ough the Italians were not lacking in integrity,
honesty, probity, or pride, their positive and highly analytical genius
was but little influenced by that chivalrous honor which was an
enthusiasm and a religion to the feudal nations, surviving the decay of
chivalry as a preservative instinct more undefinable than absolute
morality. Honor with the northern gentry was subjective; with the
Italians _Onore_ was objective--an addition conferred from without, in
the shape of reputation, glory, titles of distinction, or offices of
trust.[6]

[1] Ricordi politici e civili, No. 118, _Op. Ined._ vol. i.

[2] See De Stendhal, _Histoire de la peinture en Italie_, pp.
285-91, for a curious catalogue of examples. The modern sense
of honor is based, no doubt, to some extent on a delicate
_amour propre_, which makes a man desirous of winning the
esteem of his neighbors for its own sake. Granting that
conscience, pride, vanity, and self-respect are all
constituents of honor, we may, perhaps, find more pride in the
Spanish, more _amour propre_ in the French, and more conscience
in the English.

[3] Gargantua, lib. 1. ch. 57.

[4] See, however, what I have already said about Castiglione
and his ideal of the courtier in Chapter III. We must remember
that he represents a late period of the Renaissance.

[5] It is curious to compare, for example, the part played by
Italians, especially by Venice, Pisa, Genoa, Amalfi, as
contractors and merchants in the Crusades, with the enthusiasm
of the northern nations.

[6] In confirmation of this view I may call attention to
Giannotti's critique of the Florentine constitution (Florence,
1850, vol. i. pp. 15 and 156), and to what Machiavelli says
about Gianpaolo Baglioni (_Disc_. i. 27), 'Gli uomini non sanno
essere _onorevolmente_ tristi'; men know not how to be bad with
credit to themselves. The context proves that Gianpaolo failed
to win the honor of a signal crime. Compare the use of the word
_onore_ in Lorinzino de' Medici's 'Apologia.'

With the Italian conception of _Onore_ we may compare their view of
_Onesta_ in the female sex. This is set forth plainly by Piccolomini in
_La Bella Creanza delle Donne_.[1] As in the case of _Onore_, we have
here to deal, not with an exquisite personal ideal, but with something
far more material and external. The _onesta_ of a married woman is
compatib