How a good reputation is to be preserved while practising humility.
Praise, honour, and glory are not bestowed upon men for an ordinary virtue, but for a rare and excellent virtue. For by praise we seek to persuade others to esteem someone’s excellence; by honour, we declare that we ourselves esteem it; and glory is nothing else, in my opinion, than a splendour of reputation, composed of the joining together of many praises and honours; so that if glory be a crown, honours and praises are its precious stones and pearls. Now, since humility cannot endure that we should have any good opinion of ourselves, or any pretension to be preferred before others, neither can it permit us to seek praise, honour, or glory, which are due only to excellence. Nevertheless, it consents that, according to the admonition of the Wise Man, we take care of our reputation, because a good reputation is not an esteem founded upon any excellence, but upon that simple honesty and integrity of life which humility does not prevent us from acknowledging in ourselves, and whose reputation it consequently permits us to desire. It is true that humility would despise reputation, if charity had no need of it; but because it is one of the foundations of human society, and without it we are not only useless but harmful to the public, on account of the scandal it receives from us, charity requires, and humility permits, that we desire it and preserve it carefully.
Praise, honour, and glory are not bestowed upon men for an ordinary virtue, but for a rare and excellent virtue. For by praise we seek to persuade others to esteem someone’s excellence; by honour, we declare that we ourselves esteem it; and glory is nothing else, in my opinion, than a splendour of reputation, composed of the joining together of many praises and honours; so that if glory be a crown, honours and praises are its precious stones and pearls. Now, since humility cannot endure that we should have any good opinion of ourselves, or any pretension to be preferred before others, neither can it permit us to seek praise, honour, or glory, which are due only to excellence. Nevertheless, it consents that, according to the admonition of the Wise Man, we take care of our reputation, because a good reputation is not an esteem founded upon any excellence, but upon that simple honesty and integrity of life which humility does not prevent us from acknowledging in ourselves, and whose reputation it consequently permits us to desire. It is true that humility would despise reputation, if charity had no need of it; but because it is one of the foundations of human society, and without it we are not only useless but harmful to the public, on account of the scandal it receives from us, charity requires, and humility permits, that we desire it and preserve it carefully.
Moreover, just as the leaves of trees, which are not in themselves of great worth, nevertheless serve much either to adorn them or to preserve their fruits while they are yet tender; so good repute, which in itself is not a thing greatly to be desired, ceases not to be very useful, not only for the ornament of our life, but also for the preservation of our virtues, and especially of virtues yet tender and weak. The obligation to maintain our reputation and to be such as we are esteemed to be, does a powerful and gentle violence to our natural cowardice. Let us preserve our virtues, Philothea, because they are pleasing to God, the great and sovereign object of all our actions. But as those who would keep fruit are not content merely to preserve it, but also put it in vessels fit to keep it; so, although divine love be the principal preserver of our virtues, nevertheless we may also employ good repute as something very fit and useful for this purpose.
Yet we must not be too ardent or too sensitive on the point of honour, for those who are so delicate and sensitive about their reputation resemble those who take medicines for every kind of slight indisposition: these, thinking to preserve their health, utterly spoil it; and those, wishing so delicately to maintain their reputation, wholly lose it. For by such great sensitivity they make themselves strange, suspicious, and intolerable, and provoke the malice of slanderers.
Yet we must not be too ardent or too sensitive on the point of honour, for those who are so delicate and sensitive about their reputation resemble those who take medicines for every kind of slight indisposition: these, thinking to preserve their health, utterly spoil it; and those, wishing so delicately to maintain their reputation, wholly lose it. For by such great sensitivity they make themselves strange, suspicious, and intolerable, and provoke the malice of slanderers.
Concealment, contempt of insults and calumnies, is ordinarily a far more salutary remedy than resentment, argument, and vengeance. Contempt makes them vanish; whereas, if one takes offence at them, it seems that one admits them. The crocodile, they say, harms only those who fear him; and I say that slander does harm only to those who trouble themselves about it.
Excessive fear of losing one’s reputation shows that one does not believe it to be too firmly founded upon the reality of a good life. Cities that have wooden bridges over great rivers fear that they will be swept away by the slightest rise in the waters; but those that have stone bridges are troubled only by great floods. So those whose souls are steadfastly Christian ordinarily despise the overflow of evil tongues; but those who feel themselves weak are anxious at every turn. Yes, Philothea, he who would be held in repute by all often discredits himself with all; and one deserves to lose honour when one seeks it from those very people whose vices make them truly contemptible and infamous.
