How to Observe: Morals and MannersMartineau, Harriet
Science
How to Observe: Morals and Manners
Martineau, Harriet
Manners and customs; Observation (Psychology); Social psychology -- Methodology
newly-made grave, to sanction the flight of the soul. The Buccaneers
(according to Penrose) concealed any large booty that fell into their
hands, till they should have leisure to remove it,--murdering and
burying near it any helpless wretch whom they might be able to capture,
in order that his spirit might watch over the treasure, and drive from
the spot all but the parties who had signed their names in a
round-robin, in claim of proprietorship. The professors of many faiths
resemble each other in practices of propitiation or atonement
laboriously executed on behalf of the departed. Some classes of mourners
act towards their dead friends in a spirit of awe; some in fear; but
very many in love. The trust in the immortality of the affections is the
most general feature in superstitions of this class; and it is a fact
eloquent to the mind of the observer.--An only child of two poor savages
died. The parents appeared inconsolable; and the father soon sank under
his grief. From the moment of his death, the mother was cheerful. On
being asked what had cheered her, she said she had mourned for her
child's loneliness in the world of spirits: now he had his father with
him, and she was happy for them both. What a divine spirit of
self-sacrifice is here! but there is scarcely a superstition sincerely
entertained which does not tell as plain a tale. Those which express
fear indicate moral abasement, greater or less. Those which express
trust and love indicate greater or less moral elevation and purity.
* * * * *
The practice of Suicide is worth the contemplation of a traveller, as
affording some clear indications as to religious sentiment. Suicide in
the largest sense is here intended,--the voluntary surrender of life
from any cause.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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