Great Deserts of North America, ii. 97, 338, 438 (Dacotahs); Boas, First General Report on the Indians of British Columbia, p. 38; Baker, Albert N’yanza i. 240 sq. (Latukas).
4 1 Kings, ii. 8 sq.
5 Ecclesiasticus, xxv. 7.
6 Cf. Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, p. 40.
7 Maurer, Bekehrung des Norwegischen Stammes, ii. 154 sq.
8 Maury, Histoire des religions de la Grèce antique, i. 383. Schmidt, Ethik der alten Griechen, ii. 309 sqq.
9 Aristotle, Rhetorica, i. 9. 24. Cf. Aeschylus, Choeophori, 309 sqq.; Plato, Meno, p. 71; Xenophon, Memorabilia, ii. 6. 35.
10 Cicero, De officiis, iii. 19. iii. 19. Cf. ibid. ii. 14; but cf. also ibid. i. 25, where it is said that nothing is more worthy of a great and a good man than placability and moderation.
11 Seeley, Ecce Homo, p. 273.
But side by side with the doctrine of resentment, we meet, among peoples of culture, the doctrine of forgiveness.
“Recompense injury with kindness,” says Lao-Tsze.12 According to Mencius, “a benevolent man does not lay up anger, nor cherish resentment against his brother, but only regards him with affection and love.”13 In the laws of Manu the following rule is laid down for the twice-born man:—“Against an angry man let him not in return show anger, let him bless when he is cursed.”14 It is said in the Buddhistic Dhammapada: “Hatred does not cease by hatred at any time; hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule. … Among men who hate us we dwell free from hatred. … Let a man overcome anger by love, let him overcome evil by good; let him overcome the greedy by liberality, the liar by truth.”15 According to one of the Pahlavi texts, we ought not to indulge in wrathfulness; wrath is one of the fiends besetting man, and “goodness is little in the mind of a man of wrath.”16
12 Tâo Teh King, ii. 63. 1. According to Thâi-Shang, 4, a bad man “broods over resentment without ceasing.”
13 Mencius, v. 1. 3. 2.
14 Laws of Manu, vi. 48. Cf. ibid. viii. 313; Monier-Williams, Indian Wisdom, pp. 444, 446; Muir, Additional Moral and Religious Passages, rendered from the Sanskrit, p. 30.
15 Dhammapada, i. 5; xv. 197; xvii. 223. Cf. Jātaka Tales, i. 22; Oldenberg, Buddha, p. 298.
16 Dînâ-î-Maînôg-î Khirad, ii. 16; xli. 11; xxxix. 26.
In Leviticus hatred is condemned:—“Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart. … Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people.”17 Sirach, whom I have already quoted, says in another passage, “Forgive thy neighbour the hurt that he has done unto thee, so shall thy sins also be forgiven when thou prayest.”18 According to the Talmud, “whosoever does not persecute them that persecute him, whosoever takes an offence in silence, he who does good because of love, he who is cheerful under his sufferings they are the friends of God, and of them the Scripture says, And they shall shine forth as does the sun at noon-day.”19 The Koran, whilst repeating the old rule, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,”20 at the same time teaches that Paradise is “for those who repress their rage, and those who pardon men; God loves the kind.”21 Muhammedan tradition puts the following words in the mouth of the Prophet:—“Say not, if people do good to us, we will do good to them, and if people oppress us, we will oppress them: but resolve that if people do good to you, you will do good to them, and if they oppress you, oppress them not again.”22 Professor Goldziher emphasises Muhammed’s opposition to the traditional rule of the Arabs that an enemy is a proper object of hatred;23 and Syed Ameer Ali has collected various passages from the writings of Muhammedan scholars, which prove that, in spite of what has often been said to the contrary, forgiveness of injuries is by no means foreign to the spirit of Islam.24 Thus the author of the Kashshâf prescribes, “Seek again him who drives you away; give to him who takes away from you; pardon him who injures you: for God loveth that you should cast into the depth of your souls the roots of His perfections.”25 That “the sandal-tree perfumes the axe that fells it,” is a saying in everyday use among the Muhammedans of India.26 And Lane often heard Egyptians forgivingly say, on receiving a blow from an equal, “God bless thee,” “God requite thee good,” “Beat me again.”27
17 Leviticus, xix. 17 sq. Cf. Exodus, xxiii. 4.
18 Ecclesiasticus, xxviii. 2. Cf. ibid. x, 6; Proverbs, xxv. 21.
19 Deutsch, Literary Remains, p. 58. Cf. Katz, Der wahre Talmudjude, p. 11, sq.
20 Koran, ii. 190: “Whoso transgresses against you, transgress against him like as he transgressed against you.”
21 Ibid. iii. 125. Cf. ibid. xxiii. 98; xxiv. 22; xli. 34.
22 Lane-Poole, Speeches and Table-Talk of Mohammad, p. 147.
23 Goldziher, Mohammedanische Studien, i. 15 sq.