the honourable Rewards of honourable Actions, they do honour to their virtuous and honourable Defcendants ; but if they were the Rewards of fuccessful Villany, Treachery, or Treafon, Venality or Corruption, or an infamous Proftitution of public Faith and Character, to the Vices and Follies of a Court, they leave a Stain and a Blot upon the Bearer, which defcends, without any real Diminution of Infamy or Guilt, to the latest Posterity. But you will fay, it is poffible there may arife, in fuch a Family, a Man of fuperior Merit and Virtues who may retrieve its Honour, by being really worthy of all the undeserved Distinctions bestowed upon his worthlefs Ancestors. Doubtless this may be, and often is, the Cafe; but then this ftil returns to the old Foundation of perfonal Merit, as the only real and natural Fountain of Honour. Such a Perfon, as this View of the Cafe supposes, is not honourable because of his Defcent from fuch a Stock, but because he has a fufficient Fund of Merit within himself, which would make him truly honourable, though he had sprung from the Dregs of the People. Perfonal Merit, therefore, founded in true Greatness of Soul, and real Virtue, always was, and always will be, the fole Foundation of Honour. Nobles have been seen to dishonour their Titles by bafe and abject Vices, and Perfons of mean Extraction have advanced and ennobled their Families by their great and excellent Qualities: And as it is more bleffed to give than to receive, fo it is more honourable and glorious to leave Honours to our Pofterity, than to receive them from our Predeceffors, to be the Authors and Founders of 'our own Nobility, and, to use the Expreffion of Tiberius, recorded by Tacitus, Annal. Lib. II. to be born of of one's Self, when he was endeavouring to palliate the Defect of Birth in Curtius Rufus, who was, in every other respect, a very great Man, Curtius Rufus videtur mihi ex fe natus. The first Founders of every honourable Family must have been fuch; muft have raised themselves from an inferior State of Obscurity and Poverty, muft have been the Descendants of mean and ignoble Progenitors, unless we could fuppofe that the first great Man of the Family fprung out of the Earth, or dropt out of the Clouds, with all his Implements of Honour about him, laden with fuch a Stock of Titles, Coronets, Ribbands, and what not, as might be distributed among all his Pofterity, from Generation to Generation. Were the Genealogy of every Family, from the Flood down to this prefent Time, faithfully preserved, there would, probably, be no Man valued, or despised, on account of his Birth; there would not be a Beggar in the Street, or a Scoundrel in Newgate, but would find himself lineally defcended from great Men: And it is no improbable Conjecture, that the poor Negroes, whom fome of our Planters hardly confider as Part of our Species, are lineally defcended from the Father of the Faithful, who was the Friend of God, (Ifa. xli. 8.) Nor is there in the World a Family fo rich, as not to have some poor; or fo noble and honourable, as not to have some vicious, lewd, lazy, worthless Branches defcended from it, if not the Founders of it.-I was once at a noble Lord's Table, where a fawning Parafite was offering up a good deal of this naufeous Family Incense, in return for a good Dinner, which he had just received. My Lord, who had a Soul too great, and a Tafte too delicate, to relish such fulfome Flattery, Flattery, cut him short with this rough fenfible Rebuke, Pr'ythee Ned, faid he, let us have no more of this Stuff. That is, in my Opinion, the most honourable Family, that has the feweft R-gues and Wh-res in it. It would, doubtless, be a very entertaining Sight, to see the Progenitors of any one Family in the World, for two or three thousand Years backward, paffing in Review, with all their proper Enfigns of Dignity, or Marks of Infamy, all the proper Diftinctions of Honour or Dishonour, Virtue or Vice, Riches or Poverty. How many Knaves and Fools, as well as Heroes and Philofophers, would appear in fo long a Descent! How many different Scenes of Riches and Poverty, Scythes and Sceptres, Rags and Ribbands, Swords, Spades, and Pick-axes, &c. would