ABSTRACT
There is a remarkable contradiction between civil laws, the zealous guardians of the life and limb of all citizens, and the laws that defend what is called honor which is governed by personal belief. Honor, then, is one of those complex ideas that are composed not only of simple ideas, but also of a complex process in which one idea is accepted at one time, at another time it is rejected, and at other times diverse ideas are mixed together. Hence the ideas of honor are buried in an extreme political liberty and extreme state of dependence, totally mixed up with other ideas. Honor is, then, one of the fundamental principles of monarchies, which are forms of mitigated despotism, and it has in it the same role that revolutions have in despotic states, that is a momentary return to the state of nature, a reminder to the ruler of the ancient equality of men.
