Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11) - Herbert Spencer (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📗
- Author: Herbert Spencer
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If From Names Of Honour We Turn To Phrases Of Honour, We Find Similar
Facts. The Oriental Styles Of Address, Applied To Ordinary People--"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 _My
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 Your
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 Expression Of A Slave To His
Master.
All These Dead Forms Were Once Living Embodiments Of Fact--Were
Primarily The Genuine Indications Of That Submission To Authority Which
They Verbally Assert; Were Afterwards Naturally Used By The Weak And
Cowardly To Propitiate 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 God-King, Is Indicated By The Fact
That, Like Titles, They Were Subsequently Used In Common To God And The
King. Religious Worship Has Ever Largely Consisted Of Professions Of
Obedience, Of Being God's Servants, Of Belonging To Him To Do What He
Will With. Like Titles, Therefore, These Common Phrases Of Honour Had A
Devotional Origin.
Perhaps, However, It Is In The Use Of The Word _You_ As A Singular
Pronoun That The Popularising Of What Were Once Supreme Distinctions Is
Most Markedly Illustrated. This Speaking Of A Single Individual In The
Plural Was Originally An Honour Given Only To The Highest--Was The
Reciprocal Of The Imperial "We" Assumed By Such. Yet Now, By Being
Applied To Successively Lower And Lower Classes, It Has Become All But
Universal. Only By One Sect Of Christians, And In A Few Secluded
Districts, Is The Primitive _Thou_ Still Used. And The _You_, In
Becoming Common To All Ranks, Has Simultaneously Lost Every Vestige Of
The Honour Once Attaching To It.
But The Genesis Of Manners Out Of Forms Of Allegiance And Worship Is
Above All Shown In Men's Modes Of Salutation. Note First The
Significance Of The Word. Among The Romans, The _Salutatio_ Was A Daily
Homage Paid By Clients And Inferiors To Superiors. This Was Alike The
Case With Civilians And In The Army. The Very Derivation Of Our Word,
Therefore, Is Suggestive Of Submission. Passing To Particular Forms Of
Obeisance (Mark The Word Again), Let Us Begin With The Eastern One Of
Baring The Feet. This Was, Primarily, A Mark Of Reverence, Alike To A
God And A King. The Act Of Moses Before The Burning Bush, And The
Practice Of Mahometans, Who Are Sworn On The Koran With Their Shoes Off,
Exemplify The One Employment Of It; The Custom Of The Persians, Who
Remove Their Shoes On Entering The Presence Of Their Monarch,
Exemplifies The Other. As Usual, However, This Homage, Paid Next To
Inferior Rulers, Has Descended From Grade To Grade. In India, It Is A
Common Mark Of Respect; A Polite Man In Turkey Always Leaves His Shoes
At The Door, While The Lower Orders Of Turks Never Enter The Presence Of
Their Superiors But In Their Stockings; And In Japan, This Baring Of The
Feet Is An Ordinary Salutation Of Man To Man.
Take Another Case. Selden, Describing The Ceremonies Of The Romans,
Says:--"For Whereas It Was Usual Either To Kiss The Images Of Their
Gods, Or Adoring Them, To Stand Somewhat Off Before Them, Solemnly
Moving The Right Hand To The Lips, And Then, Casting It As If They Had
Cast Kisses, To Turne The Body On The Same Hand (Which Was The Right
Forme Of Adoration), It Grew Also By Custom, First That The Emperors,
Being Next To Deities, And By Some Accounted As Deities, Had The Like
Done To Them In Acknowledgment Of Their Greatness." If, Now, We Call To
Mind The Awkward Salute Of A Village School-Boy, Made By Putting His
Open Hand Up To His Face And Describing A Semicircle With His Forearm;
And If We Remember That The Salute Thus Used As A Form Of Reverence In
Country Districts, Is Most Likely A Remnant Of The Feudal Times; We
Shall See Reason For Thinking That Our Common Wave Of The Hand To A
Friend Across The Street, Represents What Was Primarily A Devotional
Part 2 Chapter 2 (On Manners And Fashion) Pg 86Act.
