THE ETHICS OF TRIBAL SOCIETY. 295 



fundamental principle of his ethics, as formulated in his Divine 

 Institutions, is in its motive character and moral elevation far 

 below the height attained four centuries earlier by his pagan pro- 

 totype. The results of their teachings, practically applied, were 

 equally cosmopolitan ; inasmuch as Lactantius based his theory 

 of duty on the Hebrew legend of the origin and descent of man, 

 and thus enlarged his essentially tribal system of ethics so as to 

 embrace the whole human race. 



Marcus Aurelius defines his own ethical and humanitarian 

 standpoint with his wonted epigrammatic terseness: "As an 

 Antonine, my country is Rome ; as a man, it is the world/' Un- 

 fortunately, the liberal spirit of the philosopher, even when he 

 happens to sit upon a throne, seldom exerts any direct and decisive 

 influence in liberalizing the minds of the masses of mankind. 

 Homer praises the kind and sympathetic heart of him who treats 

 the stranger as a brother. But this fine sentiment does not change 

 but rather confirms the fact that, as a rule, strangers were not thus 

 treated in the Homeric age. As a general statement it remains 

 true that in ancient times aliens had no legal rights whatsoever, 

 and that international relations, so far as they existed at all, were 

 relations of hostility. 



But this outlawry de jure was mitigated de facto by investing 

 the rite of hospitality with a certain sacredness. Such is still the 

 case with all savage and semi- civilized tribes, as, for example, 

 with the Bedouins, who hold the person of a guest inviolable, 

 even though he may be their deadliest foe. This custom origi- 

 nated in the defenseless and helpless condition of the stranger, 

 whose alienage placed him beyond the pale of law and the 

 sphere of sympathy ; it furnished a sort of compensation for the 

 lack of all natural or conventional claims to protection, and thus 

 supplied a temporary modus vivendi, without which intertribal 

 intercourse would have been absolutely impossible. 



We have an indication and illustration of this peculiarity of 

 primitive society in the story of Cain, who, as a fratricide, was not 

 only guilty of murder (a matter of comparatively small moment 

 in the eyes of the aboriginal man), but also of treason against the 

 tribe by violating the law of brotherhood fundamental to its con- 

 stitution and essential to its existence ; and when, by reason of 

 this crime, he was driven out of the sheltering circle and sanctu- 

 ary of his own kith and kin and became a fugitive and vagabond 

 in the earth, his first feeling was the fear lest he should be slain 

 by any stranger who might chance to meet him. The Lord is 

 also represented as recognizing the possibility of such a catastro- 

 phe, and as setting a mark upon him in order to avert it. 



The stipulation contained in the Hebrew code, as well as in the 

 code of other Eastern nations, which made it the duty of a man to 



