THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SELF. 295 



demns liim as he conforms or not to certain requirements 

 that may not be made of one in another walk of life. Thus 

 a layman may abandon a city infected with cholera ; but a 

 priest or a doctor would think such an act incompatible 

 with his honor, A soldier's honor requires him to fight or 

 to die under circumstances where another man can apolo- 

 gize or run away with no stain upon his social self. A 

 judge, a statesman, are in like manner debarred by the 

 honor of their cloth from entering into pecuniary relations 

 perfectly honorable to persons in private life. Nothing is 

 commoner than to hear people discriminate between their 

 different selves of this sort: "As a man I pity 3'ou, but as 

 an official I must show you no mercy ; as a politician I 

 regard him as an ally, but as a moralist I loathe him ;" etc., 

 etc. What may be called ' club-opinion ' is one of the very 

 strongest forces in life.* The thief must not steal from 

 other thieves ; the gambler must pay his gambling-debts, 

 though he pay no other debts in the world. The code of 

 honor of fashionable society has throughout history been 

 full of permissions as well as of vetoes, the only reason for 

 following either of which is that so we best serve one of 



*"He who imagines commeDdation and disgrace not to be strong 

 motives on men . . . seems little skilled in the nature and history of man- 

 kind; the greatest part whereof he shall find to govern themselves chietly, 

 if not solely, by this law of fashion ; and so they do that which keeps 

 them in reputation with their company, little regard the laws of God or the 

 magistrate. The penalties that attend the breach of God's laws some, nay, 

 most, men seldom seriously reflect on; and amongst those that do, many, 

 whilst they break the laws, entertain thoughts of future reconciliation, 

 and making their peace for such breaches : and as tc the punishments due 

 from the laws of the commonwealth, they frequently flatter themselves 

 with the hope of impunity. But no man escapes the punishment of their 

 censure and dislike who offends against the fashion and opinion of the 

 company he keeps, and would recommend himself to. Nor is there one 

 in ten thousand who is stiff and insensible enough to bear up under the 

 constant dislike and condemnation of his own club. He must be of a 

 strange and unusual constitution who can content hiraselx to live in con- 

 stant disgrace and disrepute with his own particular society. Solitude many 

 men have sought and been reconciled to; but nobody that has tlie least 

 thought or sense of a man about him can live in society under the 

 constant dislike and ill opinion of his familiars and those he converses 

 with. This is a burden too heavy for human sufferance: and he must be 

 made up of irreconcilable contradictions who can take pleasure in com- 

 pany and yet be insensible of contempt and disgrace from his companions." 

 (Locke's Essay, book 11. ch. xxviii. § 12 ) 



