Defining Honor

If I were to ask half a dozen people at random to tell me what they meant by the word watch, I think that I would probably receive very varied answers. One of the reasons for this is that it often means different things in the minds of different people. For instance, we say that it was a great find for Jim Smith to be elected captain of the footb either team and then, on the other hand, we address about a code of honor, or the laws of honor.What does Jim Smiths being captain of the eleven be possessed of to do with the laws of honor? What we mean, in the case of Jim, is that his preference as captain shows that the other boys have confidence in his play, and whence this position gives him a local character as a comparatively good enough player and leader. Now many people in the world have only this idea of honor and, when they speak of holding their honor sacred above solely told else, they mean checking their reputation good in the eyes of work force.For this reason, t hey value any office or reward that adds to their reputation and the more their reputation grows and the more distinction they earn, the more honorable they feels themselves to be. This was the idea of honor existing among the ancient heathen people before the Christian era. You know that, after the course of the great Roman Empire, there was a period of about a thousand years, when the light of civilization went out in Europe, and the sickness of ignorance and barbarism took its place.During these dark years, there was much going on that was not better and sometimes even worse from a moral point of view than in the days of the Roman Empire but, when the minds of men began to wake up again, their standards really had advanced further than the old heathen standards of lifespan. A seed Christian principle had been germinating for all these years and finally blossomed out in the Age of Chivalry.This, as you know, was an assertion world-class of all that the notion that Might makes Right is false, although it had been almost universally believed to be true, in practice, before the coming of Christ. The orders of knighthood which arose in various parts of Europe were composed of men who made it their business to bring order out of confusion, to tear the wild beasts that interfered with flocks and herds and made farming difficult, to overpower and abolish the highwaymen and robbers who made traveling unsafe, and to protect women and children in respect and security.These men bound themselves by solemn vows to keep certain laws which were necessary for railway carrying out their work, and their obligation or sense of responsibility to keep these laws they called their Honor. Hence a new conception of honor came into being, and their code of honor was the law according to which their conduct was judged among themselves. This is, of course, a very different idea of honor from that which consists of thinking that distinction before men is better worth having t han anything else, and which therefore puts reputation above character.Anybody who compares these two ideas of honor can see that the one is only a counterfeit imitation of the other, and that there is not necessary connecter between them at all for a man whitethorn have character without reputation, and he may have reputation without character, for reputation may be either true or false and, when true, it is in many cases because of the character underlying it. But many fine reputations of all sorts are the result of cunning self-advertising, and this practice is one of the most destructive and degrading to character and true manliness.This is so because, when we seek reputation for its own sake, we are yielding to the temptation of toilet table and vanity is a weakness and disease of the soul. Everybody has temptations to overcome, and it is everybodys business to know and work against his weaknesses but, when our chief ambition in life fosters our weakness, and we deceive ours elves by braggart(a) the name of honor to that which weakens us, we can hardly expect to grow stronger as the years go by.The old knights had the right idea of honor, and there have been a great variety of orders of chivalry in different countries, much(prenominal) as those mentioned in the Boy Scout Manual and the main idea in all of them was to hold up a standard of public service which would raise men above the habits and customs of selfish brutes and merely worldly men. at that place is other great distinction between these two conceptions of honor when we think of our reputation as our honor we require spectators, for our reputation is what we are in the minds of other men but the honor of character, which is our sacred obligation to keep the law of our code and to do our duty in Gods sight, is just as backbone upon us when we are all alone, and therefore it must control our most private acts and secret thoughts.A little newsboy boarded a crowded car the other night with a very large bundle of papers, and the conductor, with coarse good-nature, tried to favor him by declining to take his fare, although of course he could not do this without cheating the railway. The boy looked at him with indignation and could not believe that he was the conductor. He went all through the car hunting for the real conductor to whom he could pay his fair.This little boy was richer than if he had had millions in bank in place of this high-minded feeling of honorable independence and of determination to fulfil all his obligations and, if he remains true to this principle in all the phases of his life, he will accomplish far more than if he amassed millions, or became President of the unify States. He will add to the joy and dignity of many other lives as well as his own for, sooner or later, every humane being finds out that without this loyalty to honor life cannot be happy, is indeed, not worth living.But we must be careful to remember that, although this is such an authorised and central truth, we cannot expect every one to know about it and therefore we cannot expect them to act accordingly. In this, as in all other such matters, we must be on our guard against feeling superior to those who have not had our advantages. Next to keeping our own obligations of honor is the duty of protecting the honor of all those with whom we have contact and especially of the weak and ignorant.The weak must be protected by whatever means is necessary and appropriate, and the ignorant may be taught if we go about it quietly and in a friendly spirit, without laying down the law. Of course, it is the duty of patrol leaders to see that all their boys go steady as thoroughly as possible the nature of the obligations which they have taken upon themselves. It is also the duty of scouts to hand along whatever helpful knowledge they have to other scouts within reach of their friendship.But this holds good not only for boy scouts and their officers but for all men a nd it cannot be done unless, in the first place, we ourselves try to practice what we teach and then teach it with a humble appreciation of the beauty or use of the subject, and without any vanity or conceit. There is no merit, but only privilege, so great that it is difficult to estimate, in teaching and being taught to understand and live by the deep and tested truths of life and the more we learn, from obeying them, the more humbly grateful we shall be.