An Enquiry into the Origin of Honour, and the Usefulness of Christianity in War | Page 8

that
the highest Honour which Men can give to Mortals, whilst alive, is in
Substance no more, than the most likely and most effectual Means that
Human Wit can invent to gratify, stir up, and encrease in Him, to whom
that Honour is paid, the Passion of Self-liking.
Hor. I am afraid it is true.
Cleo. To render what I have advanced more conspicuous, we need only
look into the Reverse of Honour, which is Dishonour or Shame, and we
shall find, that this could have had no Existence any more than Honour,
if there had not been such a Passion in our Nature as Self-liking. When
we see Others commit such Actions, as are vile and odious in our
Opinion, we say, that such Actions are a Shame to them, or that they
ought to be ashamed of them. By this we shew, that we differ from
them in their Sentiments concerning the Value which we know, that
they, as well as all Mankind, have for their own Persons; and are
endeavouring to make them have an ill Opinion of themselves, and

raise in them that sincere Sorrow, which always attends Man's
reflecting on his own Unworthiness. I desire, you would mind, that the
Actions which we thus condemn as vile and odious, need not to be so
but in our own Opinion; for what I have said happens among the worst
of Rogues, as well as among the better Sort of People. If one Villain
should neglect picking a Pocket, when he might have done it with Ease,
another of the same Gang, who was near him and saw this, would
upbraid him with it in good Earnest, and tell him, that he ought to be
ashamed of having slipt so fair an Opportunity. Sometimes Shame
signifies the visible Disorders that are the Symptoms of this sorrowful
Reflection on our own Unworthiness; at others, we give that Name to
the Punishments that are inflicted to raise those Disorders; but the more
you will examine into the Nature of either, the more you will see the
Truth of what I have asserted on this Head; and all the Marks of
Ignominy, that can be thought of; have a plain Tendency to mortify
Pride; which, in other Words, is to disturb, take away and extirpate
every Thought of Self-liking.
Hor. The Author of the Fable of the _Bees_, I think, pretends
somewhere to set down the different Symptoms of Pride and Shame.
Cleo. I believe they are faithfully copied from Nature. ---- Here is the
Passage; pray read it.
Hor. [3] _When a Man is overwhelm'd with Shame, he observes a
Sinking of the Spirits; the Heart feels cold and condensed, and the
Blood flies from it to the Circumference of the Body; the Face glows;
the Neck and part of the Breast partake of the Fire: He is heavy as Lead;
the Head is hung down; and the Eyes through a Mist of Confusion are
fix'd on the Ground: No Injuries can move him; he is weary of his
Being, and heartily wishes he could make himself invisible: But when,
gratifying his Vanity, he exults in his Pride, he discovers quite contrary
Symptoms; his Spirits swell and fan the Arterial Blood; a more than
ordinary Warmth strengthens and dilates the Hear; the Extremities are
cool; he feels Light to himself, and imagines he could tread on Air; his
Head is held up; his Eyes are roll'd about with Sprightliness; he rejoices
at his Being, is prone to Anger, and would be glad that all the World

could take Notice of him._
[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