I have already discussed the blood-madness of some of the despots.
While the imagination played so important a part in the morality of the Italians, it must be remembered that they were deficient in that which is the highest imaginative safeguard against vice, a scrupulous sense of honor.

It is true that the Italian authors talk much about _Onore_.
Pandolfini tells his sons that _Onore_ is one of the qualities which require the greatest thrift in keeping, and Machiavelli asserts that it is almost as dangerous to attack men in their _Onore_ as in their property.

But when we come to analyze the word, we find that it means something different from that mixture of conscience, pride, and self-respect which makes a man true to a high ideal in all the possible circumstances of life.

The Italian _Onore_ consisted partly of the credit attaching to public distinction, and partly of a reputation for _Virtu_, understanding that word in its Machiavellian usage, as force, courage, ability, virility.

It was not incompatible with craft and dissimulation, or with the indulgence of sensual vices.