7u MANNEIIS AJS D PA61IIOX. 



;uiy other of the orders. Similarly, too, with the peerage 

 Baron is alike the earliest and least elevated of its divi 

 sions. This continual degradation of all names of honor has, 

 from time to time, made it requisite to introduce new ones 

 having that distinguishing effect which the originals had 

 lost by generality of use; just as our habit of misapplying 

 superlatives has, by gradually destroying their force, entail 

 ed the need for fresh ones. And if, within the last thousand 

 years, this process lias produced effects thus marked, we 

 may readily conceive how, during previous thousands, the 

 titles of gods and demi-gods came to be used to all persons 

 exercising power ; as they have finec come to be used to 

 persons of respectability. 



If from names of honour AVC turn to phrases of honour, 

 we find similar facts. The Oriental styles of address, ap 

 plied to ordinary people &quot; I am your slave,&quot; &quot; All I have is 

 yours,&quot; &quot;I am your sacrifice&quot; attribute to the individual 

 spoken to the same greatness that Jfonsicur and J/y Lord 

 do: they ascribe to him the character of an all-powerful 

 ruler, so immeasurably superior to the speaker a.s to be his 

 owner. So, likewise, with the Pulish expressions of respect 

 &quot;I throw myself under your feet,&quot; I kiss your feet.&quot; 

 In our now meaningless subscription to a formal letter 

 &quot; Your most obedient servant,&quot; the same thing is visible. 

 Nay, even in the familiar signature &quot; Yours faithfully,&quot; tho 

 &quot;yours,&quot; if interpreted as originally meant, is the expres 

 sion of a slave to his master. 



All these dead forms were once living embodiments of 

 fact were primarily the genuine indications of that submis 

 sion to authority which they verbally assert ; were after 

 wards naturally used by the weak and cowardly to pro 

 pitiate those above them ; gradually grew to be considered 

 the duo of such ; and, by a continually wider misuse, have 

 lost their meanings, as Kir and Master have done. That, 

 like titles, they were in the beginning used only to tho 



