The Great King, who was a man of wit, asked the Greeks, who
burn their dead, to eat them; and the Hindoos, who eat them, to burn
them, and was much amused by their indignation. The wise Herodotus
who doffs his cap, though he may grin behind it, will not judge them
himself and does not think it fair to laugh at them. He says: 'If it
were proposed to all men to choose between the best laws of different
nations, each one would give the preference to his own; so true it is
that every man is convinced that his own country is the best. Nothing
can be truer than the words of Pindar: _Custom is the Sovereign of all
men_.'
"It is true everyone must drink out of his own trough, but you would
at least think that we would allow others to do likewise; but not
at all, we cannot enjoy our own without spitting in that of our
neighbours. It is the will of God,--for a god we must have in some
shape, in that of man or beast, or even of a thing, a black or red
line as in the Middle Ages,--a blackbird, a crow, a blazon of some
kind; we must have something on which to throw the responsibility of
our insanities.
"Now that the coat-of-arms has been superseded by the flag, we declare
that we are freed from superstitions! But at what time were they
darker than they are now? Under our new doctrine of equality we are
all obliged to smell exactly alike.
Pages:
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210