[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.