"The word you, says William Penn, was
first ascribed in the way of flattery, to proud Popes and Emperors,
imitating the heathens vain homage to their gods, thereby ascribing a
plural honour to a single person; as if one Pope had been made up of
many gods, and one Emperor of many men; for which reason you, only to be
addressed to many, became first spoken to one. It seemed the word thou
looked like too lean and thin a respect; and therefore some, bigger than
they should be, would have a style suitable to their own ambition."
It will be difficult for those, who now use the word you constantly to a
single person, and who, in such use of it, never attach any idea of
flattery to it, to conceive how it ever could have had the origin
ascribed to it, or, what is more extraordinary, how men could believe
themselves to be exalted, when others applied to them the word you
instead of thou. But history affords abundant evidence of the fact.
It is well known that Caligula ordered himself to be worshipped as a
god. Domitian, after him, gave similar orders with respect to himself.
In process of time the very statues of the emperors began to be
worshipped. One blasphemous innovation prepared the way for another. The
title of Pontifex Maximus gave way at length for those of Eternity,
Divinity, and the like.
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