RANK AND TITLE. 453 



who now profess to take things as they come, and make light of all at- 

 tempts to construct a philosophy applicable to human affairs, might be 

 compelled to humble themselves to believe that Science may have a 

 word to say in regard to the highest order of phenomena just as she 

 has had in regard to all orders up to the highest. If the pride of indi- 

 vidualism should ever have such a fall as this, there is no doubt, in the 

 mind of the present writer, that Science will respond nobly to the new 

 call upon her, and will show how order and progress can be reconciled, 

 and a moving equilibrium be established which shall be the proper 

 manifestation and expression of a normal and healthy social life. 



-- 



RANK AND TITLE. 



By F. D. Y. CAEPENTEE. 



THERE is a lamentable want of method in the titular nomencla- 

 ture of our public service. A first-class clerk on the civil list is a 

 novice, receiving twelve hundred dollars a year ; he becomes a fourth- 

 class clerk, at eighteen hundred a year, only after three promotions. 

 A lieutenant in the army is far beneath the major, but a lieutenant- 

 general is above the major-general. Nor do the grades of lieutenant and 

 captain in the army by any means correspond in importance with simi- 

 lar titles in the navy. Who can tell which is the higher officer of the 

 navy, the chief-engineer or the engineer-in-chief ? Or to whom shall 

 we give precedence, the " chief clerk " of the Senate or the " principal 

 clerk " of that body ? The titles of the " door-keepers " of Congress 

 convey but a faint idea of the importance and multiplicity of their 

 duties. 



During the last session of Congress an unsuccessful attempt was 

 made to do away with the inferior titles of assistant surgeon and passed- 

 assistant surgeon in the navy, and, in plain English, to call a surgeon a 

 surgeon, as we call a spade a spade. The medical service of the army 

 descends not only to the assistant surgeon, but also to the lower estate 

 of acting assistant surgeon. But the latter official is a surgeon in every 

 sense of the word. He has won the title by years of study and prac- 

 tice. His diploma gives him the right to it, and his professional ex- 

 perience has confirmed him in the possession of it. As such he is quali- 

 fied to saw a leg off, or treat a fever ; and when the Government de- 

 grades him with the title of acting assistant surgeon, which might be 

 more properly applied to the boy who temporarily whets the knives 

 and mixes the powders, it robs him of his reputation. 



" But he that filches from me my good name, 

 Robs me of that which not enriches him, 

 And makes me poor indeed." 



