tony, when peerages are bought by men successful in
trade and sold by men successful in intrigue, such elevations in rank
have ceased to be regarded as the necessary concomitants of "great
honour" and "high and noble dignity"; so that it has long been more
reputable in the House of Lords to be a descendant than an ancestor.
But among the older great families there still remains a pride that has
descended unsullied through many generations, which serves as a fine
deterrent from evil deeds, and a constant incentive to honour--and in
England the history of great names can never be totally ignored, even
though the country may be ruled by persons who do not know who
were their own grandfathers.

Nothing is more ridiculous and cheap than to sneer at honourable
descent from famous ancestors; it divertingly illustrates the fable of the
sour grapes.

Your loving old
G.P.

7

MY DEAR ANTONY,

You will have seen from the extracts I have already quoted to you of
the writers of the Elizabethan age that the style of all of them
possesses something large and resonant, something that may be said
to constitute the "grand style" in prose; and this quite naturally without
effort, and without the slightest touch of affectation.

A great writer who came immediately after the Elizabethans--namely,
Sir Thomas Browne, who lived from 1605 to 1682--displays the
development in his style of something less simple and more precious
than ruled in the former generation.

It is difficult to select any passage from his works where all is so good.
He was curious and exact in his choice of words and commanded a wide
vocabulary. There is deliberate ingenuity in the framing of his
sentences, which arrests attention and markedly distinguishes his style.
His _Urn Burial_, in spite of its elaboration, reaches a grave and solemn
splendour.

The fifth chapter, which begins by speaking of the dead who have
"quietly rested under the drums and tramplings of three conquests,"
rises to a very noble elevation as English prose.

Here I quote one paragraph of it, characteristic of the whole:--

"Darkness and light divide the course of time, and oblivion shares
with memory a great part even of our living beings; we slightly
remember our felicities, and the smartest strokes of affliction
leave but short smart upon us. Sense endureth no extremities, and
sorrows destroy us or themselves. To weep into stones are fables.
Affliction