Excessive fear of losing one’s reputation shows that one does not believe it to be too firmly founded upon the reality of a good life. Cities that have wooden bridges over great rivers fear that they will be swept away by the slightest rise in the waters; but those that have stone bridges are troubled only by great floods. So those whose souls are steadfastly Christian ordinarily despise the overflow of evil tongues; but those who feel themselves weak are anxious at every turn. Yes, Philothea, he who would be held in repute by all often discredits himself with all; and one deserves to lose honour when one seeks it from those very people whose vices make them truly contemptible and infamous.
Reputation is but as a signboard that shows where virtue dwells: virtue, therefore, must be preferred in all things and everywhere. Wherefore, if they tell you that you are a hypocrite, because you live devoutly; or that you are a coward, because you have forgiven an injury, make light of it all; for besides that such judgments can scarcely come save from foolish and contemptible persons, it is certain that, even were your reputation bound up with it, you ought not, to win their favor, to abandon virtue or leave the right path: let us always prefer the fruit to the leaves, that is, inward and spiritual goods to all outward and sensible goods. We must be jealous of our good name, but not idolaters of it; and as we must not offend the eyes of the good, so must we not seek to please the wicked. The beard contributes to a man’s adornment, and the hair to a woman’s; if the hair be plucked from the chin and from the head, it will with difficulty grow again; but if it be only cut or shaved, it will soon grow back, and be all the stronger and thicker for it; even so, though reputation be cut down, or even wholly shaven by the tongues of slanderers, _which_, according to David, _is like a sharp razor_, we must not be troubled by it; for soon it will spring up again, not only as fair as it was, but even more firmly rooted. But if it be our vices, our cowardice, our evil life that deprive us of our reputation, it will be very difficult for it ever to return, because its very root has been torn up. Now, the root of good name is goodness and integrity, which, so long as they are within us, can always restore to us the honor that slander has taken away.
We must quit this vain conversation, this useless company, this frivolous friendship, this foolish amusement, if our reputation suffers from it. For reputation is worth more than every kind of vain satisfaction. But if, on account of our exercises of piety, our advancement in virtue, and our progress toward eternal goods, people murmur, grumble, and slander us, let us, as they say, let the mastiffs bark at the moon; for if they succeed in giving others a poor opinion of us, and in cutting, as it were, the hair and beard of our good name, others will soon grow back, and the razor of detraction will serve our honor, as the pruning hook serves the vine, making it grow and abound in fruit.
Let us always keep our eyes upon Jesus Christ crucified: let us walk in His service with confidence and simplicity, but wisely and discreetly: He will be the protector of our good name; and if He permits it to be taken from us, it will be to give us a better one, or to make us profit in holy humility, of which a single ounce is worth more than a thousand pounds of honors. If we are unjustly blamed, let us quietly oppose the truth to slander. If it persists, let us persist in humbling ourselves; thus entrusting our reputation, together with our soul, into the hands of God, we could not secure it better. Let us serve God in good repute and in ill repute, after the example of Saint Paul, so that we may say with David: _O my God! it is for Thee that I have borne this reproach, and that confusion hath covered my face._
Let us always keep our eyes upon Jesus Christ crucified: let us walk in His service with confidence and simplicity, but wisely and discreetly: He will be the protector of our good name; and if He permits it to be taken from us, it will be to give us a better one, or to make us profit in holy humility, of which a single ounce is worth more than a thousand pounds of honors. If we are unjustly blamed, let us quietly oppose the truth to slander. If it persists, let us persist in humbling ourselves; thus entrusting our reputation, together with our soul, into the hands of God, we could not secure it better. Let us serve God in good repute and in ill repute, after the example of Saint Paul, so that we may say with David: _O my God! it is for Thee that I have borne this reproach, and that confusion hath covered my face._
Nevertheless, I except certain crimes so atrocious and so infamous that no one ought to suffer the slander thereof, when he can justly clear himself. I also except certain persons on whose reputation the edification of many depends; for in this case, one must quietly seek redress for the injury received, according to the advice of the theologians.