Modesty is one of the psychical2 phenomena3 the physiological4 study of which is more difficult because that phenomenon is very indistinct and vague, although prepotent and most exacting5 in some of its forms; because it is very variable in the different races; and because, though a part of the energies which develop in the reciprocal approaching of the sexes, it seems to keep them apart, and, born of love, seems to have a tendency to frustrate6 its supreme7 end.
I, too,—I must admit it,—through the various periods of life, have changed the idea I first had of modesty. At first it seemed to me a sentiment that rises within us in childhood and during adolescence8, as spontaneous as egotism, self-esteem and love; but, later, I became convinced that modesty is taught first and learned afterward9; therefore, it is one of those sentiments which I term acquired or secondary.
Modesty is an extra-current of love, and has its principal source in those powerful energies which, through a battle or a choice, must relight the torch of life. Animals demonstrate to us some rudimentary forms originating from modesty. Many of them conceal10 themselves when offering a sacrifice to voluptuousness12; very many females, sought by the male, begin by fleeing, resisting, hiding that which they desire to concede. And this is probably an irreflective, automatic act; it is, perhaps, a form of fear which rises before the aggressive demands of the male; but the aim of these resistances, of these pretenses13 of modesty is to excite the male as much as the female and to make the ground better fitted for fecundation. It is possible that animals conceal[Pg 73] their loves from our sight to protect themselves from danger, knowing that in those supreme moments they are exposed to every attack; but until the psychology14 of brutes15 is so limited we will be allowed to assume that among them also the first light of modesty has penetrated17. If this be so, then we will find justification18 in the fact that, in superior animals also, this sentiment appears first in the female, for whom the anatomy19 of the organs and the defensive20 mission in the battles of love make the actions of modesty more spontaneous and natural. And to the human female, too, nature has assigned the same mission, making her characteristically a hundred times more modest than the male.
The first hand brought by woman to cover parts which the male wished to see gave origin to the first energies of the sentiment of modesty, which arose, therefore, at the same time as the first forms of coquetry. Man and woman, then living together in the family or in the tribe, were naturally forced to become, independently of their greater psychical development, the most modest animals, because woman is subject to repulsive21 periodical infirmities and man shows other genital phenomena which, if not concealed22, would attract too much attention from all and excite perturbation in males and in females. It is therefore natural that almost all, not to say all, races of the earth present some form of modesty, and that also in the human race the female should be more modest than the male, because the aggressive mission, which is reserved to him by nature, makes modesty dangerous and almost impossible, at least in the last battles.
Modesty, born in this way, is taught, together with many other things, by men to children, as the latter cannot, until they reach puberty, distinguish the special importance of copulative organs, or the aggressive mission of the male, or the thousand offensive and defensive vicissitudes23 of love. Modesty, however, is perhaps born spontaneously, or, to use a better expression, by heredity in the more perfect and elevated natures. Hence modesty is taught to those who, of themselves, would not know it, and we determine its limits in such a way as to circumscribe24 it within the purely25 genital[Pg 74] field or to widen it beyond the amorous26 boundaries. The Sherihat prescribes that Turkish women should cover the back of the hand, but permits them to expose the palm. The Armenian women of the population of southern India cover their mouths wherever they happen to be, even in their own homes, and when they go out they wrap themselves in a white cloth. The married women live in strict seclusion27, and for many years they cannot see their male relatives, hiding their faces even from the father-in-law and the mother-in-law. And these two examples, selected from a thousand that might be quoted, should be sufficient to persuade us that accessory and conventional elements often accompany true modesty, to which, physiologically28, they do not belong. We, ourselves, in our own countries, find that the boundaries of modesty are, in many places, marked by the various fashions of dress, and that they stop from the knees down or from the breast up and not according to the national mode of dress. He who mistook these conventional elements for modesty could write the great psychological heresy29, that this sentiment had its origin in the custom of covering the body.
We must not confound with true modesty those other esthetic30 needs which compel us to conceal some repulsive actions of our animal life. The true sentiment of modesty defends from profane31 eyes the organs and the mysteries of love and those parts of the body that are directly or indirectly32 related to it. We behold33 almost all races conceal first the genitals, afterward the sides, the breast, the legs, the arms, then the entire trunk, and finally the head; but here modesty yields the place to the requirements of social intercourse34 or of jealousy35.
The sentiment of modesty is among the most changeable in form and degree. Its ethnical history is written in the volume which I have dedicated36 to the ethnology of love. It will suffice here to point out that I divide the nations into immodest, semi-modest and modest, according to the traces of modesty and the greater or less development of this sentiment. Modesty is unlike intelligence, or the sentiment of the beautiful, or other psychical phenomena, which show an[Pg 75] ascending37 and regular progress as we gradually proceed from the lowest races to the highest; therefore, it cannot be considered alone as a dynamometer of progress. The Tehuelches of South America bathe very often, generally before dawn: but the men go into the water separately from the women; they are very modest people who never, in any case, take off their chirípas. And the Japanese, with a civilization a hundred times superior to that of the Tehuelches, are much inferior to them in the matter of modesty. The Malaysians are very modest, but the Greeks and the Romans were none too much so. Without leaving our own race and times, we have women who would die rather than subject themselves to an examination with the speculum, while men of great intelligence and lofty passions admit that they hardly feel a shadow of modesty.
