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.