sions, round the huts of the rich, and watch the opportunities of the ladies and gentlemen, as they come down to pass their liquor; and, holding a wooden bowl, catch the delicious fluid, very little altered by filtration, being still strongly tinctured with the intoxicating quality. Of this they drink with the utmost satisfaction; and thus they get as drunk and as jovial as their betters.

!

Happy nobility, cries my companion, who can fear no diminution of respect, unless by being seized with a stranguary; and who when most drunk are most useful. Though we have not this custom among us, I foresee that if it were introduced, we might have many a toad-eater in England ready to drink from the wooden bowl, on these occasions, and to praise the flavour of his lordship's liquor. As we have different classes of gentry, who knows but we might see a lord holding the bowl to a minister, a knight holding it to his lordship, and a simple squire drinking it, double distilled, from the loins of knighthood. For my part, I shall never for the future hear a great man's flatterers haranguing in his praise, that I shall not fancy I behold the wooden bowl; for I can see no reason why a man, who can live easily and happily at home, should bear the drudgery of decorum, and the impertinence of his entertainer, unless intoxicated with a passion for all that was qua lity, unless he thought, that, whatever came from the great, was delicious, and had the tincture of the 'mushroom in it.

Ib. Vol. i. let. xxxii.
THE

THE excellency of this principle [honour] is, that the vulgar are destitute of it, and it is only to be met with in people of the better sort, as some oranges have kernels, and others not, though. the outside be the same. In great families it is like the gout, generally counted hereditary, and all lords children are born with it.-A man of honour is always accounted impartial and a man of sense of course, for nobody ever heard of a man of honour that was a fool.

MANDEVILLE.

Fable of the Bees. Remark (R)

-WHO the devil doth not know,
That titles and estates bestow

An ample stock, where'er they fall,
Of

graces which we mental call ?
Beggars of every age and nation.
Are rogues and fools from situation;
The rich and great are understood
To be of course both wise and good.

CHURCHIL.

The Ghost, vol. ii. p. 265.

-IF a lord once own the happy lines
How the wit brightens, how the sense refines.

POPE.

HE [Lord Chesterfield] is a wit among lords,

but a lord only among wits.

JOHNSON.

Life, by Boswel.

TITLES are of no weight with posterity, and

the name only of a man who has performed great

exploits carries more respect than all the epithets

that can be added to it.

VOLTAIRE.
Life of Louis XIV.

NOBILITY resideth not but in the soul, nor is there true honour except in virtue.

The favour of princes may be bought by vices; rank and titles may be purchased for money, but these are not true houour.

Crimes cannot exalt the man who commits them, to real glory; neither can gold make men noble.

Wouldst thou wish to be raised, for men know not what? or wouldst thou that they should say, why is this?

He who, meritless himself, appealeth to the actions of his ancestors for his greatness, is like the thief who claimeth protection by flying to the pagod.

What good is it to the blind that his parents could see? what benefit is it to the dumb, that his grandfather was eloquent? Even so, what is it to the mean, that their predecessors were noble.

A mind disposed to virtue maketh great the possessor of it; and, without titles, it will raise him above the vulgar.

He will acquire honour while others receive it; and will he not say unto them, such were the men whom you glory in being derived from?

As the shadow waiteth upon the substance, even so true honour attendeth upon virtue.

Is it not better that men should say, why hath

not

not this man a statue? than that they should ask,

WHAT is a lord? Doth that plain simple word,
Contain some magic spell? As soon as heard,
Like an alarum bell on night's dull ear,

Doth it strike louder, and more strong appear
Than other words? Whether we will or no,
Thro' reason's court doth it unquestion'd go
E'en on the mention, and of course transmit
Notions of something excellent, of wit
Pleasing, tho' keen, of humour free, tho' chaste,
Of sterling genius with sound judgment grac'd,
Of virtue far above temptation's reach,
And honour, which not malice can impeach?
Believe it not 'twas NATURE's first intent,
Before their rank became their punishment,
They should have pass'd for men, nor blush'd to
prize

The blessings she bestow'd.-She gave them eyes,
And they could see-She gave them ears, they

heard

The instruments of stirring, and they stirr❜d

Like

Like us they were design'd to eat, to drink,
To talk, and (ev'ry now and then) to think.
Till they, by pride corrupted, for the sake
Of singularity, disclaim'd that make;
Till they, disdaining nature's vulgar mode,
Flew off, and struck into another road,
More fitting quality, and to our view
Came forth a species altogether new,

Something we had not known, and could not know,
Like nothing of God's making here below-
Nature exclaim'd with wonder-Lords are kings,
Which, never made by me, were made by kings.
A LORD (nor here let censure rashly call
My just contempt of some, abuse of all :)
A mere, mere lord, with nothing but the name,
Wealth all his worth, and title all his fame,
Lives on another man, himself a blank,

Thankless he lives, or must some grandsire thank

For smuggled honours, and ill gotten pelf.

CHURCHIL.

Independence, vol. ii. p. 294.

You say, a long descended race,

And wealth, and dignity, and power, and place,
Make gentlemen, and that your high degree
Is much disparag'd to be match'd with me:
Know this, my lord, nobility of blood,
Is but a glitt'ring and fallacious good;
The nobleman is he whose noble mind

Is fill'd with inborn worth, unborrow'd from his kind.