justice, the wise among them thought it
necessary to inspire men with the love of virtue, by giving them who
adhered to the interests of innocence and truth, some distinguishing
name to raise them above the common level of mankind. This way of fixing
appellations of credit upon eminent merit, was what gave being to titles
and terms of honour. "Such a name," continued he, "without the qualities
which should give a man pretence to be exalted above others, does but
turn him to jest and ridicule. Should one see another cudgelled, or
scurvily treated, do you think a man so used would take it kindly to be
called Hector, or Alexander? Everything must bear a proportion with the
outward value that is set upon it; or instead of being long had in
veneration, that very term of esteem will become a word of reproach."
When Timoleon had done speaking, Urbanus pursued the same purpose, by
giving an account of the manner in which the Indian kings,[261] who were
lately in Great Britain, did honour to the person where they lodged.
"They were placed," said he, "in a handsome apartment, at an
upholsterer's in King Street, Covent Garden. The man of the house, it
seems, had been very observant of them, and ready in their service.
These just and generous princes, who act according to the dictates of
natural justice, thought it proper to confer some dignity upon their
landlord before they left his house. One of them had been sick during
his residence there, and having never before been in a bed, had a very
great veneration for him who made that engine of repose, so useful and
so necessary in his distress. It was consulted among the four princes,
by what name to dignify his great merit and services. The Emperor of the
Mohocks, and the other three kings, stood up, and in that posture
recounted the civilities they had received, and particularly repeated
the care which was taken of their sick brother. This, in their
imagination, who are used to know the injuries of weather, and the
vicissitudes of cold and heat, gave them very great impressions of a
skilful upholsterer, whose furniture was so well contrived for their
protection on such occasions. It is with these less instructed (I will
not say less knowing) people, the manner of doing honour, to impose some
name significant of the qualities of the person they distinguish, and
the good offices received from him. It was therefore resolved, to call
their landlord Cadaroque, which is the name of the str