THE MILITANT TYPE OF SOCIETY. 593 



&quot;while the opposite epithet, bad, designates the poor, lowly, 

 and weak, from whose dispositions, be they ever so virtuous 

 society has little to hope or to fear.&quot; In the identification of 

 virtue with bravery among the .&quot;Romans, we have a like im 

 plication. During early turbulent times throughout Europe, 

 the knightly character, which was the honourable character, 

 primarily included fearlessness : lacking this, good qualities 

 were of no account ; but with this, sins of many kinds, great 

 though they might be, were condoned. 



If, among antagonist groups of primitive men, some tole~ 

 rated more than others the killing of their members if, 

 while some always retaliated others did not ; those which did 

 not retaliate, continually aggressed on with impunity, would 

 either gradually disappear or have to take refuge in unde 

 sirable habitats. Hence there is a survival of the unfor 

 giving. Further, the lex talionis, primarily arising between 

 antagonist groups, becomes the law within the group ; and 

 chronic feuds between component families and clans, every 

 where proceed upon the general principle of life for life, 

 Under the militant regime revenge becomes a virtue, and 

 failure to revenge a disgrace. Among the Fijians, who foster 

 anger in their children, it is not infrequent for a man to 

 commit suicide rather than live under an insult; and in other 

 cases the dying Fijian bequeathes the duty of inflicting 

 vengeance to his children. This sentiment and the resulting 

 practices we trace among peoples otherwise wholly alien, who 

 are, or have been, actively militant. In the remote East may 

 be instanced the Japanese. They are taught that &quot; with the 

 slayer of his father a man may not live under the same 

 heaven ; against the slayer of his brother a man must never 

 have to go home to fetch a weapon ; with the slayer of his 

 friend a man may not live in the same State.&quot; And in the 

 West may be instanced France during feudal days, when the 

 lelations of one killed or injured were required by custom to 

 retaliate on any relations of the offender even those living 

 at a distance and knowing nothing of the matter. Down to 



