212 INDOOR STUDIES 



unwise ! " but we do not experience the same feel- 

 ing of contempt and disgust that we do in the case 

 of personal encounters brought about by like provo- 

 cation. If two men of rival trades or interests 

 came into collision, and the victor robbed the other 

 of his purse to indemnify himself for his scratches 

 and bruises and torn clothes, he would at once for- 

 feit any sympathy and respect which the justness of 

 his cause might have inspired in the spectators. 

 Instead of a hero we should look upon him as a 

 robber. Yet Germany beats France in battle, and 

 indemnifies herself for her bruises and torn clothes 

 by a large slice of French territory and many mil- 

 lions of French treasure, and we do not feel that 

 she has sacrificed her honor. Does might make 

 right between nations, while the principle will not 

 hold good at all as between individuals ? 



It is certainly true that we do not apply the same 

 standard of morality in the one case that we do in 

 the other, — certainly true that we do not look for 

 the same acts of generosity or magnanimity between 

 nations that we expect to be shown between neigh- 

 bors. Nations are invariably selfish, and they are 

 rarely as honest as their individual citizens. Legis- 

 lative bodies have deliberately done things, or re- 

 frained from doing things, that the individual mem- 

 bers composing them would blush to be found guilty 

 of. What meanness, narrowness, selfishness, has 

 not England been guilty of ? and yet the individual 

 Englishman is by no means insensible to the obliga- 

 tions of truth and fair play. States and communi- 



