_Modesty_.--This is another powerful agent in exciting blushes;
but the word modesty includes very different states of the mind.
It implies humility, and we often judge of this by persons being
greatly pleased and blushing at slight praise, or by being
annoyed at praise which seems to them too high according
to their own humble standard of themselves. Blushing here has
the usual signification of regard for the opinion of others.
But modesty frequently relates to acts of indelicacy;
and indelicacy is an affair of etiquette, as we clearly
see with the nations that go altogether or nearly naked.
He who is modest, and blushes easily at acts of this nature,
does so because they are breaches of a firmly and wisely
established etiquette. This is indeed shown by the derivation of
the word _modest_ from _modus_, a measure or standard of behaviour.
A blush due to this form of modesty is, moreover, apt to be intense,
because it generally relates to the opposite sex; and we have
seen how in all cases our liability to blush is thus increased.
We apply the term `modest,' as it would appear, to those
who have an humble opinion of themselves, and to those who
are extremely sensitive about an indelicate word or deed,
simply because in both cases blushes are readily excited,
for these two frames of mind have nothing else in common.
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