The modern notion of impressing the public by a mere6 demonstration7 of unpopularity, by being thrown out of meetings or thrown into jail is largely a mistake. It rests on a fallacy touching8 the true popular value of martyrdom. People look at human history and see that it has often happened that persecutions have not only advertised but even advanced a persecuted10 creed11, and given to its validity the public and dreadful witness of dying men. The paradox12 was pictorially13 expressed in Christian14 art, in which saints were shown brandishing15 as weapons the very tools that had slain16 them. And because his martyrdom is thus a power to the martyr3, modern people think that any one who makes himself slightly uncomfortable in public will immediately be uproariously popular. This element of inadequate17 martyrdom is not true only of the Suffragettes; it is true of many movements I respect and some that I agree with. It was true, for instance, of the Passive Resisters, who had pieces of their furniture sold up. The assumption is that if you show your ordinary sincerity18 (or even your political ambition) by being a nuisance to yourself as well as to other people, you will have the strength of the great saints who passed through the fire. Any one who can be hustled19 in a hall for five minutes, or put in a cell for five days, has achieved what was meant by martyrdom, and has a halo in the Christian art of the future. Miss Pankhurst will be represented holding a policeman in each hand—the instruments of her martyrdom. The Passive Resister will be shown symbolically20 carrying the teapot that was torn from him by tyrannical auctioneers.
But there is a fallacy in this analogy of martyrdom. The truth is that the special impressiveness which does come from being persecuted only happens in the case of extreme persecution9. For the fact that the modern enthusiast21 will undergo some inconvenience for the creed he holds only proves that he does hold it, which no one ever doubted. No one doubts that the Nonconformist minister cares more for Nonconformity than he does for his teapot. No one doubts that Miss Pankhurst wants a vote more than she wants a quiet afternoon and an armchair. All our ordinary intellectual opinions are worth a bit of a row: I remember during the Boer War fighting an Imperialist clerk outside the Queen's Hall, and giving and receiving a bloody22 nose; but I did not think it one of the incidents that produce the psychological effect of the Roman amphitheatre or the stake at Smithfield. For in that impression there is something more than the mere fact that a man is sincere enough to give his time or his comfort. Pagans were not impressed by the torture of Christians23 merely because it showed that they honestly held their opinion; they knew that millions of people honestly held all sorts of opinions. The point of such extreme martyrdom is much more subtle. It is that it gives an appearance of a man having something quite specially24 strong to back him up, of his drawing upon some power. And this can only be proved when all his physical contentment is destroyed; when all the current of his bodily being is reversed and turned to pain. If a man is seen to be roaring with laughter all the time that he is skinned alive, it would not be unreasonable25 to deduce that somewhere in the recesses26 of his mind he had thought of a rather good joke. Similarly, if men smiled and sang (as they did) while they were being boiled or torn in pieces, the spectators felt the presence of something more than mere mental honesty: they felt the presence of some new and unintelligible27 kind of pleasure, which, presumably, came from somewhere. It might be a strength of madness, or a lying spirit from Hell; but it was something quite positive and extraordinary; as positive as brandy and as extraordinary as conjuring28. The Pagan said to himself: "If Christianity makes a man happy while his legs are being eaten by a lion, might it not make me happy while my legs are still attached to me and walking down the street?" The Secularists laboriously29 explain that martyrdoms do not prove a faith to be true, as if anybody was ever such a fool as to suppose that they did. What they did prove, or, rather, strongly suggest, was that something had entered human psychology30 which was stronger than strong pain. If a young girl, scourged31 and bleeding to death, saw nothing but a crown descending32 on her from God, the first mental step was not that her philosophy was correct, but that she was certainly feeding on something. But this particular point of psychology does not arise at all in the modern cases of mere public discomfort33 or inconvenience. The causes of Miss Pankhurst's cheerfulness require no mystical explanations. If she were being burned alive as a witch, if she then looked up in unmixed rapture34 and saw a ballot-box descending out of heaven, then I should say that the incident, though not conclusive35, was frightfully impressive. It would not prove logically that she ought to have the vote, or that anybody ought to have the vote. But it would prove this: that there was, for some reason, a sacramental reality in the vote, that the soul could take the vote and feed on it; that it was in itself a positive and overpowering pleasure, capable of being pitted against positive and overpowering pain.
I should advise modern agitators36, therefore, to give up this particular method: the method of making very big efforts to get a very small punishment. It does not really go down at all; the punishment is too small, and the efforts are too obvious. It has not any of the effectiveness of the old savage37 martyrdom, because it does not leave the victim absolutely alone with his cause, so that his cause alone can support him. At the same time it has about it that element of the pantomimic and the absurd, which was the cruellest part of the slaying38 and the mocking of the real prophets. St. Peter was crucified upside down as a huge inhuman39 joke; but his human seriousness survived the inhuman joke, because, in whatever posture40, he had died for his faith. The modern martyr of the Pankhurst type courts the absurdity41 without making the suffering strong enough to eclipse the absurdity. She is like a St. Peter who should deliberately42 stand on his head for ten seconds and then expect to be canonised for it.
