Coeval with these appellations was the change of
the word thou for you, and upon the same principles. These changes,
however, were not so disagreeable, as they might be expected to have
been, to the proud Romans; for while they gratified the pride of their
emperors by these appellations, they made their despotism, in their own
conceit, more tolerable to themselves. That one man should be lord ever
many thousand Romans, who were the masters of the world was in itself a
degrading thought. But they consoled themselves by the haughty
consideration, that they were yielding obedience, not to man, but to an
incarnate demon or good genius, or especial envoy from heaven. They
considered also the emperor as an office, and as an office, including
and representing many other offices, and hence considering him as a man
in the plural number, they had less objection to address him in a plural
manner.
The Quakers, in behalf of their assertions on this subject, quote the
opinions of several learned men, and of those in particular, who, from
the nature of their respective writings, had occasion to look into the
origin and construction of the words and expressions of language.
Howell, in his epistle to the nobility of England before his French and
English Dictionary, takes notice, "that both in France, and in other
nations, the word thou was used in speaking of one, but by succession of
time, when the Roman commonwealth grew into an empire, the courtiers
began to magnify the emperor, as being furnished with power to confer
dignities and offices, using the word you, yea, and deifying him with
more remarkable titles, concerning which matter we read in the epistles
of Symmachus to the emperors Theodosius and Valentinian, where he useth
these forms of speaking, Vestra AEternitas, vestrum numen, vestra
serenitas, vestra Clementia, that is, your, and not thy eternity,
godhead, serenity, clemency.
Pages:
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272