from mere prejudices, is productive of great political advantage. Self-love excites in a nation hope and fear; the latter preserves them from vices, the former inclines them to be self-interested and industrious. Self-love likewise engenders vanity, this produces a desire of elevation to a superior rank, love of expence, emulation, the arts, fashions, polished manners and good taste. Self-conceit and vanity are, therefore, follies of very great political advantage, because they are born with us and only expire with us, because their power never decreases, and they assume the very appearance of virtue. > The love of our native country is, indeed, in Love of our native country. many cases, nothing more than the love of an ass for his stall. Yet, after an extended tour through Asia, Africa and the greatest part of Europe, the charming Lady Mary Wortley Montague, thought no mortal so happy as the English country squire, who takes it for granted that March beer is preferable to the wines of Greece; who thinks that no fruits of Africa can shew such a beautiful, deep yellow as his golden pippins; that the ortolans of Italy are not such good eating as a surloin of beef, and in a word, that there is no real enjoyment of life out of Old England.* * However some may censure the love of country as a sentiment too narrow and selfish to be entertained by the philosopher and citizen of the world, yet there are few Englishmen, I think, who would not feel some correspondent emotion excited by the patriotic strains of a truly British bard, the late William Cowper: " England, with all thy faults, I love thee still The same ideas are expressed, with less dignity perhaps, but with equal beauty, by that child of Nature, the amiable Burns, in the following lines: "Their groves o' sweet myrtle let foreign lands reckon, Love of our native country. It always affords pleasure to see a people who are fond of themselves, who extol their countrymen, who prefer the productions of their own country to that of any other; who esteem their own writers; who entertain the highest opinion of themselves and every thing connected with them; and thus are as happy as it is possible to be either in imagination or reality, for both are alike. Let our philosophy, therefore, ascribe it to extravagant prejudices proceeding from education, if a Moor imagines that his country is the most delightful on the face of the earth, and that God took the trouble to create Ethiopia himself, but commissioned angels to make the other parts of the world; if a Laplander seeks the terrestrial paradise among the snows of Norway; and if a Swiss, as the acute Dr. Smollet informs us in his travels, prefers the bare mountains of Solothurn to the fertile plains of Lombardy. Let us allow others to survey their native land with a partial eye; let them, like the peasants in the vicinity of San Marino, imagine, that if any truly honest people exist in the world, it is they. Far dearer to me are yon humble brown bowers, Though rich is the breeze of their gay sunny vallies, Their sweet-scented woodlands that skirt the proud palace, He wanders as free as the winds of his mountains, Hatred not diminished by contempt. Let them consider the narrow circle which bounds their horizon as the limits of space; let the wise legislator be filled with astonishment on discovering a boundless expanse when he fancied himself at the end of all things. Content makes happy fathers, citizens and subjects, even though they have nothing but milk, cheese and black bread. So much may be said in favor of the pride proceeding from imaginary advantages. It would be a great extenuation of this pride and of the contempt with which it is accompanied, were it true, that contempt diminishes hatred. It undoubtedly weakens that envy which is a dejection at the sight of another's happiness. He who envies a rich man on account of his wealth, feels his envy diminished when he perceives that this rich man is a fool; he who envies a professor on account of his knowledge finds his envy abated if he can persuade himself that this scholar's erudition is only equalled by his dulness. Hatred is a wish for another's misfortune. Our hatred of an enemy is proportionate to the injury we apprehend from him; though he may be contemptible in the highest degree, yet his power may be great; we do not cease to hate him till this power ceases to have an influence over our welfare. Nor among whole nations is hatred diminished by contempt. The Greeks equally hated and despised the Persians. The lower classes of christians look upon the Jews without exception as a people destitute of virtue and integrity, slaves of avarice and addicted to every species of villainy and deceit. They even almost consider it a religious duty and a meritorious work to persecute the Jews; and |