DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4752#0223
THE ARMENIANS 213
But it is not the case that all Turks in any city
took part in massacre. The better class dis-
approved ; many regretted; some even tried to
save Armenian friends. It must be remembered
that it needs an extraordinary strength of emotion
to rouse a Turk to actual interference with what he
regards as the will of God ; and their natural view
was that the massacre had been willed by God and
the Padishah, and the fact must be accepted ; and
yet some did interfere. But the city mob, after it
was once roused by priests and officials, revelled
in the work. The conduct of the blacks in the
island of S. Domingo, when they rose against the
planters and the garrison, and murdered almost
everybody, furnishes the nearest parallel to Ar-
menia ; but there the planters retaliated.
In the course of years in an uneasy and uncer-
tain country, it has been strongly impressed on my
mind that the higher moral development is hardly
possible for a class or a race, until it has obtained
security for the person. The first gift of God to
man is his body ; that gift is man's free possession,
which no other man has any right to slay or to
v'tiate ; and safety of the person lies at the basis
moral progress. So long as men live with the
Possibility of murder and outrage present before
eir minds, the higher qualities of character cannot
e developed. Even the most trustworthy, steady,
But it is not the case that all Turks in any city
took part in massacre. The better class dis-
approved ; many regretted; some even tried to
save Armenian friends. It must be remembered
that it needs an extraordinary strength of emotion
to rouse a Turk to actual interference with what he
regards as the will of God ; and their natural view
was that the massacre had been willed by God and
the Padishah, and the fact must be accepted ; and
yet some did interfere. But the city mob, after it
was once roused by priests and officials, revelled
in the work. The conduct of the blacks in the
island of S. Domingo, when they rose against the
planters and the garrison, and murdered almost
everybody, furnishes the nearest parallel to Ar-
menia ; but there the planters retaliated.
In the course of years in an uneasy and uncer-
tain country, it has been strongly impressed on my
mind that the higher moral development is hardly
possible for a class or a race, until it has obtained
security for the person. The first gift of God to
man is his body ; that gift is man's free possession,
which no other man has any right to slay or to
v'tiate ; and safety of the person lies at the basis
moral progress. So long as men live with the
Possibility of murder and outrage present before
eir minds, the higher qualities of character cannot
e developed. Even the most trustworthy, steady,