[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