The wise and good will ever be loved and honored as the glory of human nature. NOBILITY. IT is the saying of a great man, that if we would trace our descents, we should find all slaves to come from princes, and all princes from slaves. But fortune has turned all things topsy turvy, in a long story of revolutions.Though it matters not whence we came, but what we are; nor is the glory of our ancestors any more to our honor, than the wickedness of their posterity is to their disgrace. It matters not from what stock we are descended, so long as we have virtue; for that alone is true nobility. Let high birth triumph! what can be more great! Nothing-but merit in a low estate. To virtue's humblest sons let none prefer Be not deceived by the splendor of riches, to overlook the claim of unassuming merit; prefer not the title to the man. Wealth and titles are only the gifts of fortune; but peace and contentment are the peculiar endowments of a well disposed mind. The greatest ornament of an illustrious life, is modesty and humility, which go a great way in the character of the most exalted princes. Nobility is to be considered only as an imaginary distinction, unless accompanied with the practice of those generous virtues by which it ought to be obtained. Titles of honor conferred upon such as have no personal merit to deserve them, are, at best, but the royal stamp set upon base metal. Titles of honor are like the impressions on coin-which add no value to gold and silver, but only render brass current. Who, Great qualities make great men. says Seneca, is a gentleman? The man whom nature has disposed, and as it were, cut out for virtue. This man is well-born, indeed; for he wants nothing else to make him noble, who has a mind so generous, that he can rise above, and triumph over fortune, let his condition be what it will, He that boasts of his ancestors, confesses he has no virtue of his own. No other person hath lived for our honor; nor ought that to be reputed ours, which was long before we had a being; for what advantage can it be to a blind man that his parents had good eyes? Does he see one whit the better? This one advantage is observable in being nobly born, that it makes men sensible they are allied to virtue, and lays stronger obligations on them, not to degenerate from the excellencies of their ancestors. There is no nobility like that of a great heart; for it never stoops to artifice, nor is wanting in good offices, where they are sea sonable. There is a nobility without heraldry. There is no true glory, no true greatness without virtue; without which we do but abuse all the good things we have, whether they be great or little, false or real. makes a man take up with ancestors, without endeavoring to acquire any himself. A high pedigree the virtues of his Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible. Vice is infamous, though in a prince; and virtue honorable, though in a peasant. Men in former ages, though simple and plain, were great in themselves, and independent in a thousand things, which are since invented to supply, perhaps, that true greatness which is now extinct. We may observe some of our noble countrymen, who come with high advantage and a worthy character into public. But ere they have long engaged in it, their worth unhappily becomes venal. Equipage, titles, precediences, staffs, ribands, and such like glittering N ware, are taken in exchange for inward merit and true honor. They may be induced to change their honest measures, and sacrifice their cause and friends to an imaginary interest; and, after this, act farces as they think fit, and hear qualities and virtues assigned to them, under the titles of graces, excellencies, and the rest of this mock praise, and mimical appellation. They may even, with serious looks, be told of honor and worth, their principles and their country; but must be sensible that the world knows better, and that their few friends and admirers, have either a very shallow sense, or a very profound hypocrisy. All things have some kind of standard, by which the natural goodness of them is to be measured. We do not, therefore, esteem a ship to be good because she is curiously carved, painted, and gilded; but because she is fitted for all the purposes of navigation, which is the proper end of a ship. It should be so likewise in our esteem of men, who are not so much to be valued for the grandeur of their estates or titles, as for their inward goodness and excellence. Virtue can render the meanest name great ---and vice turn the greatest into contempt.Listen ye plebians and ye peers. Let your own acts immortalize your name. People in high or distinguished life, ought to have great circumspection in regard to their most trivial actions. Titles make a greater distinction than is almost tolerable to a British spirit. They almost vary the species; yet, as they are oftentimes conferred, seem not so much the reward, as the substitutes of merit. People of superior birth, fortune, or education ought to maintain their superiority by their intellectual acquirements, in which they are not likely to be surpassed, or even equalled, by those in lower stations, who have had none of their opportunities to improve themselves. OBLIGATIONS. HAVE LAVE I obliged any body, or done the world any service? If so, the action has rewarded me; this answer will encourage good nature, therefore let it always be at hand. Great minds, like Heaven, are pleas'd with doing good, Tho' th' ungrateful subjects of their favors |