FRANCIS WILLUGHBY. 133 



honourable and kind towards his less distinguished 

 neighbours, as the fee-simple of that station, and 

 of which he is " seized and his heirs for ever ;" 

 then will no wisely-judging wellwisher of society 

 desire to see this distinction annihilated, since 

 every motive to good conduct, like every thread 

 in the cable, is valuable as conducive to the 

 general result. If ever any man had temptations 

 to the pride of birth, it was Mr Willughby, the 

 authentic and unbroken records of whose family 

 carry his descent, by his grandfather's side, up to 

 the Conquest, through a succession scarcely ever 

 descending, for any great length of time, beneath 

 the level of nobility, and including in its progress 

 alliances with the chief sovereigns of Europe. 

 But Mr Willughby was aware, that, as far as 

 concerned himself, this was an accidental distinc- 

 tion, that he derived no worthiness from the 

 virtues of his ancestors, and that, as ever he would 

 support the hereditary honours of his family, 

 and avoid those honours becoming a reproach 

 to himself, he must ** labour after what might 

 render him more deservedly honourable, and 

 more truly to be called his own, as being obtained 

 by the concurrence at least of his own endea- 

 vours." His estimate of the advantages of fortune 

 were equally just. He must have experienced 

 the value of competency, as affording scope and 

 efficiency to genius, by enabling its possessor to 

 obtain, in the first instance, the best kind of edu- 

 cation, and ever afterwards to remove all impe- 

 diments to his researches. 



