76 MANNERS AND lABHION. 



any 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 has 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 since come to be used to 

 persons of respectability. 



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

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

 plied to ordinary j^eoj^le — " I am your slave," " All I have is 

 yours," " I am your sacrifice " — attribute to the individual 

 spoken to the same greatness that Monsieur and 3Iy Lord 

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

 ruler, so immeasurably superior to the speaker as to be his 

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

 — "I throw myself under j^our feet," "I kiss your feet." 

 In our now meaningless subscription to a formal letter — • 

 " Your most obedient servant," — the same thing is visible. 

 Nay, even in the familiar signature " Yours faithfully," the 

 " yours," if interpreted as originally meant, is the exj^res- 

 eion 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 due of such ; and, by a continually wider misuse, have 

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

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



