Essays, or discourses, vol. 2 (of 4) : $b Selected from the works of Feyjoo, and translated from the SpanishFeijoo, Benito Jerónimo
Philosophy
Essays, or discourses, vol. 2 (of 4) : $b Selected from the works of Feyjoo, and translated from the Spanish
Feijoo, Benito Jerónimo
Spanish essays -- Translations into English
XL. Alexander, after he had conquered Persia, caused the Macedonian
soldiers to marry Persian women, to the end, says Plutarch, that
forgetting their native land, they should only esteem as their
countrymen, those who were good, and regard as strangers those who were
bad: _Ut mundum pro patria, castra pro arce, bonos pro cognatis, malos
pro peregrinis agnoscerent._
XLI. It is an apophthegm, of many learned and wise men among the
Gentiles, that to a man of a strong and liberal mind, all the world is
his country. He who attaches his heart to that corner of the earth in
which he was born, cannot look upon all the world as his country, nor
himself as a citizen of it, and therefore the world should despise him,
as a narrow-minded and mean-spirited person.
XLII. I believe notwithstanding, that there is something figurative
contained in the words of the sentences before quoted, for mankind
can never be understood to be exempted from the love and service they
owe to the republic of which they are members, in preference to all
other states and kingdoms; but I apprehend also, that this obligation
should not be confined to a republic, because we were born within
its limits, but because we are members of its society; therefore, he
who has legally transferred his residence from the kingdom in which
he was born, to another different one, where he has settled himself,
and taken up his abode, contracts with respect to that kingdom, the
same obligations he owed to that in which he was born and nursed,
and he ought to regard it as the country to which he belongs. This
is a distinction, that was not rightly understood by many great men
of antiquity; and for this reason, we see in various authors of
note, some actions celebrated as heroic, which ought to have been
condemned as infamous. Demaratus King of Sparta, when he was unjustly
dethroned and driven out of his kingdom by his own subjects, was
kindly received and protected by the Persians. He lived among them as
a member of the Persian empire, and owed to that country, besides the
obligation of gratitude, the duty of a subject; but mark the sequel:
the Persians meditate a military expedition against the Lacedemonians;
and Demaratus, who is let into the secret, communicates the design
to the Spartans, in order that they might be prepared to defeat the
enterprize. Herodotus, and many other authors, celebrate this action,
as a commendable mark of the glorious and heroic love which Demaratus
entertained for his country; but I say, it was a perfidious, base,
unworthy, and treacherous act; because in virtue of the antecedent
circumstances, the obligation of his loyalty, together with his person,
had been transferred from Lacedemonia to Persia.
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