An Enquiry into an Origin of Honour; and the Usefulness of Christianity in WarMandeville, Bernard
Religion
An Enquiry into an Origin of Honour; and the Usefulness of Christianity in War
Mandeville, Bernard
Honor
[Footnote 3: Fable of the Bees, Page 57.]
Cleo. That's all.
Hor. But you see, he took Pride and Shame to be two distinct Passions;
nay, in another Place he has call'd them so.
Cleo. He did; but it was an Errour, which I know he is willing to own.
Hor. what he is willing to own I don't know; but I think he is in the
Right in what he says of them in his Book. The Symptoms of Pride and
Shame are so vastly different, that to me it is inconceivable, they
should proceed from the fame Passion.
Cleo. Pray think again with Attention, and you'll be of my Opinion. My
Friend compares the Symptoms that are observed in Human Creatures when
they exult in their Pride, with those of the Mortification they feel
when they are overwhelm'd with Shame. The Symptoms, and if you will
the Sensations, that are felt in the Two Cases, are, as you say,
vastly different from one another; but no Man could be affected with
either, if he had not such a Passion in his Nature, as I call
Self-liking. Therefore they are different Affections of one and the
same Passion, that are differently observed in us, according as we
either enjoy Pleasure, or are aggriev'd on Account of that Passion; in
the same Manner as the most happy and the most miserable Lovers are
happy and miserable on the Score of the same Passion. Do but compare
the Pleasure of a Man, who with an extraordinary Appetite is feasting
on what is delicious to him, to the Torment of another, who is
extremely hungry, and can get Nothing to eat. No Two Things in the
World can be more different, than the Pleasure of the One is from the
Torment of the other; yet Nothing is more evident, than that both are
derived from and owing to the same craving principle in our nature,
the Desire of Food; for when this is entirely lost, it is more
vexatious to eat, than it is to let it alone, tho' the whole Body
languishes, and we are ready to expire for Want of Sustenance.
Hitherto I have spoken of honour in its first literal Sense, in which
it is a Technic Word in the Art of Civility, and signifies a Means
which Men by Conversing together have found out to please and gratify
one another on Account of a palpable Passion in our Nature, that has
no Name, and which therefore I call Self-liking. In this Sense I
believe the Word Honour, both as a Verb and a Noun, to be as Ancient
as the oldest Language. But there is another Meaning besides,
belonging to the same Sound; and Honour signifies likewise a principle
of Courage, Virtue, and Fidelity, which some men are said to act from,
and to be aw'd by, as others are by Religion. In this latter Sense, it
is much more modern, and I don't believe to be met with a Thousand
Years ago in any Language.
Hor. How! Is it but within these Thousand Years that there have been
men of Bravery and Virtue? Have not the _Greeks_ and _Romans_ had great
Numbers of them? Were not the _Horatii_ and _Curiatii_ Men of Honour?
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