Similarly Have Originated All Forms Of Respect Depending Upon
Inclinations Of The Body. Entire Prostration Is The Aboriginal Sign Of
Submission. The Passage Of Scripture, "Thou Hast Put All Under His
Feet," And That Other One, So Suggestive In Its Anthropomorphism, "The
Lord Said Unto My Lord, Sit Thou At My Right Hand, Until I Make Thine
Enemies Thy Footstool," Imply, What The Assyrian Sculptures Fully Bear
Out, That It Was The Practice Of The Ancient God-Kings Of The East To
Trample Upon The Conquered. And When We Bear In Mind That There Are
Existing Savages Who Signify Submission By Placing The Neck Under The
Foot Of The Person Submitted To, It Becomes Obvious That All
Prostration, Especially When Accompanied By Kissing The Foot, Expressed
A Willingness To Be Trodden Upon--Was An Attempt To Mitigate Wrath By
Saying, In Signs, "Tread On Me If You Will." Remembering, Further, That
Kissing The Foot, As Of The Pope And Of A Saint's Statue, Still
Continues In Europe To Be A Mark Of Extreme Reverence; That Prostration
To Feudal Lords Was Once General; And That Its Disappearance Must Have
Taken Place, Not Abruptly, But By Gradual Modification Into Something
Else; We Have Ground For Deriving From These Deepest Of Humiliations All
Inclinations Of Respect; Especially As The Transition Is Traceable. The
Reverence Of A Russian Serf, Who Bends His Head To The Ground, And The
Salaam Of The Hindoo, Are Abridged Prostrations; A Bow Is A Short
Salaam; A Nod Is A Short Bow.
Should Any Hesitate To Admit This Conclusion, Then Perhaps, On Being
Reminded That The Lowest Of These Obeisances Are Common Where The
Submission Is Most Abject; That Among Ourselves The Profundity Of The
Bow Marks The Amount Of Respect; And Lastly, That The Bow Is Even Now
Used Devotionally In Our Churches--By Catholics To Their Altars, And By
Protestants At The Name Of Christ--They Will See Sufficient Evidence For
Thinking That This Salutation Also Was Originally Worship.
The Same May Be Said, Too, Of The Curtsy, Or Courtesy, As It Is
Otherwise Written. Its Derivation From _Courtoisie_, Courteousness, That
Is, Behaviour Like That At Court, At Once Shows That It Was Primarily
The Reverence Paid To A Monarch. And If We Call To Mind That Falling
Upon The Knees, Or Upon One Knee, Has Been A Common Obeisance Of
Subjects To Rulers; That In Ancient Manuscripts And Tapestries, Servants
Are Depicted As Assuming This Attitude While Offering The Dishes To
Their Masters At Table; And That This Same Attitude Is Assumed Towards
Our Own Queen At Every Presentation; We May Infer, What The Character Of
The Curtsy Itself Suggests, That It Is An Abridged Act Of Kneeling. As
The Word Has Been Contracted From _Courtoisie_ Into Curtsy, So The
Motion Has Been Contracted From A Placing Of The Knee On The Floor, To A
Lowering Of The Knee Towards The Floor. Moreover, When We Compare The
Curtsy Of A Lady With The Awkward One A Peasant Girl Makes, Which, If
Continued, Would Bring Her Down On Both Knees, We May See In This Last A
Remnant Of That Greater Reverence Required Of Serfs. And When, From
Considering That Simple Kneeling Of The West, Still Represented By The
Curtsy, We Pass Eastward, And Note The Attitude Of The Mahometan
Worshipper, Who Not Only Kneels But Bows His Head To The Ground, We May
Infer That The Curtsy Also Is An Evanescent Form Of The Aboriginal
Prostration.
