date

[xxxviii. 69] 1822 July 10.
[xxxviii. 69]

1822 July 10.

Constitut Code Rationale

Factitious honor

?.1. Expository matter

??.1. Nature and modifications.

8 or 1. Characters in which a title of honor operates.

1. Order for respect: as such is a title to respect: i.e. to the external tokens of it: order for money is on one individual: for respect, on all.

9. or 2. Exercise of dominion on the many - in almost all.

Instrument of dominion not coercion, not intimidation, but delusion.

Evil thence not so great: yet still too great.

10. or 3. 2. Certificate of good desert, alias merit: import indeterminate; this the course of choice: Fact attested existence of this quality in the subject.

11. or 4. Effect produced, causing to be ascribed to him dignity: i.e. worthiness: viz. of receiving respect or tokens of it: means employed, opinion expressed by the conferring functionary that this benefit has been deserved by him - on whom conferred: deserved i.e. by service rendered by him: quere to whom? Of service, if real, the result must be pleasure or exemption from pain, actual or probable.

12. or 5. So, merited. Take away service, thence pleasure and pain, merit evaporates.

13. or 6. To be meritorious, such service must have had in it something extraordinary. Of services the most useful are such as have no merit. Thus self-feeding, and sale and purchase of food.

14. or 7. Respect - its value, if any, must consist in a certainty or probability of benefits in a more determinate shape.
Similar Items
  • Title: [[clx. 255] 1822 July 9 Constitut]
    Description: [clx. 255]

    1822 July 9

    Constitut. Code Rationale

    Securities

    Factitious honor

    ?. Expository matter

    ? Proof of merit fallacious

    To /With/ the word merit if any clear idea is attached to it is attached /stands associated/ the idea of service: for by him to whom merit is ascribed, suppose no service rendered or endeavoured to be rendered to any body, the idea of merit evaporates and leaves the word in a state of non-significance.

    /Moreover/ If then in virtue of /according to the intimation given by/ the dignity conferred on /ascribed to/ him and the claim /alledged title/ to respect given to him, he has rendered service to any body it must have been service of the meritorious kind: service by the rendering of which the existence of merit has been displayed

    This /Moreover this/ service must have had something extraordinary in it - in its nature: something whereby it stands distinguished from ordinary service from service in those shapes in which it is customarily rendered by every body to every body by every dealer for example to his customer by every customer to his dealer - by every seller to his purchaser, by every purchaser to his seller.

    As in the case of service so in the case of respect the value /worth/ of it if it has any must consist either of a certainty (as in case of a past event /where the event is past/) or of a probability of pleasure in some shape or other experienced or pain in some shape or other escaped from /averted/ and not experienced.

    Laying all together - the intimation given /conveyed/ by the /an/ act by which a title of honor is conferred is - that the individual on whom it is conferred has in some determinate shape or other rendered to some individual or individuals or to the whole community together, service of a meritorious and in some way or other [...?] of an extraordinary cast /kind/, and has thereby shewn /proved/ himself to be possessed of dignity - i.e. by such service to have given himself a title to receive at the hands members of the community in question at large in general, tokens of respect, of the existence of the sentiment of respect in relation to him in their minds in relation to him, as if in payment or part payment of such service.
  • Title: [[clx. 254] 1822 July 9 Constitut]
    Description: [clx. 254]

    1822 July 9

    Constitut Code Rationale

    Securities

    Factitious honor

    ?. Expository matter

    2. It operates as a sort of certificate - as an article of documentary evidence: as a certificate of merit /good desert/, whatsoever may be the idea in the community in question associated with the word merit: as a certificate declaring on the part of the person by whom the title is conferred an opinion that the person on whom it is conferred by him is a possessor /in possession of/ that same article called merit.

    Of such certificate the effect is to cause respect in degree and quantity more or less considerable to be entertained by the members of the community in question to be entertained /manifested/ towards and in relation to him: respect, or at any rate the outward signs and tokens of that inward sentiment. This effect it produces, by ascribing dignity to him: dignity or worthiness: by causing it to be believed that in the opinion of him by whom the honor is conferred he on whom it is conferred is worthy of receiving at the hands of the members of the community in general those same outward tokens

    It gives intimation that in the opinion of that same functionary, the person towards whom /in whose favor/ it is his desire that these same tokens of respect should be manifested and paid - manifested as it were in payment, has been and is deserving of such respect. To deserve any thing good any instrument of felicity is to have a claim to it in the character of a reward on the score of service - on the score of service in some shape or other rendered by the individual in question to some other individual or individuals: of which service if it be real must have been /an effect must have been/ the contributing in fact or in probability to cause him to experience pleasure in some shape in which he would not have experienced otherwise or to be exempt from experiencing pain which he would have experienced otherwise
  • Title: [[clx. 253] 1822 July 9 Constitut]
    Description: [clx. 253]

    1822 July 9

    Constitut Code Rationale

    Securities

    Factitious honor

    ?.2 Expository matter

    ??.2 Its mode of operation

    A few points relative to this product /Relative to this product of government, /Here/ a few points there are which/ call for explanation

    1. It operates as an order for respect, for respect to be for token of respect to be afforded and as it were paid by persons in general to him on whom the honor is said to be conferred. It operates therefore as a title to respect. In this particular It is in regard to respect that which an order for the payment of money a draught for example on a banker - is in regard to money: but with this difference that it is only on /at the hands of/ that one individual /person/ that the order for money calls for money, whereas it is at the hands of all persons in general that the title of honor - the order for respect - calls for respect.

    On the each occasion of each such act It is an exercise of dominion over the many, for indeed in some sort over all, for the benefit of the one - over the many, indeed in some sort /with little exception/ over all. The means not being coercive, it produces not that sense of oppression which in general dominion exercised by coercive means /employing as usual /it must do/ coercion for its instrument/ can not when exercised /directed/ towards so unjustifiable an end, fail to produce. It is by delusion that the effect is produced not by force or intimidation. But the effect of it being as will be seen purely mischievous, the circumstance of their being one evil in [...?] which is not produced by it, will not suffice for turning /to turn/ the whole mass of evil into good.