the invention of weapons, pugnacity was more often desirable, the latter instinct was still too weak in most men, who found themselves irrationally dominated by fear. To be able to shake off instinctive fear and give free expression to instinctive pugnacity was therefore highly desirable, and needed only to be recognized as a mental quality or habit to become self-consciously cultivated as a virtue.
After the genesis of courage a second virtue soon appeared. After courage had become socially applauded as a quality of mind, men desired to possess this quality not only because it was a good thing in itself, but also because it won for its possessors the approval of others. The instinct of self-assertion and the self-regarding sentiment, in other words, united with the instinct of pugnacity to overcome fear. This virtue is Honor, the possession of courage, plus a decent regard for one's self and others in the display of it. In the course of time the simple virtues of courage and honor have become overlaid with other emotional and sentimental increments, but their central core still remains the same, and they are the most highly regarded virtues in military circles.
In view of the sharp differentiation of primitive occupations between the sexes, and the consequently different customs required of each, it is not surprising that the first[1] feminine virtue is not courage, but Chastity. The custom formation that preceded the recognition of chastity as a virtue was due to a complicated social interaction now fairly well understood, thanks to the investigations of Havelock Ellis, Westermarck, Crawley and others. When the mental qualities thus developed in women became regarded as intrinsically valuable, the virtue of chastity arose. Being a cause of admiration and commendation for its possessor, and its absence a cause for reproach, the self-instincts and self-regarding sentiment became strong additional impulses to it, and this virtue now became, for a woman, Honor. We need not wonder that to our day honor means something different to a man and to a woman. There is a common principle in each, the prompting of the self-instincts and self-regarding
- ↑ I.e., first of the virtues discussed here. It is possible that female industry was appreciated earlier than female chastity.