diverfify the motley Proceffion! I was t'other Day to vifit my honoured Friend and Kinfman Leoline ap Rhees, ap Shenken, ap Howell, ap Tudor, ap Gurgoin, Esq; who, like a primitive Hero and Philosopher, supports the Dignity of the most antient Family in the World upon a pretty patrimonial Eftate of 15 per Annum, which he boasts has never been increased by Ufury or Trade, by Rapine or Fraud, or diminished by Luxury, for above seven hundred Years laft paft. His chief Riches and Glory confift in a large Roll of Parchment, that will almost cover one Quarter of his Eftate, in which he boafts a Pe-digree, rifing up to near an hundred Years after the Flood, though my good Coufin verily believes it might be proved, that he defcended in a direct Line from Noah himfelf, and if that could be fairly made out, it would follow that he was lineally defcended from Adam; and though any reasonable Man would think that that as much as, in Confcience, he could expect or defire; yet, as my Coufin never makes any boast of this great Anceftor, he plainly infinuates that his Family fubfifted long before that pretended Father of Mankind was fo much as thought of. As this Parchment-tree is very antient, and the Rats have made fome Depredations upon the Family, which have occafioned many Breaks and Mutilations in the Pedigree, Care has been taken, from time to time, to fupply the feveral Vacancies with fuch Characters as may be fuppofed to do most Honour to the venerable Stock, and are most fit to appear in a Genealogy of Heroes. My Coufin, to fay the Truth, is a complete Perfon of Honour. He knows how to fupport the Dignity of his Character, and, at the fame time, to fhew, upon proper Occafions, all that Humility and Condefcenfion that are infeparable from good Senfe and true Honour; fo that, though he fcorns to foul his Fingers with the dirty Business of Trade, or puzzle his Brains with the Pedantry of Learning, nor give place to any little, up-ftart, Poft-diluvian Mushroom, who may have raised an Estate by his Hands, or his Brains; yet he will fometimes humble himself so far as to honour them with a Vifit, to accept of a Dinner, or fometimes Half a Crown, only to fhew his Goodnature, and that he is no more above the receiving the Homage and Service of his Inferiors, than the richeft Landlord from the pooreft Tenant, or the greatest Prince from the meaneft Subject; though perhaps he quickly forgets the Favour, and befcoundrels the Man that beftowed it. As he was one Day indulging the Vanity of his Heart among his honourable Ancestors, a Wag in the Company put him in mind of of his Grandfather, who had been hanged for SheepStealing. My Coufin, with a Sigh and a Shrug, acknowledged the Fact; but not without a hearty Curfe upon the Memory of the then reigning Minifter, who, whilft he was lavishing away Honours and Titles, Pofts and Penfions, upon fome that better deferved his Fate, took no Care to prevent the untimely Fall of a truly great Man, by making him at least an Admiral, a General, a Judge, or a PrivyCounsellor. Now, that there is no real, intrinfic, and fubftantial Good in all the Advantages of Birth and Fortune, even Folly itself must confefs. But suppose there were; yet, confidering the uncertain Duration, the precarious Tenure, that they may be forfeited, even in this Life, to the Sentence of Juftice, or the Breath of the People, which alone can keep the Bubble in Play, and prevent its finking into nothing; or if not that, yet we are fure it will die with us; it will then fail us, when we fhall have moft Occafion for Comfort, I mean in the Agonies of Pain and Sickness, and the Hour of Death; no wife Man can think there is any thing valuable in it but the Opportunities and Interest it may give us to do more Good in the World, and promote the Benefit and Happiness of Mankind. Now, whether a Man that doats upon an imaginary Treasure, that only seems to stuff out an imaginary Idea of human Greatnefs, but which can neither make him wifer, nor better; that can neither give Health to his Body, nor Peace to his Mind; that can neither prolong his Life, nor give him Comfort at the Hour of Death, can have any better Pretenfions to VOL. I. I true |