They will incline rather to the persuasion that this prestige value is a distinctive attribute, of a unique order, intrinsic to their own persons.

But, plainly, any such detached line of magnates, notables, kings and mandarins, resting their notability on nothing more substantial than a slightly sub-normal intelligence and a moderately scrofulous habit of body could not long continue to command that eager deference that is accounted their due.

Such a picture of majesty would be sadly out of drawing.

There is little conviction and no great dignity to be drawn from the unaided pronouncement: "We're here because, We're here because, We're here because We're here," even when the doggerel is duly given the rhetorical benefit of a "Tenure by the Grace of God." The personages that carry this dignity require the backing of a determined and patriotic populace in support of their prestige value, and they commonly have no great difficulty in procuring it.

And their prestige value is, in effect, proportioned to the volume of material resources and patriotic credulity that can be drawn on for its assertion.