lowed to form a superior order in
the state, education and example should always, and will often, produce
among them a dignity of sentiment and propriety of conduct, which is
guarded from dishonour by their own and the public esteem. If we read
of some illustrious line so ancient that it has no beginning, so worthy
that it ought to have no end, we sympathize in its various fortunes; nor
can we blame the generous enthusiasm, or even the harmless vanity, of
those who are allied to the honours of its name. For my own part, could
I draw my pedigree from a general, a statesman, or a celebrated author,
I should study their lives with the diligence of filial love. In
the investigation of past events, our curiosity is stimulated by the
immediate or indirect reference to ourselves; but in the estimate of
honour we should learn to value the gifts of Nature above those of
Fortune; to esteem in our ancestors the qualities that best promote the
interests of society; and to pronounce the descendant of a king less
truly noble than the offspring of a man of genius, whose writings will
instruct or delight the latest posterity. The family of Confucius is, in
my opinion, the most illustrious in the world. After a painful ascent of
eight or ten centuries, our barons and princes of Europe are lost in the
darkness of the middle ages; but, in the vast equality of the empire of
China, the posterity of Confucius have maintained, above two thousand
two hundred years, their peaceful honours and perpetual succession. The
chief of the family is still revered, by the sovereign and the people,
as the lively image of the wisest of mankind. The nobility of
the Spencers has been illustrated and enriched by the trophies of
Marlborough; but I exhort them to consider the "Fairy Queen" as the most
precious jewel of their coronet. I have exposed my private feelings, as
I shall always do, without scruple or reserve. That these sentiments are
just, or at least natural, I am inclined to believe, since I do not
feel myself interested in the cause; for I can derive from my ancestors
neither glory nor shame.

Yet a sincere and simple narrative of my own life may amuse some of my
leisure hours; but it will subject me, and perhaps with justice, to the
imputation of vanity. I may judge, however, from the experience both
of past and of the present times, that the public are always curious to
know the men, who have left behind them any image of their minds:
the most sc