Page:The Book of Orders of Knighthood and Decorations of Honour of All Nations.djvu/11

 INTRODUCTION

The desire to possess honorary distinctions has shown itself in various shapes, from very remote times, and among nations strangely dissimilar; and to be able to wear them on the person as evidence of some particular qualification in the individual, or acknowledgment of important service rendered by him to his country, has been an object of human ambition, almost from time immemorial. The value of these incentives to exertion was found out by every government that could maintain pretensions to civilization, and as society assumed the more regular elements of organization, such personal distinctions multiplied in all the settled States of the Old and New World. Objects, trivial in their nature, when applied to this purpose, assumed a new and absorbing interest, and at opposite parts of the globe similar badges of superiority were equally prized and coveted. Such were the Button of the Mandarin, the Fleece of the Spanish Grandee, and the Garter of the English Knight. Other forms were pressed into the service, and chains, ribbons, medals and crosses formed part of their insignia. In the various Continental Courts, honorable decorations have become numerous, extending even to the