Or, again, the matter might be put in this way. Modern martyrdoms fail even as demonstrations43, because they do not prove even that the martyrs44 are completely serious. I think, as a fact, that the modern martyrs generally are serious, perhaps a trifle too serious. But their martyrdom does not prove it; and the public does not always believe it. Undoubtedly45, as a fact, Dr. Clifford is quite honourably46 indignant with what he considers to be clericalism, but he does not prove it by having his teapot sold; for a man might easily have his teapot sold as an actress has her diamonds stolen—as a personal advertisement. As a matter of fact, Miss Pankhurst is quite in earnest about votes for women. But she does not prove it by being chucked out of meetings. A person might be chucked out of meetings just as young men are chucked out of music-halls—for fun. But no man has himself eaten by a lion as a personal advertisement. No woman is broiled47 on a gridiron for fun. That is where the testimony48 of St. Perpetua and St. Faith comes in. Doubtless it is no fault of these enthusiasts49 that they are not subjected to the old and searching penalties; very likely they would pass through them as triumphantly50 as St. Agatha. I am simply advising them upon a point of policy, things being as they are. And I say that the average man is not impressed with their sacrifices simply because they are not and cannot be more decisive than the sacrifices which the average man himself would make for mere fun if he were drunk. Drunkards would interrupt meetings and take the consequences. And as for selling a teapot, it is an act, I imagine, in which any properly constituted drunkard would take a positive pleasure. The advertisement is not good enough; it does not tell. If I were really martyred for an opinion (which is more improbable than words can say), it would certainly only be for one or two of my most central and sacred opinions. I might, perhaps, be shot for England, but certainly not for the British Empire. I might conceivably die for political freedom, but I certainly wouldn't die for Free Trade. But as for kicking up the particular kind of shindy that the Suffragettes are kicking up, I would as soon do it for my shallowest opinion as for my deepest one. It never could be anything worse than an inconvenience; it never could be anything better than a spree. Hence the British public, and especially the working classes, regard the whole demonstration with fundamental indifference51; for, while it is a demonstration that probably is adopted from the most fanatical motives52, it is a demonstration which might be adopted from the most frivolous53.
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1
suffrage
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| n.投票，选举权，参政权 | |
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ironical
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| adj.讽刺的，冷嘲的 | |
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martyr
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| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
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larks
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| n.百灵科鸟（尤指云雀）( lark的名词复数 )；一大早就起床；鸡鸣即起；（因太费力而不想干时说）算了v.百灵科鸟（尤指云雀）( lark的第三人称单数 )；一大早就起床；鸡鸣即起；（因太费力而不想干时说）算了 | |
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retard
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| n.阻止，延迟；vt.妨碍，延迟，使减速 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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demonstration
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| n.表明，示范，论证，示威 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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persecution
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| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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persecuted
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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paradox
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| n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物) | |
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pictorially
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| 绘画般地 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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brandishing
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| v.挥舞( brandish的现在分词 )；炫耀 | |
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slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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hustled
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| 催促（hustle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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symbolically
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| ad.象征地，象征性地 | |
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enthusiast
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| n.热心人，热衷者 | |
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bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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recesses
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| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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unintelligible
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| adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的 | |
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conjuring
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| n.魔术 | |
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laboriously
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| adv.艰苦地；费力地；辛勤地；（文体等）佶屈聱牙地 | |
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psychology
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| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
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scourged
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| 鞭打( scourge的过去式和过去分词 )； 惩罚，压迫 | |
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descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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discomfort
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| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
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rapture
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| n.狂喜；全神贯注；着迷；v.使狂喜 | |
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conclusive
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| adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的 | |
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agitators
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| n.（尤指政治变革的）鼓动者( agitator的名词复数 )；煽动者；搅拌器；搅拌机 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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slaying
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| 杀戮。 | |
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inhuman
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| adj.残忍的，不人道的，无人性的 | |
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posture
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| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
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absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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42
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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43
demonstrations
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| 证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威 | |
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44
martyrs
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| n.martyr的复数形式；烈士( martyr的名词复数 )；殉道者；殉教者；乞怜者（向人诉苦以博取同情） | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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honourably
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| adv.可尊敬地，光荣地，体面地 | |
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47
broiled
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| a.烤过的 | |
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48
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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49
enthusiasts
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| n.热心人，热衷者( enthusiast的名词复数 ) | |
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50
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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51
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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52
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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53
frivolous
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| adj.轻薄的；轻率的 | |
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