mentioned, in a new, and, I think, not disagreeable light. • Mr. SPCTATOR, WER TERE the genealogy of every family referved, there would probably be no man valued or defpifed on account of his birth. There is scarce a beggar in the streets, who would not find him⚫ felf lineally defcended from fome great man; nor any one of the highest title, who would not difcover feveral bafe and indigent perfons among his ancestors. It would be a pleafant entertain⚫ment to fee one pedigree of men appear together, under the fame characters they bore when they acted their refpective parts among the living. Suppofe therefore, a gentleman, full of his illu. • ftrious family, fhould, in the fame manner as Virgil makes Eneas look over his defcendents, fee the whole line of his progenitors pafs in a review ⚫ before his eyes, with how many varying paffions would he behold fhepherds and foldiers, ftatefmen and artificers, princes and beggars, walk in the proceffion of five thousand years! How would • his heart fink or flutter at the feveral fports of fortune in a fcene fo diverfified with rags and purple, handicraft tools and fcepters, enfigns of dignity and emblems of difgrace; and how would his fears and apprehenfions, his transports and mortifications, fucceed one another, as the line of his genealogy appeared bright or obfcure? In most of the pedigrees hung up in old manfion-houfes, you are fure to find the firft in the catalogue a great ftatefman, or a foldier with an honourable commiffion. The honeft artificer that begot him, and all his frugal ancestors before him, are torn, off from the top of the register; and you are not left to imagine, that the noble founder of the family ever had a father. Were we to trace many boasted Hines farther backwards, · we we fhould lose them in a mob of tradesmen, or a croud of ruftics, without hope of feeing them emerge again: Not unlike the old Appian way, which after having run many miles in length, lo• fes itself in a bog. I lately made a vifit to an old country gentleman, who is very far gone in this fort of Family Madness. I found him in his ftudy perufing an old register of his family, which he had juft then ← discovered, as it was branched out in the form of a tree, upon a fkin of parchment. Having the ⚫ honour to have some of his blood in my veins, he • permitted me to caft my eye over the boughs of this venerable plant; and asked my advice in the ⚫ reforming of fome of the fuperfluous branches. We paffed flightly over three or four of our 'immediate forefathers, whom we knew by tradition, but were foon ftopped by an Alderman of London, who, I perceived, made my kinfman's heart go pit-a-pat. His confufion increafed when ⚫ he found the Alderman's father to be a grafier; but he recovered his fright upon feeing Juftice of the Quorum at the end of his titles. Things went on pretty well, as we threw our eyes occafionally 6 over the tree, when unfortunately he perceived a merchant-taylor perched on a bough, who was faid greatly to have increafed the eftate; he was juft a going to cut him off, if he had not feen Gent. after the name of his fon; who was record⚫ed to have mortgaged one of the manors his honeft father had purchased. A weaver who was • burned for his religion in the reign of Queen Mary, was pruned away without mercy; as was likewife a yeoman, who died of a fall from his own But great was our triumph in one of the blood who was beheaded for high treafon : • Which nevertheless was not a little allayed by another of our ancestors, who was hanged for stealing of sheep. The expectations of my good cou cart. • fin . fin were wonderfully raised by a match into the family of a knight, but unfortunately for us this • branch proved barren: On the other hand Mar◄ gery the milk-maid being twined round a bough, it flourished out into fo many fhoots, and bent with fo much fruit, that the old gentleman was quite out of countenance. To comfort me under. this difgrace, he fingled out a branch ten times more fruitful than the other, which he told me 'he valued more than any in the tree, and bid me be ' of good comfort. This enormous bough was a graft out of a Welf heiress, with fo many Ap's" upon it that it it might have made a little grove by itself. From the trunk of the pedigree, which was chiefly compofed of labourers and thepherds, arofe a huge sprout of farmers; this was branched out into yeomen; and ended in a fheriff of the county; who was knighted for his good fervice 'to the crown, in bringing up an addrefs. Several of the names that feemed to difparage the family, being looked upon as mistakes, were lopped off as rotten or withered; as, on the contrary, no fmall number appearing without any titles, my coufin, to fupply the defects of the manufcript, added Efq; at the end of each of them. This tree fo pruned, dreffed, and cultivated, was, within a few days, tranfplanted into a large fheet of vellum, and placed in the great hall, where it attracts the veneration of his tenants e، very Sunday morning, while they wait until his worfhip is ready to go to church; wondering that a man, who had fo many fathers before him, fhould not be made a knight, or at least a juftice of the peace.' FRIDAY, No 613. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29. Studiis florentem ignobilis etí. VIRG. Georg. iv. ver. 564. Affecting ftudies of lefs noify praife. DRYDEN. IT is reckoned a piece of ill-breeding for one man to ingrofs the whole talk to himfelf. For this reafon, fince I keep three vifiting days in the week, I am content now and then to let my friends put in a word. There are feveral advantages hereby ac cruing both to my readers and myself. As firft, young and modeft writers have an opportunity of getting into print: Again, the town enjoys the pleasure of variety; and pofterity will fee the humour of the prefent age, by the help of thefe little lights into private and domeftic life. The benefits I receive from thence, are fuch as thefe; I gain more time for future fpeculations; pick up hints which I improve for the publick good; give advice; redrefs grievances; and, by leaving commodious fpaces between the feveral letters that I print, furnish out a Spectator with little labour and great oftentation. • Mr. SPECTATOR, I WAS mightily pleafed with your speculation of Friday. Your fentiments are noble, and the whole worked up in fuch a manner, as cannot but ftrike upon every reader. But give me leave to make this remark; That while you write fo pathetically on contentment, and a retired life, you' footh the paffion of melancholy, and deprefs the. mind from actions truly glorious. Titles and honours are the reward of virtue: We therefore ought to be affected with them : And though light light minds are too much puffed up with exterior pomp, yet I cannot fee why it is not as truly philofophical, to admire the glowing ruby, or the 'fparkling green of an emerald, as the fainter and lefs permanent beauties of a rofe or a myrtle. If there are men of extraordinary capacities who lie concealed from the world, I fhould impute it to them as a blot in their character, did not I believe it owing to the meannefs of their fortune rather than of their fpirit. Cowley, who tells the ftory of Aglaus with so much pleasure, was no ftranger to courts, nor infenfibie of praife. What fball I do to be for ever known, And make the age to come my own? ̈` am · was the refult of a laudable ambition. It was not until after frequent difappointments, that he termed himfelf the melancholy Cowley; and he praised folitude, when he difpaired of shining in a court. The foul of a man is an active principle. He therefore, who withdraws from the fcene before he has played his part, ought to be hiffed off the ftage, and cannot be deemed virtuous, because he refufes to answer his end. I must own I 'fired with an honest ambition to imitate every illuftrious example. The battles of Blenheim and • Ramillies have more than once made me wish myfelf a foldier. And when I have feen those actions fo nobly celebrated by our poets, I have fecretly afpired to be one of that diftinguished clafs. But in vain I wish, in vain 1 pant with the defire of action. I am chained down in obfcurity, and the only pleafure I can take is in feeing fo many brighter geniufes join their friendly lights, to add to the splendor of the throne. Farewel then, dear Spec, and believe me to be, with great emulation and no envy, Your profeffed admirer, WILL HOPELESS." |