436 PSYCHOLOGY. 



contracted witli tliose people maj forever afterwards inhibit 

 it any impulse to be modest towards iAem. This would ac- 

 count for a great deal of actual immodesty, even if au origi- 

 nal modest impulse were there. On the other hand, the 

 modest impulse, if it do exist, must be admitted to have a 

 singularly ill-defined sphere of influence, both as regards the 

 presences that call it forth, and as regards the acts to 

 which it leads. Ethnology shows it to have very little 

 backbone of its own, and to follow easily fashion and ex- 

 ample. Still, it is hard to see the ubiquity of some sort of 

 tribute to shame, however perverted — as Avhere female 

 modesty consists in covering the face alone, or immodesty 

 in appearing before strangers unpainted — and to believe it 

 to have no impulsive root whatever. Now, what may the 

 impulsive root be ? I believe that, for one thing, it is shyness, 

 the feeling of dread that unfamiliar persons, as explained 

 above, may inspire us withal. Such persons are the origi- 

 nal stimuli to our modest3%* But the actions of modesty 

 are quite different from the actions of shyness. They con- 

 sist of the restraint of certain bodily functions, and of the 

 covering of certain parts ; and why do such particular 

 actions necessarily ensue ? That there may be in the human 

 animal, as such, a ' blind ' and immediate automatic impulse 

 to such restraints and coverings in respect-inspiring pres- 

 ences is a possibility difficult of actual disproof. But it 

 seems more likely, from the facts, that the actions of 

 modesty are suggested to us in a roundabout way ; and 

 that, even more than those of cleanliness, they arise from 

 the application in the second instance to ourselves of judg- 

 ments primarily passed upon our mates. It is not easy to 

 believe that, even among the nakedest savages, an unusual 

 degree of cynicism and indecency in an individual should 

 not beget a certain degree of contempt, and cheapen him 

 in his neighbor's eyes. Human nature is sufficiently homo- 



* " We often tind modesty coming ia only in the presence of foreigners, 

 especially of clothed Europeans. Only before these do the Indian women 

 in Brazil cover themse'.yes with their girdle, only before these do the 

 women on Timor conceal their bosom. In Australia we find the same 

 thing happening." (Th. Waitz, Anthropoloffie der Naturvolker, vol. I. p. 

 358.) The author gives bibliographical references, which I omit. 



