~ 
1800 ] The Enquirer, No. XXI. | : 339 
dern times it has been afferted, that va- 
Jour, honour, and good fenfe, have been 
hereditary in certain families; and epi- 
taphs have told of noble breeds of which 
«* all the males were brave, and all the 
females virtuous.” But in a long line, 
fo many accidents may happen to interrupt 
the ftream of propagated excellencies, that 
I prefume the credit of fuch pretenfions is 
quite at anend. Nor do I fuppofe, that 
the inheritors of high blood would them- 
felves be forward to put in claims which 
might excite too large expectations in the 
public. Who would venture to profefs 
himfelf an heir to the political wifdom of 
a Ceoil, or the military talents of a 
Churchill? The truth is, that natural 
perfetions of mind and body are indif- 
ferently the lot of all conditions of. life ; 
and the chance is juft the fame, as far as 
birth is concerned, that a Bacon ora 
Newton fhould honour the palace or the 
cottage. Every thing further is the refult 
of education; and whether that of the 
great be beft adapted to carry the human 
fpecies to its higheft degree of perfection, 
may be left to the great themfelves to de- 
termine. Scarcely any man, therefore, 'is 
probably proud of his defcent on the fup- 
pofition, that he has derived from it moral 
or intellectual endowments -fuperior to 
thofe of mankind in general. And with 
re{pect to the body, they who talk, almoft 
-as if they underftood it literally, of the 
purity of the blood which flows in their 
veins, muft be perpetually recalled from 
the pleafing delufion, by the homelinefs, 
deformities, and hereditary difeafes, which 
render fo many noble races extremely bad 
{fpscimens of the human form divine. 
_ The fuppofed participation in the merits 
of anceftors is next to be confidered as a 
ground of family pride. - 
The public gratitude, which, in its dif- 
plays, has frequently comprehended with 
the perfon of a public benefaétor thofe of 
his children, and even of his remote de- 
{cendants, has given a fanétion to this 
notion of tranfmitted merit, and proved it 
to have a foundation in human nature. 
Yet reafon and reflexion muft teach, that 
every tribute paid by fociety on this ac- 
count, has its juft bounds; that prefent 
demerit may cancel all the claims of patt 
defert ; and that even length of time may 
obliterate the debt. Wecan f{carcely con- 
ceive of fervices fo great, that they may. 
not be repafti in honour and emolument, 
if not to the perfon himfelf, at leaft to his 
immediate reprefentatives ; and it is evi- 
dent, that, were public rewards to be per- 
petuated to all pofterity, future generations 
would find the fock anticipated, by which 
they fhould remunerate benefits of their 
own growth. In order to eftablith a jut 
title tothe honours aflociated with a nob’e 
name, along with the name there fhould 
be a tranfmuflion of a portion of the cha- 
ra¢ter and principles which firft made it 
the objeét of refpect. If a-race of Pub- 
licolas think ita duty affixed to their ap- 
pellation, to continue from age to age the 
guardians of the people’s rights, they will 
continue entitled to their attachment and 
veneration; but if they dwindle down to 
the fatellites of a’ court, how fhall they 
_dare to arrogate ref{pect on account of their 
relation to anceftors whofe principles they 
have renounced, and whole aftions, by 
their own conduct, they difavow? ‘No 
confideration, indeed, ought to be more 
awful, or even oppreffive to the mind, than 
‘that of being the reprefentative of men 
whofe remembrance will ever live in the 
breafts of their admiring countrymen: for 
what is its effect, but that of providing a 
perpetual fund for humiliating compari- 
fons? This is the topic particularly dwelt 
upon, with a mixture of humour and in- 
dignation, by the manly Juvenal, in his 
energetic fatire upon nobility. 
But the claim to public reverence on ace 
count of the fignal merits of anceftors, be 
it well or ill-founded, cannot poflibly come 
within the view of a great majority of thofe 
who boalt of family. From the auguft 
genealogies of kings and empérors, down 
to the pedigrees of country fquires, how 
few are there which cant exhibit charafters 
of diftinguifhed virtue or abilities, or to 
whom their country can juftly be reckoned 
indebted. If names now and then occur, 
which the hiftorian has deigned to record 
among the actors in memorable events, it 
is to be confidered, that high ftations are 
neceflarily the lot of property and in- 
fluence; and that tranfaétions of great 
moment, which are conducted by the 
united exertions of many, are often af- 
cribed to an individual, who had no other 
fhare in them, than that of being the no- 
minal head. Battles are gained, and ne- 
gotiations brought to effect, under the 
aufpices of perféns of rank, in whofe abi- 
lities perhaps not the leaft confidence is 
placed even by thofe who employ them. 
They merely ferve for the decoration ; 
while all the real bufinefs is done by men 
not highly born enough to difpenfe with 
profeffional knowledge. Thus the brave 
and fkilful Chevert obtained a viétory and 
a marfhal’s flaff for the prince de Sonbife; 
concerning which it was wittily faid inan 
epigram, ‘* Who fhoa!ld have the ftaff, 
Caer but 