In the higher races, however, if we neglect a few exceptions and take human groups in great masses, we may say that modesty, like all psychical phenomena of a high order, grows, refines and presents more delicate forms proportionately to the growth of the moral and intellectual importance of a people. The nations which are the most advanced in civilization and morality are also the most modest. Modesty is one of the most elect forms of the seductions and the reticences of love; an extra-current of the great fundamental phenomena of generation; a physical self-respect; one of the psychical phenomena of the highest order. Faithful companion of love, it is a sentiment which in superior natures possesses infinite mysteries, ineffable38 delicacies39, gestures deserving a virtue40 prize, glances which are a paradise, words and sighs which deserve to be immortalized by the pen of an artist. He who possesses the immodest or semi-modest nature of the Fuegian or the Japanese loses more than half of the treasures of love, and is like a man who, deprived of the olfactory41 sense, admires the flowers of a garden.
Woman is the vestal of modesty, the queen of its most elect forms, and, when a virgin43 and as pure as crystal, she possesses intact the entire treasure of the most exquisite44 chastity. Wandering through the garden of love, she loses some[Pg 76] of its gems45, and she loses more if her companion helps her to disperse46 the treasure. It very rarely happens, however, that a woman, even in the exciting and wearing races of a thousand loves, loses all the wealth of modesty with which nature has enriched her. Even in the most gay and libertine47 life, even in the filth48 of libertinism49, we see with infinite wonder some diamonds flash, which the fire of lust50 was incapable51 of destroying and the mud of amorous simony could not soil. We remain astonished and moved at such a power of resistance in a sentiment that seems so fragile and delicate. And as long as a corner of sacred earth remains52 to woman upon which a humble53 flower of modesty grows, virtue is not all dead and resurrection is still possible. Bow your head before this flower, you, jeering54 deniers of every feminine virtue! you, insatiable tormentors of lust. Respect that clod of sacred earth; do not pluck that humble and last flower of a garden, which you so brutally55 have stripped of all leaves and reduced to desolation!
Modesty is never excessive when it is sincere; it is never too exacting when it rises spontaneously from the heart of a lofty nature; it is a sentiment that can inspire only noble things and prepare us for sublime56 joys. Modesty has such power that it can elevate ignorance and simplicity57 to the highest spheres and encircle with a halo the most common loves as well as the most exalted58; it is possessed59 of such esthetic energies as to smother60 with flowers the most bestial61 roar of the most brazen62 man and hide with an impenetrable veil the most immodest secrets of the animal man. Without any need of cloth or garments, this sublime wizard will cover a nude63 body with a mantle64 that will make it invisible and impenetrable to lust. Guardian65 and priest of love, it follows it at every step and defends it from the mire42 and from the fire, and, causing it to direct its eyes upward, elevates and sanctifies it. Parsimonious66 trainer of the forces of love, it preserves them always fresh and always young; and when the first kiss causes the first virgin flower to fall from the brow of a woman, modesty brings forth67 new and ever virgin flowers before the steps of the two lovers. Texture68 that [Pg 77]conceals, glass that covers, balsam that stops every putrescence, modesty is the most powerful preserver of the affections; and, perhaps, more loves are killed by immodesty than by infidelity.
If the sentiment of modesty were not a great virtue, it would be the most faithful companion of voluptuousness, the greatest generator69 of exquisite joys. An ardent70 thirst and an inebriating71 cup! What joy, but what danger of satiety72! Now the cup is full, foaming73 with lust; the lips are burning and half open to the most voluptuous11 kisses of the sweet liquor; but the cup is held by the hands of modesty, who with the suavest74 art satisfies the thirst and renews it, so that the lips eternally remain half open and thirsty, and in the chalice75 the liquor will last forever. Admirable prodigy76 of an immense wealth, which finds in itself the sources of renovation77 and perpetuation78; stupendous spectacle of the most gigantic of forces confided79 to the hands of a child who guides and governs it!
We should teach modesty to our children, and above all to our little girls, as clearly as possible, and refine it, so that it may be all sincerity80 and delicacy81, and not a conventional hypocrisy82.
