BOOK II PART I
as we cannot prevent poverty in some distant
collaterals, and our forefathers are taken to be
our nearest relations; upon this account every
one affects to be of a good family, and to be
descended from a long succession of rich and
honourable ancestors.
I have frequently observed, that those, who
boast of the antiquity of their families, are glad
when they can join this circumstance, that their
ancestors for many generations have been un-
interrupted proprietors of the same portion of
land, and that their family has never changed
its possessions, or been transplanted into any
other county or province. I have also observed,
that it is an additional subject of vanity, when
they can boast, that these possessions have
been transmitted through a descent composed
entirely of males, and that the honour, and for-