The Treasury of Ancient Egypt: Miscellaneous Chapters on Ancient Egyptian History and Archaeology — John Shaqi
The Treasury of Ancient Egypt: Miscellaneous Chapters on Ancient Egyptian History and ArchaeologyWeigall, Arthur E. P. Brome (Arthur Edward Pearse Brome)
History
The Treasury of Ancient Egypt: Miscellaneous Chapters on Ancient Egyptian History and Archaeology
Weigall, Arthur E. P. Brome (Arthur Edward Pearse Brome)
Archaeology; Egypt -- Antiquities
The third argument which I wish to employ here to demonstrate the value
of the study of archaeology and history to the layman is based upon the
assumption that patriotism is a desirable ingredient in a man's
character. This is a premise which assuredly will be admitted. True
patriotism is essential to the maintenance of a nation. It has taken the
place, among certain people, of loyalty to the sovereign; for the armies
which used to go to war out of a blind loyalty to their king, now do so
from a sense of patriotism which is shared by the monarch (if they
happen to have the good fortune to possess one).
Patriotism is often believed to consist of a love of one's country, in
an affection for the familiar villages or cities, fields or streets, of
one's own dwelling-place. This is a grievous error. Patriotism should be
an unqualified desire for the welfare of the race as a whole. It is not
really patriotic for the Englishman to say, "I love England": it is only
natural. It is not patriotic for him to say, "I don't think much of
foreigners": it is only a form of narrowness of mind which, in the case
of England and certain other countries, happens sometimes to be rather a
useful attitude, but in the case of several nations, of which a good
example is Egypt, would be detrimental to their own interests. It was
not unqualified patriotism that induced the Greeks to throw off the
Ottoman yoke: it was largely dislike of the Turks. It is not patriotism,
that is to say undiluted concern for the nation as a whole, which leads
some of the modern Egyptians to prefer an entirely native government to
the Anglo-Egyptian administration now obtaining in that country: it is
restlessness; and I am fortunately able to define it thus without the
necessity of entering the arena of polemics by an opinion as to whether
that restlessness is justified or not justified.
If patriotism were but the love of one's tribe and one's dwelling-place,
then such undeveloped or fallen races as, for example, the American
Indians, could lay their downfall at the door of that sentiment; since
the exclusive love of the tribe prevented the small bodies from
amalgamating into one great nation for the opposing of the invader. If
patriotism were but the desire for government without interference, then
the breaking up of the world's empires would be urged, and such
federations as the United States of America would be intolerable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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