In Further Evidence Of This It May Be Remarked, That There Has But
Recently Disappeared From The Salutations Of Men, An Action Having The
Same Proximate Derivation With The Curtsy. That Backward Sweep Of The
Foot With Which The Conventional Stage-Sailor Accompanies His Bow--A
Movement Which Prevailed Generally In Past Generations, When "A Bow And
A Scrape" Went Together, And Which, Within The Memory Of Living Persons,
Was Made By Boys To Their Schoolmaster With The Effect Of Wearing A Hole
In The Floor--Is Pretty Clearly A Preliminary To Going On One Knee. A
Motion So Ungainly Could Never Have Been Intentionally Introduced; Even
If The Artificial Introduction Of Obeisances Were Possible. Hence We
Must Regard It As The Remnant Of Something Antecedent: And That This
Something Antecedent Was Humiliating May Be Inferred From The Phrase,
"Scraping An Acquaintance;" Which, Being Used To Denote The Gaining Of
Favour By Obsequiousness, Implies That The Scrape Was Considered A Mark
Of Servility--That Is, Of _Serf_-Ility.
Consider, Again, The Uncovering Of The Head. Almost Everywhere This Has
Been A Sign Of Reverence, Alike In Temples And Before Potentates; And It
Yet Preserves Among Us Some Of Its Original Meaning. Whether It Rains,
Hails, Or Shines, You Must Keep Your Head Bare While Speaking To The
Monarch; And On No Plea May You Remain Covered In A Place Of Worship. As
Usual, However, This Ceremony, At First A Submission To Gods And Kings,
Has Become In Process Of Time A Common Civility. Once An Acknowledgment
Of Another's Unlimited Supremacy, The Removal Of The Hat Is Now A Salute
Accorded To Very Ordinary Persons, And That Uncovering, Originally
Reserved For Entrance Into "The House Of God," Good Manners Now
Dictates On Entrance Into The House Of A Common Labourer.
Standing, Too, As A Mark Of Respect, Has Undergone Like Extensions In
Its Application. Shown, By The Practice In Our Churches, To Be
Intermediate Between The Humiliation Signified By Kneeling And The
Self-Respect Which Sitting Implies, And Used At Courts As A Form Of
Homage When More Active Demonstrations Of It Have Been Made, This
Posture Is Now Employed In Daily Life To Show Consideration; As Seen
Alike In The Attitude Of A Servant Before A Master, And In That Rising
Which Politeness Prescribes On The Entrance Of A Visitor.
Many Other Threads Of Evidence Might Have Been Woven Into Our Argument.
As, For Example, The Significant Fact, That If We Trace Back Our Still
Existing Law Of Primogeniture--If We Consider It As Displayed By
Scottish Clans, In Which Not Only Ownership But Government Devolved From
The Beginning On The Eldest Son Of The Eldest--If We Look Further Back,
And Observe That The Old Titles Of Lordship, _Signor_, _Seigneur_,
_Sennor_, _Sire_, _Sieur_, All Originally Mean, Senior, Or Elder--If We
Go Eastward, And Find That _Sheick_ Has A Like Derivation, And That The
Oriental Names For Priests, As _Pir_, For Instance, Are Literally
Interpreted _Old Man_--If We Note In Hebrew Records How Primeval Is The
Ascribed Superiority Of The First-Born, How Great The Authority Of
Elders, And How Sacred The Memory Of Patriarchs--And If, Then, We
Remember That Among Divine Titles Are "Ancient Of Days," And "Father Of
Gods And Men;"--We See How Completely These Facts Harmonise With The
Hypothesis, That The Aboriginal God Is The First Man Sufficiently Great
To Become A Tradition, The Earliest Whose Power And Deeds Made Him
Remembered; That Hence Antiquity Unavoidably Became Associated With
Part 2 Chapter 2 (On Manners And Fashion) Pg 87
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