ks in gold and in marble and works of art, in
order that those who should see them should become astonished, and
therefore reverent inquirers into the honourable conditions of the
King. Therefore Statius, the sweet Poet, in the first part of the
Theban History, says that, when Adrastus, King of the Argives, saw
Polynices covered with the skin of a lion, and saw Tydeus covered with
the hide of a wild boar, and recalled to mind the reply that Apollo
had given concerning his daughters, he became amazed, and therefore
more reverent and more desirous for knowledge. Modesty is a shrinking,
a drawing-back of the mind from unseemly things, with the fear of
falling into them; even as we see in virgins and in good women, and in
adolescent or young men, who are so modest that not only when they are
tempted to do wrong, and urged to do so, but even when some fancied
joy flashes across the mind, the feeling is depicted in the face,
which either grows pale with fear, or flushes rosy-red. Wherefore the
before-mentioned poet, in the first book of the Thebaid already
quoted, says that when Acesta the nurse of Argia and Deiphile, the
daughters of King Adrastus, led them before the eyes of their holy
father into the presence of the two pilgrims, that is to say,
Polynices and Tydeus, the virgins grew pale and blushed rosy-red, and
their eyes shunned the glance of any other person, and they kept them
fixed on the paternal face alone, as if there were safety. This
modesty--how many errors does it bridle in, or repress? On how many
immodest questions and impure things does it impose silence! How much
dishonest greed does it repress! In the chaste woman, against how many
evil temptations does it rouse mistrust, not only in her, but also in
him who watches over her! How many unseemly words does it restrain!
for, as Tullius says in the first chapter of the Offices: "No action
is unseemly which is not unseemly in the naming." And furthermore, the
Modest and Noble Man never could speak in such a manner that to a
woman his words would not be decent and such as she could hear. Alas,
how great is the evil in every man who seeks for honour, to mention
things which would be deemed evil in the mouth of any woman!

Shame is a fear of dishonour through fault committed, and from this
fear there springs up a penitence for the fault, which has in itself a
bitter sorrow or grief, which is a chastisement and preservative
against future wrong-doing. Wherefore t