FORMS OF ADDRESS. 



dressing Sard, describes both himself and his father as Saul s 

 servants. And kindred uses of the word to rulers have con 

 tinued down to modern times. 



Very early, however, professions of servitude, originally 

 made only to one of supreme authority, came to be made to 

 those of subordinate authority. Brought before Joseph in 

 Egypt, and fearing him, his brethren call themselves his 

 servants or slaves; and not only so, but speak of their 

 father as standing in a like relation to him. Moreover, 

 there is evidence that this form of address extended to the 

 intercourse between equals where a favour was to be 

 gained; as witness Judges xix. 19. And we have seen in 

 the last section that even still in India, a man shows his 

 politeness by calling himself the slave of the person ad 

 dressed. How in Europe a like diffusion has taken place, 

 need not be shown further than by exemplifying some of 

 the stages. Among French courtiers in the sixteenth cen 

 tury it was common to say &quot; I am your servant and the 

 perpetual slave of your house; &quot; and among ourselves in 

 past times there were used such indirect expressions of 

 servitude as &quot; Yours to command,&quot; &quot; Ever at your wor 

 ship s disposing,&quot; &quot; In all serviceable humbleness,&quot; &c. 

 While in our days, rarely made orally save in irony, such 

 forms have left only their written representatives &quot; Your 

 obedient servant,&quot; &quot;Your humble servant; &quot; reserved for 

 occasions when distance is to be maintained, and for this 

 reason often having inverted meanings. 



That for religious purposes the same propitiatory words 

 are employed, is a familiar truth. In Hebrew history men 

 are described as servants of God, just as they are described 

 as servants of the king. Neighbouring peoples are said 

 to serve their respective deities just as slaves are said to 

 serve their masters. And there are cases in which these 

 relations to the visible ruler and to the invisible ruler, are 

 expressed in like ways; as where we read that &quot; The king 

 hath fulfilled the request of his servant,&quot; and elsewhere 



