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 



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