N° 612. Wednesday, October 27. Murranum hic atavos & avorum antiqua fonantem I Virg. T is highly laudable to pay Refpect to Men who are defcended from worthy Ancestors, not only out of Gratitude to thofe who have done Good to Mankind, but as it is an Encouragement to others to follow their Example. But this is an Honour to be received, not demanded, by the Defcendants of great Men; and they who are apt to remind us of their Ancestors, only put us upon making Comparisons to their own Difadvantage. There is fome Pretence for boafting of Wit, Beauty, Strength or Wealth, because the Communication of them may give Pleasure or Profit to others; but we can have no Merit, nor ought we to claim any Refpect, because our Fathers acted well, whether we would or no. THE following Letter ridicules the Folly I have mentioned in a new, and, I think, not difagreeable Light.. Mr. SPECTATOR, WERE the Genealogy of every Family pre ferved, there would probably be no Man valued or defpifed on Account of his Birth. There is fcarce a Beggar in the Streets, who would not find himself lineally defcended from fome great Man; nor any one of the higheft Title, who would ⚫ not difcover feveral bafe and indigent Perfons among his Ancestors. It would be a pleafant Entertainment to fee one Pedigree of Men appear together, under the the fame Characters they bore when they acted their respective Parts among the Living. Suppofe ⚫ therefore a Gentleman, full of his illuftrious Family, fhould, in the fame manner as Virgil makes Eneas • look over his Defcendants, fee the whole Line of his Progenitors pafs in Review before his Eyes? With how many varying Paffions would he behold Shepherds and Soldiers, States-men and Artificers,' Princes and Beggars, walk in the Proceffion of five thousand Years! How would his Heart fink or flutter at the feveral Sports of Fortune in a Scene fo diverfified with Rags and Purple, Handicraft Tools and Sceptres, Enfigns of Dignity and Emblems of Difgrace; and how would his Fears and Apprehenfions, his Transports and Mortifications, fucceed one another, as the Line of his Genealogy appear'd brightB or obfcure? IN most of the Pedigrees hung up in old Manfion Houses, you are fure to find the firft in the Catalogue a great Statesman, or a Soldier with an honourable Commiffion. The honeft Artificer that ⚫ begot him, and all his frugal Ancestors before him, are torn off from the Top of the Register, and you are not left to imagine, that the noble Founder of the Family ever had a Father. Were we to trace many boafted Lines farther backwards, we fhould lose them in a Mob of Tradeffen, or a • Crowd of Rufticks, without hope of feeing them emerge again: Not unlike the old Appian way, which, after having run many Miles in Length, lofes ⚫it felf in a Bog. Ilately made a Vifit to an old Country Gentleman, who is very far gone in this fort of Family-Madness. I found him in his Study perufing an old Regifter of his Family, which he had juft then difcovered, as it was branched out in the Form of a Tree, upon a Skin of Parchment. Having the Honour to have fome of his Blood". in my Veins, he permitted me to caft my Eye over the Boughs of this venerable Plant; and asked my K. 5. Advice • Advice in the Reforming of fome of the fuperfluous Branches. 6 WE paffed flightly over three or four of our immediate Fore-fathers, whom we knew by Tradi-. ⚫tion, but were foon ftopped by an Alderman of London, who, I perceived, made my Kinsman's Heart go pit-a-pat. His Confufion increased when he found the Alderman's Father to be a Grafier; but he recovered his Fright upon feeing Justice of the Quorum at the end of his Titles. Things went on pretty well, as we threw our Eyes occafionally o-ver the Tree, when unfortunately he perceived a Merchant-Tailor perched on a Bough, who was faid greatly to have encreased the Eftate; he was just a going to cut him off, if he had not feen Gent. after the Name of his Son; who was recorded to have mortgaged one of the Manors his honest Father had purchafed A Weaver, who was burnt for his Religion in the Reign of Queen Mary, was pruned away without Mercy; as was likewife a Yeoman, who died of a Fall from his own Cart. But great was our Triumph in one of the Blood who was beheaded for High-Treafon; which nevertheless was not a little allayed by another of our Ancestors who was hanged for ftealing Sheep. The Expectations of my good Coufin were wonderfully raised by a Match into the Family of a Knight, but unfortunately for us this Branch proved barren: On the o⚫ther hand Margery the Milk-maid being twined round a Bough, it flourished out into fo many Shoots, and bent with fo much Fruit, that the old Gentleman ⚫ was quite out of Countenance. To Comfort me, ' under this Difgrace, he fingled out a Branch ten • times more fruittul than the other, which, he told me, he valued more than any in the Tree, and bad 'me be of good Comfort. This enormous Bough was a Graft out of a Welch Heiress, with fo many Ap's upon it that it might have made a little Grove by it felf. From the Trunk of the Pedigree, which was chiefly compofed of Labourers and Shepherds,. 6 ⚫ arofe arofe a huge Sprout of Farmers; this was branched out into Yeomen; and ended in a Sheriff of the County, who was Knighted for his good Service to the Crown, in bringing up an Addrefs. Several of the Names that feemed to difparage the Family, being looked upon as Miftakes, were lopped off as rot⚫ ten or withered; as, on the contrary, no fmall Number appearing without any Titles, my Coufin, to fupply the Defects of the Manufcript, added Efq; at the End of each of them. THIS Tree fo pruned, dreffed, and cultivated, was, within few Days, tranfplanted into a large • Sheet of Vellum and placed in the great Hall, where • it attracts the Veneration of his Tenants every Simday Morning, while they wait till his Worship is ready to go to Church; wondering that a Man who had fo many Fathers before him, fhould not be 'made a Knight, or at least a Justice of the Peace. N° 613. Friday, October 29. I -Studiis florentem ignobilis oti. Virg. T is reckoned a Piece of Ill-breeding for one Man to engrofs the whole Talk to himfelf. For this Reafon, fince I keep three Vifiting-Days in the Week, I am content now and then to Tet my Friends put in a Word. There are feveral Advantages hereby accruing both to my Readers and my felf. As first, Young and modeft Writers have an Opportunity of getting into Print: Again, The Town enjoys the Pleasure of Variety; and Pofterity will fee the Humour of the prefent Age, by the help of thefe Little Lights into private and domeftick Life. The Benefits I receive from thence, are fuch as thefe: I gain more Time for future Speculations; Pick up Hints which I improve for the publick Good; give Advice; redress Gries Grievances; and, by leaving commodious Spaces be tween the feveral Letters that I print, furnish out a Spectator with little Labour and great Oftentation.c Mr. SPECTATOR, I Was mightily pleafed with your Speculation of Friday. Your Sentiments are Noble, and the ⚫ whole worked up in fuch a manner, as cannot but ftrike upon every Reader. But give me leave to make this Remark: That while you write fo Pathetically on Contentment, and a retired Life, you footh the Paffion of Melancholy, and deprefs the Mind from Actions truly Glorious. Titles and Honours are the Reward of Virtue: We therefore ought to be affected with them: And tho' light Minds are too much puffed up with exterior Pomp, yet I cannot fee why it is not as truly Philofophical, to admire the glowing Ruby, or the fparkling Green of an Emerald, as the fainter and lefs permanent Beauties of a Rofe or a Myrtle. If there are Men of extraordinary Capacities who lye concealed from the World, I fhould impute it to them as a Blot in their Character, did not I believe it owing to the • Meannefs of their Fortune rather than of their Spi rit. Cowley, who tells the Story of Aglais with fo much Pleasure, was no Stranger to Courts, nor infenfible of Praife.. What shall I do to be for ever known, was the Refult of a laudable Ambition. It was not ⚫ firedi |