Honor Continued...

I'm sure that many of you believed that I would never revisit the topic of honor again. Well, I'm back and I have managed to make a little progress over my last ramblings. Of course I am not finished, but I do think that I have gotten over the most difficult part of the writing at this point. Hopefully, the remainder of the article will flow smoothly. Do keep in mind that this is still a work in progress and that I am still very much in a "roughing in" stage of writing. Hopefully the next update will be much closer to my finished product. As always, your suggestions and thoughts on this topic will be appreciated!


Content thyself to be obscurely good. When vice prevails and impious men bear away, the post of honor is a private station
- Joseph Addison

According to the 1828 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, the phrase “On my honor” is used in conjunction with a declaration to pledge one’s honor or reputation as the guarantee of the truth of that declaration. In other words, an individual is saying, “May my honor be tarnished if the statement that I am making is not true.” I would like to raise two questions. What is honor? And secondly, why should we care whether our honor is injured?

Webster’s Dictionary (1828) provides the following insight into the meanings of the word “honor:”

HON'OR, n. on'or. [L. honor, honos.]
1. The esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation.
2. A testimony of esteem; any expression of respect or of high estimation by words or actions; as the honors of war; military honors; funeral honors; civil honors.
3. Dignity; exalted rank or place; distinction.
4. Reverence; veneration; or any act by which reverence and submission are expressed.
5. Reputation; good name.
6. True nobleness of mind; magnanimity; dignified respect for character, springing from probity, principle or moral rectitude; a distinguishing trait in the character of good men.
7. An assumed appearance of nobleness; scorn of meanness, springing from the fear of reproach, without regard to principle.
8. Any particular virtue much valued; as bravery in men, and chastity in females.
9. Dignity of mien; noble appearance.
10. That which honors; he or that which confers dignity; as, the chancellor is an honor to his profession.
11. Privileges of rank or birth; in the plural.
12. Civilities paid.
13. That which adorns; ornament; decoration.
14. A noble kind of seigniory or lordship, held of the king in capite.

For me, the definition that seems to get at the heart of this word is definition #6:

True nobleness of mind; magnanimity; dignified respect for character springing from probity, principle or moral rectitude; a distinguishing trait in the character of good men.

The problem with definitions of abstract concepts is that they often require the use of other abstract concepts to define them! Following are definitions of the key words of this definition.

NO'BLENESS, n. 1. Greatness; dignity; ingenuousness (i.e. fairness); magnanimity; elevation of mind or of condition, particularly of the mind….

MAGNANIM'ITY, n. [L. magnanimitas; magnus, great, and animus, mind.] Greatness of mind; that elevation or dignity of soul, which encounters danger and trouble with tranquility and firmness, which raises the possessor above revenge, and makes him delight in acts of benevolence, which makes him disdain injustice and meanness, and prompts him to sacrifice personal ease, interest and safety for the accomplishment of useful and noble objects.

RESPECT', n. [L. respectus.]
1. Regard; attention.
2. That estimation or honor in which men hold the distinguished worth or substantial good qualities of others. It expresses less than reverence and veneration, which regard elders and superiors; whereas respect may regard juniors and inferiors. Respect regards the qualities of the mind, or the actions which characterize those qualities.
3. That deportment or course of action which proceeds from esteem; regard; due attention; as, to treat a person with respect. …

CHARACTER, n.
4. The peculiar qualities, impressed by nature or habit on a person, which distinguish him from others; these constitute real character, and the qualities which he is supposed to possess, constitute his estimated character, or reputation. Hence we say, a character is not formed, when the person has not acquired stable and distinctive qualities….
7. By way of eminence, distinguished or good qualities; those which are esteemed and respected; and those which are ascribed to a person in common estimation. We enquire whether a stranger is a man of character.

PROB'ITY, n. [L. probitas, from probo, to prove.] Primarily, tried virtue or integrity, or approved actions; but in general, strict honesty; sincerity; veracity; integrity in principle, or strict conformity of actions to the laws of justice. Probity of mind or principle is best evinced by probity of conduct in social dealings, particularly in adhering to strict integrity in the observance and performance of rights called imperfect, which public laws do not reach and cannot enforce.

PRIN'CIPLE, n. [L. principium, beginning.] Ground; foundation; that which supports an assertion, an action, or a series of actions or of reasoning.

REC'TITUDE, n. [L. rectus, right, straight.] In morality, rightness of principle or practice; uprightness of mind; exact conformity to truth, or to the rules prescribed for moral conduct, either by divine or human laws. Rectitude of mind is the disposition to act in conformity to any known standard of right, truth or justice; rectitude of conduct is the actual conformity to such standard. Perfect rectitude belongs only to the Supreme Being. The more nearly the rectitude of men approaches to the standard of the divine law, the more exalted and dignified is their character. Want of rectitude is not only sinful, but debasing.

So, to rewrite the definition of the word honor using these other definitions we come up with something like this:

HON'OR, n. on'or. [L. honor, honos.]

True greatness, dignity, fairness, and elevation of the mind; that elevation or dignity of soul, which encounters danger and trouble with tranquility and firmness, which raises the possessor above revenge, and makes him delight in acts of benevolence, which makes him disdain injustice and meanness, and prompts him to sacrifice personal ease, interest and safety for the accomplishment of useful and noble objects. It is the dignified esteem (that motivates one to proper action) for distinguished, respectable, good qualities that springs from a tested virtue that is completely honest, sincere, and true; unwavering in principle, strictly conforming its actions to the laws of morality and justice and adhering to strict integrity in the observance and performance of imperfect rights, which public laws do not reach and cannot enforce. It is the distinguishing trait in the character of good men.

Really and truly as I ponder what honor is I am inclined to say that the measure of a man’s honor is in essence a measure of a man’s character.

Why not approach honor as Sir John Falstaff did in Shakespeare’s play I Henry IV?

Well ‘tis no matter, honor pricks me on. Yea, but how if honor prick me off when I come on? How then? Can honor set to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honor hath no skill in surgery then? No. What is honor? A word. What is in that word honor? What is that honor? Air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? He that died a’ Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. ‘Tis insensible then? Yea, to the dead. But will’t not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I’ll none of it, honor is a mere scutcheon.