Why did Honor de Balzac describe policing as the noblest of the professions?
In France, in the early part of the 19th Century, Honor de Balzac described policing as the noblest of the professions because, as he said, the police officer plays the roles of the three other noblest professions (as he described them) simultaneously: the soldier, the priest and the artist. I’ve not been able to discover why de Balzac regarded the soldier, the priest and the artist as noble professions. I can only assume it is because the soldier protects the community, the priest exercises compassion and forgiveness and the artist employs creativity and imagination to convey messages. If this is true, then it seems to me that the police officer is greatly ennobled by these qualities.
