A man's _fame_, good or bad, and his _honor_ or dishonor, are names for
one of his social selves. The particular social self of a man called his
honor is usually the result of one of those splittings of which we have
spoken. It is his image in the eyes of his own 'set,' which exalts or
condemns him as he conforms or not to certain requirements that may not
be made of one in another walk of life. Thus a layman may abandon a city
infected with cholera; but a priest or a doctor would think such an act
incompatible with his honor. A soldier's honor requires him to fight or
to die under circumstances where another man can apologize or run away
with no stain upon his social self. A judge, a statesman, are in like
manner debarred by the honor of their cloth from entering into pecuniary
relations perfectly honorable to persons in private life. Nothing is
commoner than to hear people discriminate between their different selves
of this sort: "As a man I pity you, but as an official I must show you
no mercy"; "As a politician I regard him as an ally, but as a moralist I
loathe him"; etc., etc. What may be called 'club-opinion' is one of the
very strongest forces in life. The thief must not steal from other
thieves; the gambler must pay his gambling-debts, though he pay no other
debts in the world. The code of honor of fashionable society has
throughout history been full of permissions as well as of vetoes, the
only reason for following either of which is that so we best serve one
of our social selves. You must not lie in general, but you may lie as
much as you please if asked about your relations with a lady; you must
accept a challenge from an equal, but if challenged by an inferior you
may laugh him to scorn: these are examples of what is meant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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