CHARLES DAHWIN. 101 



is not much of a lady she makes her men say, ' My 

 Lady.'" Of course, I suppose it is only a servant, 

 specially the lady's maid, that says, " My Lady," nowa- 

 days. But is it then so much better with the term 

 Ladyship ? Yet Mr. Darwin himself concludes a letter 

 to Lady Dorothy Nevill (iii. 327) with such phrases as 

 these : " And this I owe to your Ladyship's great kind- 

 ness." " Your Ladyship's very gratefully." Most men 

 know about Carlyle, and they are aware that he would 

 not, even by mere expression, so prostrate himself as to 

 say " My Lord." " I have no pocket definition of justice 

 for Your Lordship, said one ancient figure, not then 

 engaged in smoking, but if Your Lordship does not 

 already know what justice is, then " significantly point- 

 ing downwards ! Carlyle, if he had known it, would, in 

 all probability, have committed himself much less by a 

 " My Lord " than by " Your Lordship." It is so pleasant 

 to say " How do you do, my Lord ! " in the entrance or 

 on the stairs of one's club, that it will be long, it is 

 likely, before such institution can do without the phrase. 

 Emerson seemed inclined to be impatient of a " Lord," 

 even if you told him, " Lord so and so is a great admirer 

 of yours ; " but he thought the simple Mr. of an English 

 gentleman a higher title than that of any crowned head 

 in Christendom. And as a very special example of the 

 rococo of titles, fancy this inscription of Kant's to a 

 Herr Bohlius : " To the Right-nobly born, Right-larned, 

 and Right-skilful Master, Mr. John Christofer Bohlius, 

 Doctor of Medicine and Second Ordinary Professor in 

 the Academy of Konigsberg, as also Royal Body- 

 physician, my specially highly to be honoured Patron," 

 etc. etc. Surely Bohlius himself ought, like Dogberry, 

 to have thought himself very specially " written down an 

 ass ! " 



Perhaps, then, with this current of ideas in our mind, 



