USES OF HONORARY TITLES. ._ 417 
a nation for benefits conferred. They certify to 
the world that their possessors have reached the 
height of their ambition; an ambition which is felt 
by the sage no less than by the hero, which is the 
noblest stimulus to exertion—the most hallowed 
feeling of the human heart; they are at once 
enrolled and distinguished as benefactors to their 
country, if not to the human race. Such is the legi- 
timate use of titular honours and their accompanying 
signs. That they are perpetually degraded to ignoble 
purposes, to reward the courtly sycophant, the poli- 
tical apostate, or the wealthy imbecile, is most true; 
but were they invariably so perverted, it is obvious 
that no good man would accept or desire them. 
They still retain the lineaments of their original 
image, and their superscription can still be traced ; 
and who can imagine that philosophers only are to 
be insensible to such things, that they only are 
devoid of ambition, that they only are indifferent to 
the applause of their countrymen, few, very few of 
whom would admit their deserts, and still fewer 
understand them, but for such public testimonials ? 
To argue, therefore, against the existence of such 
feelings is to suppose there is no ambition in the 
world beyond that which belongs to the grosser and 
baser passions of our nature, which strives after 
wealth, or power, or possessions, for themselves 
alone, totally regardless of those means they supply 
of doing good to others. Philosophers are but men, 
generally exempt, indeed, from the vanity and pride 
of vulgar minds; yet still they cannot be insensible 
to distinctions, earned by intellectual exertion; any 
more than the warrior or the statesman can be 
EE 
