64 TITLES. 



Peeragi. Ages, marriages, children, names, site^r, 

 professions, offices, follow each other in the true 

 nobility style. 



<' Stuck o'er with titles and hung round with string?, 



That thou may'st be by kings or w s of kings : 



Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race, 

 In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece : 

 But by your father's worth if your's you rate. 

 Count me those only who are good and great- 

 Go ! if your ancient but ignoble blood, 

 Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood. 

 Go ! and pretend your family is young, 

 ?sor own your fathers have been fools so long. 

 What can eanoble sots, or slaves, or cowards ? 

 Alas ! not all the blood of all the Howards." 



When I was on the canal^ I frequently associa- 

 ted my views with moral considerations, and stray- 

 into allegorical representations in the John Bun- 

 yan style. When I saw some boats ascending the 

 locks — others descending, and many keeping on 

 in the even tenor of their way, I witnessed a true 

 picture of human sooiety — which constantly exhi- 

 bits the rise and fall of individuals, and a vast as- 

 semblage of contemporaneous, concurrent and 

 counteracting exertions to attain felicity and glo- 

 ry. With most men it is much easier to pull 

 down those above them, than to ascend to the 

 same level. The political ostracisms of the Gre- 

 cian democracies, and the banishment of illustri- 

 ous men in the Roman republic, are a severe 



