The various kinds of prestige may be grouped under two principal heads: acquired prestige and personal prestige.Acquired prestige is that resulting from name, fortune, and reputation.
It may be independent of personal prestige.Personal prestige, on the contrary, is something essentially peculiar to the individual; it may coexist with reputation, glory, and fortune, or be strengthened by them, but it is perfectly capable of existing in their absence.
Acquired or artificial prestige is much the most common.The mere fact that an individual occupies a certain position, possesses a certain fortune, or bears certain titles, endows him with prestige, however slight his own personal worth.A soldier in uniform, a judge in his robes, always enjoys prestige.Pascal has very properly noted the necessity for judges of robes and wigs.Without them they would be stripped of half their authority.The most unbending socialist is always somewhat impressed by the sight of a prince or a marquis; and the assumption of such titles makes the robbing of tradesmen an easy matter.[18]
[18] The influence of titles, decorations, and uniforms on crowds is to be traced in all countries, even in those in which the sentiment of personal independence is the most strongly developed.I quote in this connection a curious passage from a recent book of travel, on the prestige enjoyed in England by great persons.
"I had observed, under various circumstances, the peculiar sort of intoxication produced in the most reasonable Englishmen by the contact or sight of an English peer.
"Provided his fortune enables him to keep up his rank, he is sure of their affection in advance, and brought into contact with him they are so enchanted as to put up with anything at his hands.
They may be seen to redden with pleasure at his approach, and if he speaks to them their suppressed joy increases their redness, and causes their eyes to gleam with unusual brilliance.Respect for nobility is in their blood, so to speak, as with Spaniards the love of dancing, with Germans that of music, and with Frenchmen the liking for revolutions.Their passion for horses and Shakespeare is less violent, the satisfaction and pride they derive from these sources a less integral part of their being.
There is a considerable sale for books dealing with the peerage, and go where one will they are to be found, like the Bible, in all hands."The prestige of which I have just spoken is exercised by persons;side by side with it may be placed that exercised by opinions, literary and artistic works, &c.Prestige of the latter kind is most often merely the result of accumulated repetitions.
History, literary and artistic history especially, being nothing more than the repetition of identical judgments, which nobody endeavours to verify, every one ends by repeating what he learnt at school, till there come to be names and things which nobody would venture to meddle with.For a modern reader the perusal of Homer results incontestably in immense boredom; but who would venture to say so? The Parthenon, in its present state, is a wretched ruin, utterly destitute of interest, but it is endowed with such prestige that it does not appear to us as it really is, but with all its accompaniment of historic memories.The special characteristic of prestige is to prevent us seeing things as they are and to entirely paralyse our judgment.Crowds always, and individuals as a rule, stand in need of ready-made opinions on all subjects.The popularity of these opinions is independent of the measure of truth or error they contain, and is solely regulated by their prestige.
I now come to personal prestige.Its nature is very different from that of artificial or acquired prestige, with which I have just been concerned.It is a faculty independent of all titles, of all authority, and possessed by a small number of persons whom it enables to exercise a veritably magnetic fascination on those around them, although they are socially their equals, and lack all ordinary means of domination.They force the acceptance of their ideas and sentiments on those about them, and they are obeyed as is the tamer of wild beasts by the animal that could easily devour him.
The great leaders of crowds, such as Buddha, Jesus, Mahomet, Joan of Arc, and Napoleon, have possessed this form of prestige in a high degree, and to this endowment is more particularly due the position they attained.Gods, heroes, and dogmas win their way in the world of their own inward strength.They are not to be discussed: they disappear, indeed, as soon as discussed.
The great personages I have just cited were in possession of their power of fascination long before they became illustrious, and would never have become so without it.It is evident, for instance, that Napoleon at the zenith of his glory enjoyed an immense prestige by the mere fact of his power, but he was already endowed in part with this prestige when he was without power and completely unknown.When, an obscure general, he was sent, thanks to influential protection, to command the army of Italy, he found himself among rough generals who were of a mind to give a hostile reception to the young intruder dispatched them by the Directory.From the very beginning, from the first interview, without the aid of speeches, gestures, or threats, at the first sight of the man who was to become great they were vanquished.Taine furnishes a curious account of this interview taken from contemporary memoirs.
