oduced; even
if the artificial introduction of obeisances were possible. Hence we
must regard it as the remnant of something antecedent: and that this
something antecedent was humiliating may be inferred from the phrase,
"scraping an acquaintance;" which, being used to denote the gaining of
favour by obsequiousness, implies that the scrape was considered a mark
of servility--that is, of _serf_-ility.

Consider, again, the uncovering of the head. Almost everywhere this has
been a sign of reverence, alike in temples and before potentates; and it
yet preserves among us some of its original meaning. Whether it rains,
hails, or shines, you must keep your head bare while speaking to the
monarch; and on no plea may you remain covered in a place of worship. As
usual, however, this ceremony, at first a submission to gods and kings,
has become in process of time a common civility. Once an acknowledgment
of another's unlimited supremacy, the removal of the hat is now a salute
accorded to very ordinary persons, and that uncovering, originally
reserved for entrance into "the house of God," good manners now
dictates on entrance into the house of a common labourer.

Standing, too, as a mark of respect, has undergone like extensions in
its application. Shown, by the practice in our churches, to be
intermediate between the humiliation signified by kneeling and the
self-respect which sitting implies, and used at courts as a form of
homage when more active demonstrations of it have been made, this
posture is now employed in daily life to show consideration; as seen
alike in the attitude of a servant before a master, and in that rising
which politeness prescribes on the entrance of a visitor.

Many other threads of evidence might have been woven into our argument.
As, for example, the significant fact, that if we trace back our still
existing law of primogeniture--if we consider it as displayed by
Scottish clans, in which not only ownership but government devolved from
the beginning on the eldest son of the eldest--if we look further back,
and observe that the old titles of lordship, _Signor_, _Seigneur_,
_Sennor_, _Sire_, _Sieur_, all originally mean, senior, or elder--if we
go Eastward, and find that _Sheick_ has a like derivation, and that the
Oriental names for priests, as _Pir_, for instance, are literally
interpreted _old man_--if we note in Hebrew records how primeval is the
ascribed superiority of the first-born, how great the au