paternal ancestors, for about seven generations, were successively Earls of Warwick, before the Norman conquest:  that, though he could not boast a descent from the famous Guy, he was related to him:  that, though Turchell, Earl of Warwick at the conquest, his direct ancestor, lost the Earldom in favour of Roger Newburgh, a favourite of William’s; yet, as the Earl did not appear in arms, against the Conqueror, at the battle of Hastings, nor oppose the new interest, he was allowed to keep forty-six of his manors:  that he retired upon his own vast estate, which he held in dependence, where the family resided with great opulence, in one house, for many centuries, ’till their reduction above-mentioned.  He received the information with some degree of amazement, and replied with a serious face,—­“Perhaps there may have been something great in my predecessors, for my grandfather kept several cows in Birmingham and sold milk.”

The families of those ancient heroes, of Saxon and Norman race, are, chiefly by the mutations of time, and of state, either become extinct, or as above, reduced to the lowest verge of fortune.  Those few therefore, whose descent is traceable, may be carried higher than that of the present nobility; for I know none of these last, who claim peerage beyond Edward the first, about 1295.  Hence it follows, that for antiquity, alliance, and blood, the advantage is evidently in favour of the lowest class.

Could one of those illustrious shades return to the earth and inspect human actions, he might behold one of his descendants, dancing at the lathe; another tippling with his dark brethren of the apron; a third humbly soliciting from other families such favours as were formerly granted by his own; a fourth imitating modern grandeur, by contracting debts he never designs to pay; and a fifth snuff of departed light, poaching, like a thief in the night, upon the very manors, possessed by his ancestors.

Whence is it that title, pedigree, and alliance, in superior life, are esteemed of the highest value; while in the inferior, who have a prior claim, are totally neglected?  The grand design of every creature upon earth, is to supply the wants of nature.  No amusements of body or mind can be adopted, till hunger is served.  When the appetite calls, the whole attention of the animal, with all its powers, is bound to answer.  Hence arise those dreadful contests in the brute creation, from the lion in the woods, to the dog, who seizes the bone.  Hence the ship, when her provisions are spent, and she becalmed, casts a savage eye, upon human sacrifices; and hence, the attention of the lower ranks of men, are too far engrossed for mental pursuit.  They see, like Esau, the honours of their family devoured with a ravenous appetite.  A man with an empty cupboard would make but a wretched philosopher.  But if fortune should smile upon one of the lower race, raise him a step above his original standing, and give him a prospect of independence, he immediately begins to eye the arms upon carriages, examines old records for his name, and inquires where the Herald’s office is kept.  Thus, when the urgency of nature is set at liberty, the bird can whistle upon the branch, the fish play upon the surface, the goat skip upon the mountain, and even man himself, can bask in the sunshine of science.  I digress no farther.