family, but I am a younger brother, it concerns me not: or had I been some
great heir, richly endowed, so minded as I am, I should not have been
elevated at all, but so esteemed of it, as of all other human happiness,
honours, &c., they have their period, are brittle and inconstant. As [3668]
he said of that great river Danube, it riseth from a small fountain, a
little brook at first, sometimes broad, sometimes narrow, now slow, then
swift, increased at last to an incredible greatness by the confluence of
sixty navigable rivers, it vanisheth in conclusion, loseth his name, and is
suddenly swallowed up of the Euxine sea: I may say of our greatest
families, they were mean at first, augmented by rich marriages, purchases,
offices, they continue for some ages, with some little alteration of
circumstances, fortunes, places, &c., by some prodigal son, for some
default, or for want of issue they are defaced in an instant, and their
memory blotted out.

So much in the mean time I do attribute to Gentility, that if he be
well-descended, of worshipful or noble parentage, he will express it in his
conditions,

[3669] ------"nec enim feroces
Progenerant aquilae columbas."

And although the nobility of our times be much like our coins, more in
number and value, but less in weight and goodness, with finer stamps, cuts,
or outsides than of old; yet if he retain those ancient characters of true
gentry, he will be more affable, courteous, gently disposed, of fairer
carriage, better temper, or a more magnanimous, heroical, and generous
spirit, than that _vulgus hominum_, those ordinary boors and peasants, _qui
adeo improbi, agrestes, et inculti plerumque sunt, ne dicam maliciosi, ut
nemini ullum humanitatis officium praestent, ne ipsi Deo si advenerit_, as
[3670]one observes of them, a rude, brutish, uncivil, wild, a currish
generation, cruel and malicious, incapable of discipline, and such as have
scarce common sense. And it may be generally spoken of all, which [3671]
Lemnius the physician said of his travel into England, the common people
were silly, sullen, dogged clowns, _sed mitior nobilitas, ad omne
humanitatis officium paratissima_, the gentlemen were courteous and civil.
If it so fall out (as often it doth) that such peasants are preferred by
reason of their wealth, chance, error, &c., or otherwise, yet as the cat in
the fable, when she was turned to a fair maid, would play with mice; a cur
will be a cur, a clown wi