212 CEREMONIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



Such examples of endeavours to please a ruler by avoid 

 ing any appearance of superiority to him, seem less incredi 

 ble than they would else seem, on finding that among Euro 

 pean peoples there have occurred, if not like examples, still, 

 analogous examples. In 1461 Duke Philip of Burgundy 

 having had his hair cut during an illness, &quot; issued an edict 

 that all the nobles of his state should be shorn also. More 

 than live hundred persons ... sacrificed their hair.&quot; 

 From this instance, in which the ruler insisted on having 

 his defect imitated by the ruled against their wills (for 

 many disobeyed), we may pass to a later instance in which a 

 kindred imitation was voluntary. In France, in 1665, after 

 the operation on Lewis XIV for fistula, the royal infirmity 

 became the fashion among the courtiers. 



&quot; Some who had previously taken care to conceal it were now not 

 ashamed to let it be known. There were even courtiers w r ho chose to 

 be operated on in Versailles, because the king was then informed of 

 all the circumstances of the malady. ... I have seen more than 

 thirty wishing to be operated on, and whose folly was so great that 

 they were annoyed when told that there was no occasion to do so.&quot; 



And now if with cases like these we join cases in which a 

 modification of dress which a king adopts to hide a defect 

 (such as a deep neckcloth where a scrofulous neck has to be 

 concealed) is imitated by courtiers, and spreads down 

 wards; we sec how from that desire to propitiate which 

 prompts the pretence of having a like defect, there may re 

 sult fashion in dress; and how from approval of imitations 

 of this kind may insensibly come tolerance of other imita 

 tions. 



425. Xot that such a cause would produce such an 

 effect by itself. There is a co-operating cause which takes 

 advantage of the openings thus made. Competitive imita 

 tion, ever going as far as authority allows, turns to its own 

 advantage every opportunity which reverential imitation 

 makes. 



