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. 
