Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/322

318 a high mark is to receive a distinction, temporary perhaps, but none the less acceptable, and often stimulating, even if a high price has not been paid for it. All of us love to have others in sympathy with us, to receive expressions of esteem and to present testimonials of success. The supply becomes gradually adapted to the demand; and the demand causes all titles and distinctions to become more common, continually cheaper, until at last their meaning becomes merely nominal. To be nominally distinguished becomes the rule; to fail of such distinction becomes a disgrace.

In primitive society all government is the outcome of military organization. Aristocracy is originally based on brute force, and titles are the evidence of privilege accorded by the warrior chieftain in return for allegiance and military service. The assumption of a title without his consent is an act of rebellion and is treated as such by an absolute ruler. Limited monarchies have always been slow in development, and have in every case retained some features derived from the early establishment of caste fixed by privilege. The system of hereditary aristocracy which constitutes the groundwork of organization in English society is sustained by laws that could never have sprung originally from a democracy. Every Englishman knows his station. If he has not a place among the aristocracy by birth, he may still indulge the hope of admission to the charmed circle by royal favor. To call himself a lord, or to accept such a title by courtesy of his friends, or to buy it from some self-appointed college of heraldry would subject him at once to ridicule and social ostracism, even if he were not subject to prosecution for violation of long-established law. The mere fact of social organization imposes restraints upon personal liberty, but restraints that are deemed light in proportion to the general recognition of their reasonableness, justice and necessity. Personal liberty is, all in all, probably as nearly universal in England as it is in America, but the subjects in which limitation is imposed are somewhat different in the two countries. Titles and distinctions are granted in England in accordance with a well organized system, not theoretically perfect, but well enough established to be liable to but little misunderstanding. A colonel or a professor has no reason to fear ridicule in virtue of indiscriminate use of the title.

In America since the settlement at Jamestown there has been no basis for titles except the will of the more or less uninstructed people. Education was long exceedingly restricted. Aristocracy was based partly on personal character and partly on family influence, but never on legal prescription. There was no army requiring educated officers. A militia colonel was elected by his friends, and the title thus conferred by them was a possession for life. Throughout many parts of the south to-day by common consent a man is called colonel in virtue