mbodiment. Among
early aggregations of men before yet social observances existed, the
sole forms of courtesy known were the signs of submission to the strong
man; as the sole law was his will, and the sole religion the awe of his
supposed supernaturalness. Originally, ceremonies were modes of
behaviour to the god-king. Our commonest titles have been derived from
his names. And all salutations were primarily worship paid to him. Let
us trace out these truths in detail, beginning with titles.

The fact already noticed, that the names of early kings among divers
races are formed by the addition of certain syllables to the names of
their gods--which certain syllables, like our _Mac_ and _Fitz_, probably
mean "son of," or "descended from"--at once gives meaning to the term
_Father_ as a divine title. And when we read, in Selden, that "the
composition out of these names of Deities was not only proper to Kings:
their Grandes and more honourable Subjects" (no doubt members of the
royal race) "had sometimes the like;" we see how the term _Father_,
properly used by these also, and by their multiplying descendants, came
to be a title used by the people in general. And it is significant as
bearing on this point, that among the most barbarous nation in Europe,
where belief in the divine nature of the ruler still lingers, _Father_
in this higher sense is still a regal distinction. When, again, we
remember how the divinity at first ascribed to kings was not a
complimentary fiction but a supposed fact; and how, further, under the
Fetish philosophy the celestial bodies are believed to be personages who
once lived among men; we see that the appellations of oriental rulers,
"Brother to the Sun," etc., were probably once expressive of a genuine
belief; and have simply, like many other things, continued in use after
all meaning has gone out of them. We way infer, too, that the titles,
God, Lord, Divinity, were given to primitive rulers literally--that the
_nostra divinitas_ applied to the Roman emperors, and the various sacred
designations that have been borne by monarchs, down to the still extant
phrase, "Our Lord the King," are the dead and dying forms of what were
once living facts. From these names, God, Father, Lord, Divinity,
originally belonging to the God-king, and afterwards to God and the
king, the derivation of our commonest titles of respect is clearly
traceable.

There is reason to think that these titles were originally prope