Virtue and Violence

Mandeville made explicit the connection between violence and ancient virtue that Milbank and others have commented on:

“The Word Moral, without Doubt, comes from Mos, and signifies every Thing that relates to Manners: The Word Ethick is synonimous with Moral, and is derived from [Greek: ithik], which is exactly the same
in Greek, that Mos is in Latin. The Greek for Virtu, is [Greek: arete], which is derived from [Greek: ares], the God of War and properly signifies Martial Virtue. The same Word in Latin, if we believe Cicero, comes from Vir; and the genuine Signification likewise of the Word Virtus is Fortitude . . . .

“It is hardly to be conceived, but that in the first Forming of all Societies, there must have been Struggles for Superiority; and
therefore it is reasonable to imagine, that in all the Beginnings of Civil Government, and the Infancy of Nations, Strength and Courage must have been the most valuable Qualifications for some Time. This makes me think, that Virtus, in its first Acceptation, might, with great Justice and Propriety, be in English render’d Manliness; which fully expresses the Original Meaning of it, and shews the Etymology equally with the Latin; and whoever is acquainted with that Language must know, that it was some ages before the Romans used it in any other Sense. Nay, to this Day, the Word Virtus by it self, in any of their Historians, has the same Signification, as if the Word Bellica had been added. We have Reason to think, that, as First, Nothing was
meant by Virtus, but Daring and Intrepidity, right or wrong; or else if could never have been made to signify Savageness, and brutish Courage; as Tacitus, in the Fourth Book of his History, makes use of it manifestly in that Sense. Even Wild Beasts, says he, if you keep them shut up, will lose their Fierceness. Etiam sera animalia, si clausa teneas, virtutis obliviseuntur.

“What the Great Men of Rome valued themselves upon was active and passive Bravery, Warlike Virtue, which is so strongly express’d in the Words of Livy: Et facere & pati fortia Romanum est. But besides the Consideration of the great Service, All Warriours received from this Virtue, there is a very good Reason in the Nature of the Thing it self, why it should be in far higher Esteem than any other. The Passion it has to struggle with, is the most violent and stubborn, and consequently the hardest to be conquer’d, the Fear of Death: The
least Conflict with it is harsh Work, and a difficult Task; and it is in Regard to this, that Cicero, in his Offices, calls Modesty, Justice and Temperance, the softer and easier Virtues. Qui virtutibus bis lenioribus erit ornatus, modestia, justitia temperantia, &c. Justice and Temperance require Professors as grave and solemnn, and demand as much Strictness and Observance as any other Virtues. Why lenioribus then; but that they are more mild and gentle in the Restrain they lay upon our Inclinations, and that the Self?denial they
require is more practicable and less mortifying than that of Virtue itself, as it is taken in it proper and genuine Sense? To be Just or Temperate, we have Temptations to encounter, and Difficulties to surmount, that are troublesome: But the Efforts we are oblig’d to make upon our selves to be truyly Valiant are infinitely greater;
and, in order to it, we are overcome the First, the strongest and most lasting Passion, that has been implanted in us; for tho’ we may hate and have Aversion to many Things by Instinct, yet this is Nothing so generally terrible, and so generally dreadful to all Creatures, rational or not rational, as the Dissolution of their Being.”

Thus, “it will be easy to imagine how and why, soon after Fortitude
had been honoured with the Name of Virtue, all the other Branches of Conquest over our selves were dignify’d with the same Title. We may see in it likewise the Reason of what I have always so strenuously
insisted upon, viz. That no Practice, no Action or good Quality, how useful or beneficial soever they may be in them selves, can ever deserve the Name of Virtue, strictly speaking, where there is not a palpable Self?denial to be seen.”