But it is in the titles of the middle ages, and in the growth of our modern ones out of them, that the process is most clearly seen. _Herr_, _Don_, _Signior_, _Seigneur_, _Sennor_, were all originally names of rulers--of feudal lords. By the complimentary use of these names to all who could, on any pretence, be supposed to merit them, and by successive degradations of them from each step in the descent to a still lower one, they have come to be common forms of address. At first the phrase in which a serf accosted his despotic chief, _mein herr_ is now familiarly applied in Germany to ordinary people. The Spanish title _Don_, once proper to noblemen and gentlemen only, is now accorded to all classes. So, too, is it with _Signior_ in Italy. _Seigneur_, and _Monseigneur_, by contraction in _Sieur_ and _Monsieur_, have produced the term of respect claimed by every Frenchman. And whether _Sire_ be or be not a like contraction of _Signior_, it is clear that, as it was borne by sundry of the ancient feudal lords of France, who, as Selden says, "affected rather to bee stiled by the name of _Sire_ than Baron, as _Le Sire de Montmorencie_, _Le Sire de Beaulieu_, and the like," and as it has been commonly used to monarchs, our word _Sir_, which is derived from it, originally meant lord or king. Thus, too, is it with feminine titles. _Lady_, which, according to Horne Tooke, means _exalted_, and was at first given only to the few, is now given to all women of education. _Dame_, once an honourable name to which, in old books, we find the epithets of "highborn" and "stately" affixed, has now, by repeated widenings of its application, become relatively a term of contempt. And if we trace the compound of this, _ma Dame_, through its contractions--_Madam_, _ma'am_, _mam_, _mum_, we find that the "Yes'm" of Sally to her mistress is originally equivalent to "Yes, my exalted," or "Yes, your highness." Throughout, therefore, the genesis of words of honour has been the same. Just as with the Jews and with the Romans, has it been with the modern Europeans. Tracing these everyday names to their primitive significations of _lord_ and _king_, and remembering that in aboriginal societies these were applied only to the gods and their descendants, we arrive at the conclusion that our familiar _Sir_ and _Monsieur_ are, in their primary and expanded meanings, terms of adoration.