lU THE RURAL SOCRATES. 



Farther Anecdotes concerning the Family q/^Pincou, men- 

 tioned by the Marquis de Mirabeaii^ collected by ths 

 French Tranjlator, 



IN the ymirnal Economique for Detcmber 1755, ^^'^ 

 two memoirs on the origin of the Pincou family. — 1 con- 

 ceive that an abftra£t of them may be agreeable to thofe 

 readers who have not had an opportunity of meeting 

 with the journal. The fa «Sls related are too analogous 

 to the hifiory of Kliyogg for me to fear impropriety in 

 placing them together. 



*' At fome leagues diflance from the town of Thiers 



* in Auvergne, is a very habitable caflle ; the feat of a 



* fmall barony, called Saudon. — About four hundred 



* years fince it was purchafed by a numerous family of 



* peafants, in whole polTeliion it has continued heredita- 



* ry to this day. — This family obtained, at the fame 

 ^ time, a perpetual difpenfation from the pope to marry 



* within certain degrees where marriages are otherwise 



* deemed unlawful. Such a mark of confideration is a 

 ' proof of the virtuous regulations that then fubfifled 

 ' amongfl thefe honed: people ; and like wife of their 

 ' apprebenfions of relaxing their difcipline and man- 



* ners, jQiould they marry out of their own family* 



' They have a tradition, which carries their origin 



* much higher ; namely, that eleven hundred years ago, 



* one of their anceflors, a man of great wealth, the fa- 



* ther of a numerous progeny, and advanced in years, 

 ' gave his children to underftand : '* That their way of 

 *' living mufi; be greatly diminiihed, if, after his death, 

 *^ they (hould, as was cuftomary, divide his fortune in- 

 *' to feparate portions ; and that, if they were defirous 

 ''to be wifer than the generality of men, they mufl 

 *' live in the fame united flate as under his parental 

 *' roof.*' — They did not fail to raife many objcdlious 



* to tljis propofal ; and the mod: weighty one was, the 



* privation of an authority, fuch as he had exercifed, and 



* which his fuperior wifdom rendered fo refpcdable. — 



