Budgell

No. 373

Thursday, May 8, 1712

Fallit enim Vitium specie virtutis et umbra.

Juv.

Mr.

Locke

, in his

Treatise of Human Understanding

, has spent two Chapters upon the Abuse of Words

The first and most palpable Abuse of Words

, he says,

is, when they are used without clear and distinct Ideas: The second, when we are so inconstant and unsteady in the Application of them, that we sometimes use them to signify one Idea, sometimes another.

He adds, that the Result of our Contemplations and Reasonings, while we have no precise Ideas fixed to our Words, must needs be very confused and absurd. To avoid this Inconvenience, more especially in moral Discourses, where the same Word should constantly be used in the same Sense, he earnestly recommends the use of Definitions.

A Definition

, says he,

is the only way whereby the precise Meaning of Moral Words can be known.

He therefore accuses those of great Negligence, who Discourse of Moral things with the least Obscurity in the Terms they make use of, since upon the forementioned ground he does not scruple to say, that he thinks Morality is capable of Demonstration as well as the Mathematicks.

I know no two Words that have been more abused by the different and wrong Interpretations which are put upon them, than those two,

Modesty

and

Assurance

. To say such an one is a modest Man, sometimes indeed passes for a good Character; but at present is very often used to signify a sheepish awkard Fellow, who has neither Good-breeding, Politeness, nor any Knowledge of the World.

Again, A Man of Assurance, tho at first it only denoted a Person of a free and open Carriage, is now very usually applied to a profligate Wretch, who can break through all the Rules of Decency and Morality without a Blush.

I shall endeavour therefore in this Essay to restore these Words to their true Meaning, to prevent the Idea of

Modesty

from being confounded with that of

Sheepishness

, and to hinder

Impudence

from passing for

Assurance

If I was put to define

Modesty

, I would call it

The Reflection of an Ingenuous Mind

, either when a Man has committed an Action for which he censures himself, or fancies that he is exposed to the Censure of others.

For this Reason a Man truly Modest is as much so when he is alone as in Company, and as subject to a Blush in his Closet, as when the Eyes of Multitudes are upon him.

I do not remember to have met with any Instance of Modesty with which I am so well pleased, as that celebrated one of the young Prince, whose Father being a tributary King to the

Romans

, had several Complaints laid against him before the

Senate

, as a Tyrant and Oppressor of his Subjects. The Prince went to

Rome

to defend his Father; but coming into the

Senate

, and hearing a Multitude of Crimes proved upon him, was so oppressed when it came to his turn to speak, that he was unable to utter a Word. The Story tells us, that the Fathers were more moved at this Instance of Modesty and Ingenuity, than they could have been by the most Pathetick Oration; and, in short, pardoned the guilty Father for this early Promise of Virtue in the Son.

I take

Assurance

to be the

Faculty of possessing a Man's self

, or

of saying and doing indifferent things without any Uneasiness or Emotion in the Mind.

That which generally gives a Man Assurance is a moderate Knowledge of the World, but above all a Mind fixed and determined in it self to do nothing against the Rules of Honour and Decency. An open and assured Behaviour is the natural Consequence of such a Resolution. A Man thus armed, if his Words or Actions are at any time misinterpreted, retires within himself, and from the Consciousness of his own Integrity, assumes Force enough to despise the little Censures of Ignorance or Malice.

Every one ought to cherish and encourage in himself the

Modesty

and

Assurance

I have here mentioned.

A Man without

Assurance

is liable to be made uneasy by the Folly or Ill-nature of every one he converses with. A Man without

Modesty

is lost to all Sense of

Honour

and

Virtue

It is more than probable, that the Prince above-mentioned possessed both these Qualifications in a very eminent degree. Without

Assurance

he would never have undertaken to speak before the most august Assembly in the World; without

Modesty

he would have pleaded the Cause he had taken upon him, tho it had appeared ever so Scandalous.

From what has been said, it is plain, that

Modesty

and

Assurance

are both amiable, and may very well meet in the same Person. When they are thus mixed and blended together, they compose what we endeavour to express when we say a

modest Assurance

; by which we understand the just Mean between

Bashfulness

and

Impudence

I shall conclude with observing, that as the same Man may be both

Modest

and

Assured

, so it is also possible for the same Person to be both

Impudent

and

Bashful

We have frequent Instances of this odd kind of Mixture in People of depraved Minds and mean Education; who tho' they are not able to meet a Man's Eyes, or pronounce a Sentence without Confusion, can Voluntarily commit the greatest Villanies, or most indecent Actions.

Such a Person seems to have made a Resolution to do Ill even in spite of himself, and in defiance of all those Checks and Restraints his Temper and Complection seem to have laid in his way.

Upon the whole, I would endeavour to establish this Maxim,

That the Practice of Virtue is the most proper Method to give a Man a becoming Assurance in his Words and Actions.

Guilt always seeks to shelter it self in one of the Extreams, and is sometimes attended with both.

X.

Footnote 1:

—Strabonem
Appellat pætumm pater; et pullum, male parvus
Si cui filius est; ut abortivus fuit olim
Sisyphus: hunc varum, distortis cruribus; illum
Balbutit scaurum, pravis fullum malè talis.

Hor.

Footnote 2:

Book III., Chapters 10, 11. Words are the subject of this book; ch. 10 is on the Abuse of Words; ch. 11 of the Remedies of the foregoing imperfections and abuses.

Contents
Contents, p.6