A still finer origin is that of the Celto-Pannonians, from the Latin word _pannus_, cloth, for, we are told they dressed themselves in old pieces of cloth badly sewn together, much resembling a harlequin's jacket. But the best origin of all is, undeniably, the tower of Babel. CEREMONIES--TITLES--PRECEDENCE. All these things, which would be useless and impertinent in a state of pure nature, are, in our corrupt and ridiculous state, of great service. Of all nations, the Chinese are those who have carried the use of ceremonies to the greatest length; they certainly serve to calm as well as to weary the mind. The Chinese porters and carters are obliged, whenever they occasion the least hindrance in the streets, to fall on their knees and ask one another's pardon according to the prescribed formula. This prevents ill language, blows and murders. They have time to grow cool and are then willing to assist one another. The more free a people are, the fewer ceremonies, the fewer ostentatious titles, the fewer demonstrations of annihilation in the presence of a superior, they possess. To Scipio men said "Scipio"; to Cæsar, "Cæsar"; but in after times they said to the emperors, "your majesty," "your divinity." The titles of St. Peter and St. Paul were "Peter" and "Paul." Their successors gave one another the title of "your holiness," which is not to be found in the Acts of the Apostles, nor in the writings of the disciples. We read in the history of Germany that the dauphin of France, afterwards Charles V., went to the Emperor Charles IV. at Metz and was presented after Cardinal de Périgord. There has since been a time when chancellors went before cardinals; after which cardinals again took precedence of chancellors. In France the peers preceded the princes of the blood, going in the order of their creation, until the consecration of Henry III. The dignity of peer was, until that time, so exalted that at the ceremony of the consecration of Elizabeth, wife to Charles IX., in 1572, described by Simon Bouquet, _échevin_ of Paris, it is said that the queen's _dames_ and _demoiselles_ having handed to the _dame d'honneur_ the bread, wine and wax, with the silver, for the offering to be presented to the queen by the said _dame d'honneur_, the said _dame d'honneur_, being a duchess, commanded the _dames_ to go and carry the offering to the princesses themselves, etc. This _dame d'honneur_ was the wife of the constable Montmorency. The armchair, the chair with a back, the stool, the right hand and the left were for several ages important political matters. I believe that we owe the ancient etiquette concerning armchairs to the circumstance that our barbarians of ancestors had at most but one in a house, and even this was used only by the sick. In some provinces of Germany and England an armchair is still called a sick-chair.