Defining Honor

If I were to ask half a xii people at random to tell me what they meant by the word find, I think that I would probably receive in truth distinct answers. one and s gondola carcely(a) of the reasons for this is that it often means different things in the minds of different people. For instance, we say that it was a great approve for Jim Smith to be elected headwaiter of the footb wholly(prenominal) team and then, on the other hand, we talk ab verboten a codification of remark, or the laws of reinforce.What does Jim Smiths being captain of the eleven establish to do with the laws of honor? What we mean, in the case of Jim, is that his election as captain shows that the other boys view as confidence in his play, and thitherfore this position gives him a local reputation as a comparatively good pseud and leader. Now many people in the world have only this idea of honor and, when they speak of holding their honor sacred higher up only else, they mean keeping their reputat ion good in the eyeball of hands.For this reason, they value any office or reward that corresponds to their reputation and the more than their reputation call downs and the more distinction they earn, the more honorable they feels themselves to be. This was the idea of honor existing among the ancient pagan people before the Christian era. You deal that, after the fall of the great Roman Empire, there was a detail of about a thousand years, when the light of civilization went out in Europe, and the darkness of ignorance and barbarism took its place.During these dark days, there was much going on that was not better and sometimes even worse from a clean-living point of view than in the days of the Roman Empire but, when the minds of hands began to wake up again, their exemplifications true(a)ly had advanced further than the old heathen standards of flavour. A seed Christian rationale had been germinating for all these years and in conclusion blossomed out in the Age o f Chivalry.This, as you contend, was an assertion first of all that the notion that Might makes Right is false, although it had been almost universally intrustd to be admittedly, in pattern, before the coming of Christ. The orders of knighthood which arose in various parts of Europe were compose of men who made it their business to bring order out of confusion, to cancel out the wild beasts that interfered with flocks and herds and made farming difficult, to overpower and abolish the highwaymen and robbers who made change of location unsafe, and to protect women and children in respect and security.These men bound themselves by dear vows to keep certain laws which were essential for carrying out their work, and their obligation or sense datum of responsibility to keep these laws they called their Honor. Hence a new conception of honor came into being, and their code of honor was the law according to which their conduct was judged among themselves. This is, of course, a very different idea of honor from that which consists of thinking that distinction before men is better worth having than anything else, and which therefore puts reputation above character.Anybody who compares these two ideas of honor can see that the one is only a counterfeit mimicry of the other, and that there is not necessary connection in the midst of them at all for a man may have character without reputation, and he may have reputation without character, for reputation may be either true or false and, when true, it is in many cases because of the character underlying it. solely many fine reputations of all sorts are the result of clever self-advertising, and this figure is one of the most destructive and degrading to character and true manliness.This is so because, when we seek reputation for its own sake, we are yielding to the temptation of conceit and vanity is a half-heartedness and disease of the soul. Everybody has temptations to overcome, and it is everybodys bus iness to know and work against his weaknesses but, when our chief ambition in life fosters our weakness, and we deceive ourselves by giving the name of honor to that which weakens us, we can hardly gestate to grow stronger as the years go by.The old knights had the right idea of honor, and there have been a great variety of orders of chivalry in different countries, such(prenominal) as those mentioned in the Boy Scout Manual and the master(prenominal) idea in all of them was to hold up a standard of public service which would raise men above the habits and customs of egotistic brutes and merely worldly men.There is another great distinction between these two conceptions of honor when we think of our reputation as our honor we pick up spectators, for our reputation is what we are in the minds of other men but the honor of character, which is our sacred obligation to keep the law of our code and to do our avocation in Gods sight, is just as binding upon us when we are all alone, and therefore it must control our most tete-a-tete acts and secret thoughts.A little newsboy boarded a crowded car the other night with a very large bundle of papers, and the conductor, with blunt good-nature, tried to favor him by declining to take his fare, although of course he could not do this without cheating the railway. The boy looked at him with indignation and could not believe that he was the conductor. He went all through the car hunting for the real conductor to whom he could pay his fair.This little boy was richer than if he had had millions in bank in place of this high-minded feeling of honorable independence and of determination to fulfil all his obligations and, if he remains true to this principle in all the phases of his life, he will accomplish far more than if he amassed millions, or became President of the United States. He will add to the joy and dignity of many other lives as well as his own for, sooner or later, every human being finds out that without t his loyalty to honor life cannot be happy, is indeed, not worth living. however we must be careful to remember that, although this is such an important and telephone exchange truth, we cannot expect every one to know about it and therefore we cannot expect them to act accordingly. In this, as in all other such matters, we must be on our guard against feeling superior to those who have not had our advantages. Next to keeping our own obligations of honor is the duty of protect the honor of all those with whom we have contact and especially of the weak and ignorant.The weak must be protected by whatever means is necessary and appropriate, and the ignorant may be taught if we go about it quietly and in a friendly spirit, without laying down the law. Of course, it is the duty of patrol leaders to see that all their boys understand as thoroughly as realizable the nature of the obligations which they have taken upon themselves. It is also the duty of scouts to hand along whatever help ful knowledge they have to other scouts within get to of their friendship.But this holds good not only for boy scouts and their officers but for all men and it cannot be done unless, in the first place, we ourselves try to practice what we teach and then teach it with a humble appreciation of the bag or use of the subject, and without any vanity or conceit. There is no merit, but only privilege, so great that it is difficult to estimate, in education and being taught to understand and live by the deep and tested truths of life and the more we learn, from obeying them, the more humbly grateful we shall be.