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Inquiries into Human Faculty
of the Superintendent, Mrs. Meredith, of hearing and seeing extracts.
They were full of such phrases as “Mind you do not say anything about
this,” though the matters referred to were, to all appearance, unimportant.
The writings of Dante on the horrible torments of the damned, and the
realistic pictures of the same subject in frescoes and other pictures of the
same date, showing the flames and the flesh hooks and the harrows,
indicate the transforming effect of those cruel times, fifteen generations
ago, upon the disposition of men. Revenge and torture had been so
commonly practised by rulers that they seemed to be appropriate
attributes of every high authority, and the artists of those days saw no
incongruity in supposing that a supremely powerful master, however
beneficent he might be, would make the freest use of them.
Aversion is taught as easily as terror, when the object of it is neutral
and not especially attractive to an unprejudiced taste. I can testify in my
own person to the somewhat rapidly-acquired and long-retained fancies
concerning the clean and unclean, upon which Jews and Mussulmans lay
such curious stress. It was the result of my happening to spend a year in
the East, at an age when the brain is very receptive of new ideas, and
when I happened to be much impressed by the nobler aspects of
Mussulman civilisation, especially, I may say, with the manly conformity
of their every-day practice to their creed, which contrasts sharply with
what we see among most Europeans, who profess extreme unworldliness
and humiliation on one day of the week, and act in a worldly and
masterful manner during the remaining six. Although many years have
passed since that time, I still find the old feelings in existence—for
instance, that of looking on the left hand as unclean.
It is difficult to an untravelled Englishman, who has not had an
opportunity of throwing himself into the spirit of the East, to credit the
disgust and detestation that numerous every-day acts, which appear
perfectly harmless to his countrymen, excite in many Orientals.
To conclude, the power of nurture is very great in implanting
sentiments of a religious nature, of terror and of
