Pride, in the later stages at least, is more and more discriminating, and is connected finally only with those objects which are the actual will products of the individual, and so identified with the veritable self. Thus is erected by society a pride test, and men say, “He has a right to be proud,” or, “He ought not to be proud.” Yet standards will differ, and what one will be proud of another will be ashamed of, and vice versâ. The general standard is largely regulated by the comparative amount of will force and so of strength required in the particular act; thus, while I am not proud of crushing an ant, I might be at felling an ox.
The general expression of pride is holding up one’s head and expanding oneself generally, though this self-enlargement is not, as in anger, to inspire fear in beholders, but rather admiration. Proud sense of superiority naturally asserts itself primarily in physical impressiveness, and, as such, pride plays an especially large part in sexual selection. The lower expression of pride is swagger and strut, the higher in a dignity and stateliness of demeanour.
The function of pride, the use which originally determined its development, and which is still apparent, is a pleasure-sanction to competitive successful effort. The proud consciousness of triumph is one of the greatest pleasures of existence, and if there were no such emotion following the winning effort, life would lose much of its incentive. Pride prevents parasitism. Without pride to stimulate and reward, striving mind would have lost one of the most potent factors of progress. Even in human education it becomes of value to appeal to a just and proper pride. In the lower life it is all important. It gives tone to life, gives power and confidence, assertiveness and aggressiveness, and conduces in a large measure to permanent and progressive self-aggrandisement. And not only for effect upon self but upon others, pride is an important psychic factor. Thus pride in always showing a bold, commanding front to rivals, makes a direct impression upon antagonists. Pride always puts the best foot first, hides weakness and exaggerates strength, so that the proud one always shows for all and even more than he is, and thus gains much in the struggle of existence where even mere appearance of power is apt to discourage opponents. The one who is strong and proud of it is doubly strong. Pride is the reflex of gain and victory, as shame is of loss and defeat. It is thus the root of ambition, the desire of rank and place for superiority’s sake which has been, and now is, especially in advanced human psychism, a most powerful agent in the evolution of life and mind.
But while it is undoubtedly true that pride is in its origin solely an advantageous psychosis, and indeed, could have been developed in no other way, yet there is a disadvantageous side. Only up to a certain point is it true that the prouder one is, the better off he is. When pride, over-stimulated, betrays into over-confidence and heedlessness, then, indeed, “pride goeth before a fall.” But at the first, however, we must suppose that the organism was proud of only that of which it was to its advantage to be proud; but by perversion and hypertrophy, indeed, in pride as in the case of other emotions, caused largely by rivals, it became a source of great disadvantage and positively destructive of high self-advancement. Conceit, an over-weening abnormal pride which is totally irrelevant to the real standing of the individual, cannot but be highly injurious. However, harmful pride must be accounted rather late. In early psychisms attainment over and beyond others, when perceived naturally and normally, gave rise to pride as a wholly useful emotion reaction, and those who had the capacity of being proud had a distinct advantage over those who had no sense of their own consequence or no pride about it. Even in human society we must remark that in general those who are incapable of becoming proud on proper occasion, are less and less liable to reach the occasion.
Pride, as emotion of sense of superiority, manifests itself in many forms, of which we need not now expect to make a detailed or complete investigation, since the object of our present studies is merely to emphasize the main forms of the early emotions from the point of view of natural selection. Simple pride, which is unconscious of itself, but acts directly and without reflection, as we see in a child proud of a new dress, is a phase which does not often appear in the experience of the educated human adult, where pride becomes highly complicated with emotional and intellectual movements of many kinds, and where it is extended to a wide diversity of objects with the extension of self-interest. Thus men are proud of rank, blood, money, muscular strength, possessions, intellectual attainments, moral character, and, in fact, whatever the idea of mine can be applied to. However, the different kinds of pride are not to be distinguished by the object merely, as pride of rank, blood, etc., for difference in object does not by itself constitute distinct quality in psychic act. Pride is the same, whether it is of a horse, a bank account, or a wife. Still the object frequently calls up subsidiary emotions which may complicate pride, and the perceived nature of the object certainly influences our feeling toward it.
When an object is to be competed for, but we consider it beneath us to enter the lists, or we think our rivals unworthy of our attention, we have the peculiar phase of feeling termed arrogance. Arrogance brooks no rivalry and stands apart on a peak of self-contained superiority. Walter Savage Landor, the proudest of men, displays this feeling in perfection when he says in one of his cameos in verse:
“I strove with none,
For none were worth my strife.”
This is a perfect expression of complete arrogance. We may say that he was too proud to be proud. No one was worthy of his mettle, and so he held himself aloof with the feeling of immeasurable superiority. Strictly speaking then, arrogance is a variety of very intense pride where the sense of superiority is perfectly exclusive and absolute, and disdains comparison. It is entirely inconsiderate of others’ rivalry and above caring for the approval or disapproval or admiration of others. Thus this phase, unlike pride in general, seeks concealment rather than display; its excellence is so far beyond the common as to be unappreciable by contemporaries, and appreciated by self alone.
Conceit is a term objectively applied, but hardly indicates a kind of pride, a real subjective distinction. He who thinks more highly of himself than he ought to think, esteems himself beyond his due, and so is considered by the community over proud, is termed conceited. The pride which is entirely just, as viewed from the objective standpoint, is quite the same subjectively as the most preposterous conceit. Similarly also dignity is no real feeling. “That man is dignified”; this is an objective characterization of his manner of conduct, but this does not imply that he feels dignified. Pride may give a dignified demeanour, but a feeling dignified can only refer to the reactive effect upon consciousness, of this mode of behaviour. “I feel proud,” may likewise sometimes be used, not for designating the subjective feeling or being proud, but as equal to, “I felt that I was proud,” that is, “I was proud and I knew it,” “I had the sense of being proud.” So also in general we may remark that while feeling may denote a simple state of being, yet such phrases as “I felt proud,” “felt angry,” etc., are ambiguous, and may mean either the bare feeling of pride, anger, etc., as experienced, or the feeling of being proud, angry, etc., or both, that is, consciousness of the particular consciousness may or may not complicate self-consciousness. The word, feel, is often used in this merely reflexive way to denote a sense of state as, “I was proud and I felt so at the time.” Thus common phrase verifies the analysis that self-consciousness and consciousness of consciousness are bound up with emotion, the full analysis of the phrase showing that the feeling proud was an object consciousness plus a subject consciousness.