Year: 1870

1t is in the incapacity of truly hon.
orable man to be dishonored by another
that civilized mind sees the exquisite
absurdity of what was called the code OF
honor. 1t put the best men at the mer-
CIV of the worst. Here, for instance,
was huIking bully and deaf shot, who
took dislike to some man infinitely his
superior. He met him at table and threw
q glass of wine in his face, or he spat
at nim, or he pulled his nose, and 1t was
straightway held that the honor of the
assaulted man had been injured, and
could only be repaired by giving the
bully the chance to murder him and
ruin his family. Nothing more prepos-
ferrous is conceivable; and it was this
silly theory of honor that so long per-
picked, and, to certain degree, still
perplexes, civilization. This theory OF
honor said "If man pulls your nose,
he has mortaliy insulted you, and moth
ing but blood can atone. Ho! for the
field of honor" Common-sense says: 4:
"If a man pulls your nose, he breaks
the peace. Call a policeman, and-Ho!
for the station-houseW


OF course, if you don't choose to call a
policeman, but do your best to thrash
the buify. nobody will complain. But
you- are not dishonored by him, even
though he pulled your nose on, and,
when you tried to punish him, doubled
you up and left you senseless in the gut
ter. Could drunken bully, or sober
bully, dishonor Sir Isaac Newton by
pulling his nose? Would Mr.. Bry-
ant be dishonored if somebody gave him
the lie? 1t is by lying that he would
be dishonored, not by somebody's say
ing that he lied. If, therefore, every
man be the guardian of his own honor,
and that honor can be touched only by
himself, it is idle to speak of somebody
else as dishonoring him. Somebody
else may exasperate him--may madden
him, by exciting his jealousy, as lago
maddened Othello-but somebody else
canno. dishonor him and, in such ca
ses as we are considering, honor is al
ways invoked, and the injury to honor
is elaborately alleged, because it is uni
versally felt that if jealousy is allowed
to shoot at discretiO-, there will be a
good deal more shooting than society
can safely tolerate.


All intelligent people will agree that
the honor of the marriage tie must, in
reason, be equal on both sides; but eve-
ry body knows that it fs not considered
so in fact. Take any average jury that
would acqait a husband, for shooting a
man who had injured his honof," and
it would wink at the same husband in
turing his wife's honor in precisely the
same way. These are subjects not to be
easily mentioned; but they are well un-
derstood, aud is not for men, as class,
to vociferate too loudly about matrimo-
NAL honor. Gibbon caustically says of
the goddess who presided over The peace
of marriages: "Her epithet of Viripla-
ca, the appeaser of husbands, too clearly
indicates on which side submission and
repentance were always expected" u
And as the offense supposed to come
usually from the same side?


The honor of marriage is mutual
Husband and wife are alike bound by
it. Eut the detection of either dishon-
ers that one only, and not the other
The other may be sorely grieved and
humiliated-may be even excited by
passion to what is called frenzy. But
that is the possible effect of all strong
excitement, and it is not changed in
character because it is called the mad
ness of outraged honor. 1t is very pos
sible that one man, under the eireum-
stances, would do what another does.
A man of Othello's temperament would
be affected as Othello was. But when
public opinion authorizes persons labor
ing under strong excitement to shoot
other people, it is only necessary to es-
tablish strong excitement to justify
shooting. EASY CHAIR, an
Harper's Magazine for Juue.