Originally, decapitation was indiscriminately inflicted on all criminals condemned to death; at a later period, however, it became the particular privilege of the nobility, who submitted to it without any feeling of degradation.

The degradation of kings and princes was carried out in a public manner by shaving their heads and sending them into a monastery; on their regaining their rights and their authority, their hair was always allowed to grow again.

It humiliated him like a physical degradation.

I find a liberal feeling in the younger part of them, and a refinement of manners, which will redeem the character of art from the degradation to which a few dissipated interlopers have, temporarily, reduced it.

Still worse, a moral degradation Thus cradled, vitiates the race; Among the rising generation A lust for slaughter grows apace.

"There's beggary in the love that can be reckoned," and degradation in the dignity that has to be preserved.

" Kimberley went away in a degradation of soul.

It was £300 Berkeley wanted, and he had already borrowed £100 from a frienda shameless piece of degradation in Cecil's code.

In any event, however, the principle involved in the new aspect which has been given to the controversy is so vitally important to the independent administration of the Government that it can neither be surrendered nor compromitted without national degradation.

They are felt in the uneasiness and conscious degradation of the slave, and in the shame and remorse which the master betrays in his reluctant and desperate efforts to defend himself.

A lady in North Carolina remarked to a friend of mine, about eighteen months since, "Northerners know nothing at all about slavery; they think it is perpetual bondage only; but of the depth of degradation that word involves, they have no conception; if they had, they would never cease their efforts until so horrible a system was overthrown."

Add to this, the mental ignorance, and moral degradation; the daily separations of kindred, the revelries of lust, the lacerations and baptisms of blood, sanctioned by the laws of the South, and patronized by its pubic sentiment.

In addition to this degradation, the book-keepers suffered great hardships.

The first of August was observed by the people so decently and devoutly, and with such manifestations of subdued, yet grateful feeling, that they appeared more like a select class of Christians celebrating some holy day of their church, than a race but recently converted from idolatry, and who were just emerging from the pollutions and degradation of slavery.

To remain in his parish meant a constant degradation of himself.

Although I am convinced your ideas and mine thoroughly coincide as to the real cause of man's bitter degradation, yet I fear human means to redeem him are now fruitless.

to me thou hast proved indeed the worst of step-mothers; endowed me with wishes insatiate, and sunk me in never-ending degradation!"

The bile of the author rises with his subject, and a few pages further on he throws it off in the following beautiful sentence:"Better would it be for the honour of the English nation if they had been born in the degradation, as they are endued with the propensities, of the modern Egyptians.

He tells them, "It is under control of the English Government, and subject to the same degradation as Westminster, St. Paul's, &c."Starting from this basis, which only wants truth to make it solid, he complains of "the meanness of reducing the nation to the condition of a common showman;" the trifling mistake of confounding public and private property moves his democratic chivalry, and he takes up the cudgels for the masses.

There is a degree of degradation which changes scorn into pity, and makes us sincerely sympathize with those whom we most heartily despise."

Systematically discourage any individual or class, from birth to death, and they learn, in nine cases out of ten, to acquiesce in their degradation, if not to claim it as a crown of glory.

We have shown that woman's inferiority in special achievements, so far as it exists, is a fact of small importance, because it is merely a corollary from her historic position of degradation.

All which was, no doubt, in the majority of cases, true, and the degradation of woman was simply a part of a system, which has indeed had its day, but has bequeathed its associations.

With some apparent inconsistency, we commonly write the word Gentiles with a capital, but pagans, heathens, and negroes, without: thus custom has marked these names with degradation.

The sympathies of an affectionate wife, in his misery and degradation, tend to heighten the interest, and point the moral of the story; his last interview with the partner of his woe is admirably drawn, as are some caustic observations on that most disgusting of all scenesa public execution and its repulsive orgies.