Essays, or discourses, vol. 2 (of 4)

by Benito Jerónimo Feijoo

SECT. IV.

XXVII. Over and above the good qualities we have specified, the women have another, which is the most beautiful and transcendent of all, to wit, their modesty; a grace so characteristic of the sex, that is does not forsake even their dead bodies; for Pliny remarks, that when the carcasses of drowned persons float on the water, those of the men swim with the face upwards, and those of the women with the face downward.

Veluti pudori defunctarum parcente natura.

Lib. 7. Cap. 17.

XXVIII. A certain philosopher, being asked what tint gave the most graceful hue to a woman’s countenance, answered with much truth and perspicuity, modesty; and I am really of opinion, that it is the greatest advantage the women can claim over the men. Modesty is a screen or fence, which nature seems to have placed between virtue and vice, and is, as a discreet French author observes, the shield of fine souls, and the visible character of virtue: and St. Bernard extends the simile still farther, illustrating it with the epithets of the precious gem of manners, the torch of the chaste soul, and the sister of continence; the guardian of fame, honour and life, the foundation of virtue, the pride of nature, and the symbol of all honesty (Serm. 86, in Cant.) and Diogenes ingeniously and properly calls it the symbol of virtue. In fact, this is the great and formidable bulwark, which nature has raised, and placed in front, to oppose vice, and to serve as a shelter and covering to the whole fortress of the soul; and, as Nazianzenus said, when this is once subdued, no farther resistance can be made to every kind of vicious outrage. Protinus extincto subeunt mala cuncta pudore.

XXIX. It may be said, that modesty is a signal preservative against exterior assaults, but not against interior acquiescence; and thus a door always is left open, at which vice may make a triumphal entry, which may be effected by the means of invisible attacks, in parts, that are not sheltered or protected by the wall of modesty. But even admitting that such a thing might happen, shame would ever remain a most valuable preservative, and be the cause of preventing an infinite deal of scandal, and the fatal consequences attending it. Upon serious reflection it will be found, that, if it does not defend totally, it is in a great measure a protection even against those silent and secret assaults, which scarce ever peep out or shew themselves beyond the occult recesses of the soul: for internal consentings are very rare, when they are not excited by some sort of attempts, for these are the things which radicate criminal affections in the soul, and also those which augment and strengthen propensities to vice. It is true, that without these stimulants, we now and then see turpitude introduce itself into the spirit; but he does not seem to lodge there as if he was at home, or like the master of the house, but only as a stranger or a sojourner.

XXX. The passions, without the aliment that nourishes them, lay very languid, and act very timidly, especially in persons who are much addicted to blush; and those, in whom there is such a frank and easy commerce between the bosom and the countenance, are always under apprehensions, left the most secret operations of their breasts, should be exposed to public view on the parade of their faces. In fact, if upon every occasion, their most private or concealed affections are blazoned on their cheeks, the glow of the blush, seems the only tint, with which the images of invisible objects can be painted or described; and thus, the fear of being liable to have what is impressed in their minds read in their faces, becomes a rein, which confines and checks the dangerous sallies of desire.

XXXI. To this may be added, that the colour is so apt to rise in the countenances of some of them, that they will often blush at themselves. This heroic excellence, or type of modesty, which the ingenious father Viera celebrates in one of his sermons, is not, as some coarse spirits have termed it, purely ideal, but in persons of the most noble sentiments and dispositions, real, and natural. This was well known to Demetrius Phalereus, who, when he was instructing the youth of Athens, enjoined them, that at home they should behave with modesty to their parents, that abroad they should observe the same deportment to every one they saw, and that in private they should preserve a decency and a modest carriage even to themselves.