We may be chastely84 nude, and we may be cynically85 immodest with the body as fully86 covered as an onion. We teach our young girls to lower their eyes before the glance of him who seeks and desires them, and then we take them to the theater, where the ballet-dancers are more than nude from the waist down and the ladies are nude from the waist up; so that, adding together the two immodest halves of the two very different classes of women, we may easily have one woman, all nude and all immodest. We teach our daughters to conceal even the foot from the eager eyes of man, and then we trust them to the hands of the dressmaker, that she may perfect with her sartorial87 art the too modest curves allotted88 by nature, and mould in an alluring89 way the contours which innocent youth still left chaste83 and modest. True Tartufes on a reduced scale, with one hand we hide our face, while with the other we go on exploring lasciviousness90. As[Pg 78] long as this profound hypocrisy continues to penetrate16 into the marrow91 of our modern society, modesty, too, will not be very sincere or will be able to exercise only the weakest influence toward elevating and refining our loves; nor do I know whether, with all the unchaste chastity that forms our distinction, we are entitled to class ourselves proudly among the modest nations. If it be true that hypocrisy is a homage92 paid to virtue, let us wait until the epoch93 of transition is past, and we shall then feel that we really are as virtuous94 as we pretend to be.
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1
modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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psychical
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| adj.有关特异功能现象的；有关特异功能官能的；灵魂的；心灵的 | |
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phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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physiological
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| adj.生理学的，生理学上的 | |
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exacting
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| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
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frustrate
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| v.使失望；使沮丧；使厌烦 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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adolescence
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| n.青春期，青少年 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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voluptuous
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| adj.肉欲的，骄奢淫逸的 | |
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voluptuousness
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| n.风骚，体态丰满 | |
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13
pretenses
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| n.借口（pretense的复数形式） | |
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psychology
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| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
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brutes
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| 兽( brute的名词复数 )； 畜生； 残酷无情的人； 兽性 | |
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penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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justification
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| n.正当的理由；辩解的理由 | |
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anatomy
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| n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织 | |
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defensive
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| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
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repulsive
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| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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vicissitudes
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| n.变迁，世事变化；变迁兴衰( vicissitude的名词复数 )；盛衰兴废 | |
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circumscribe
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| v.在...周围划线，限制，约束 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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amorous
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| adj.多情的；有关爱情的 | |
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seclusion
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| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
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physiologically
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| ad.生理上，在生理学上 | |
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heresy
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| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
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esthetic
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| adj.美学的，审美的；悦目的，雅致的 | |
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profane
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| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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indirectly
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| adv.间接地，不直接了当地 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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ineffable
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| adj.无法表达的，不可言喻的 | |
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delicacies
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| n.棘手( delicacy的名词复数 )；精致；精美的食物；周到 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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olfactory
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| adj.嗅觉的 | |
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mire
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| n.泥沼，泥泞；v.使...陷于泥泞，使...陷入困境 | |
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virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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gems
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| growth； economy； management； and customer satisfaction 增长 | |
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46
disperse
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| vi.使分散；使消失；vt.分散；驱散 | |
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47
libertine
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| n.淫荡者；adj.放荡的，自由思想的 | |
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48
filth
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| n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥 | |
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libertinism
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| n.放荡，玩乐，（对宗教事物的）自由思想 | |
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lust
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| n.性(淫)欲；渴(欲)望；vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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51
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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52
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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53
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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54
jeering
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| adj.嘲弄的，揶揄的v.嘲笑( jeer的现在分词 ) | |
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brutally
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| adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地 | |
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sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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smother
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| vt./vi.使窒息；抑制；闷死；n.浓烟；窒息 | |
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bestial
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| adj.残忍的；野蛮的 | |
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brazen
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| adj.厚脸皮的，无耻的，坚硬的 | |
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nude
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| adj.裸体的；n.裸体者，裸体艺术品 | |
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mantle
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| n.斗篷，覆罩之物，罩子；v.罩住，覆盖，脸红 | |
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guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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parsimonious
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| adj.吝啬的，质量低劣的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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texture
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| n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理 | |
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generator
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| n.发电机，发生器 | |
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ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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inebriating
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| vt.使酒醉，灌醉（inebriate的现在分词形式） | |
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satiety
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| n.饱和；(市场的)充分供应 | |
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foaming
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| adj.布满泡沫的；发泡 | |
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suavest
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| adj.平滑的( suave的最高级 )；有礼貌的；老于世故的 | |
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chalice
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| n.圣餐杯；金杯毒酒 | |
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prodigy
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| n.惊人的事物，奇迹，神童，天才，预兆 | |
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renovation
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| n.革新，整修 | |
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perpetuation
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| n.永存，不朽 | |
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confided
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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hypocrisy
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| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
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chaste
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| adj.贞洁的；有道德的；善良的；简朴的 | |
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chastely
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| adv.贞洁地，清高地，纯正地 | |
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cynically
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| adv.爱嘲笑地，冷笑地 | |
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86
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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87
sartorial
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| adj.裁缝的 | |
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88
allotted
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| 分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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89
alluring
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| adj.吸引人的，迷人的 | |
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90
lasciviousness
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91
marrow
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| n.骨髓；精华；活力 | |
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92
homage
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| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
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93
epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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94
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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