Year: 1877

doubt good blood is desirable, even


essential, to contentment and sue


cess; meaning by good blood that


which is healthful, has flowed in


honest veins, has supported intelligent


generous minds, and nourished kind


" hearts. Our prOgenitOrs largely


determine our destiny in advance.


As they live and are, we shall live


and be, with certain notifications;
for transmission is most important


law of nature that cannot be ig-


nored. We have reason to feel


proud of ancestors of the right kind,


and to felicitate ourselves that they


have given us no physical or moral


faint; to have a sound mind in a


sound body is one of the best of for


tunes, and it were foolish not to re-


joice thereat.


But this is not the sort of good


blood that most persons plume them


selves on and boast of. 1t is not the


blood of integrity, of earnest en-
deavOr, of noble purpose, but the


blood which, having, at some remote
period, achieved distinction OF borne
a title, they fondly imagine justlfes
its heirs in inactivity, arrogance, and
pretense. Instead of holding that
the honor gained by their forefa-
theirs should ceaselessly stimulate
them to try to equal it, or that it
should prevent them from doing


aught unworthy, they are apt to inI-


agine that it relieves them from the


need of aspiration and exertion, and
is a species of sanction for inefficien-


cy or meanness. Even in countries


the most aristocratic opinions have


undergone vast changes since the
feudal period, since the old Spariards
really thought that what they called
their blue blood (Sd'9gTe azltD was


blue, in contradistinction to the
crimson stream of the plebeian mil
lions. Nevertheless, the notions OF
lineage current in Europe to this
day are absurd enough to excite pity
or contempt in the mind of any nat
ural man. Taking them at their full
claim, they rest on very slender
foundation. The noblest families
soon run out. 1t is related, if we re-
member, in Burke's anecdotes Of the


Peerage that an effort was made, IN


the latter part of the past century,
to discover the descendants of the u
lustrious houses of Plantagenet and


Neville. Only two offshoots of the


historic stock could be fOund-the
heir of the Plantagenets was a COM
mon cobbler in an English village,
the degenerate Neville had charge
of toll-gate.


The highest-blooded families in


Great Britain can hardly ever trace


their line backward more than two


or three hundred years at most; and


the last detachable ancestor is usual


ly "said" to have come over with
William the Conquerer-himselt an
-illeoitimate son of the Duke of Nor
mandy, as we'll as a pirate and cut
throat. A large portion OF the Irlsh'
both at home and abroad, have, as
the Y aver, sprung from kings; but
in a chaotic land where every other
inhaI I5itant was king, the distlne-
ton IA not so great as it at first sp-
pears, Any number of German Bar
ons and other bearers of Teutonic tt
ties got tneir rank by means which
delicacv would forbear to inquire in
to. French Counts, Italian Marquis
es, Russian Princes, even when they
are genuine, viii rarely bear investi-
CATION, as many silly American wo-
men have learned to their connubial
cost. f..


Under mOnarchieaI Governments,
where caste is natural and almost
where society is imPera-
lively artificial, the assumptions of
blood can be tolerated by those hay
ing no respect for them. But in a
like ours, all talk of fam
ily, all parade of cOats-of-arms, all |
aping of aristocratic customs, is not |
out of place alone; it is silly and |
contemplate. Being politically |
equal here, we try very hard to
make ourselves socially unequal. If |
we have no reason for this inequali-
ty, many of us put forward pretext
and count the poorest pretext better
than none.


Europeans have frequently noticed
and commented on our desire to rep
resent ourselves as in some way bet
ter than our fellow citizens, and have
dedueed thence the naturalness of
aristocratic feelings. Natural or
not, its manifestation in a republic
IS a satire on our institutions and a
serious reflection on our common
sense. As not many of US have any
knowledge of our remote ancestors
being generally quite content with a
moderate amount of information
concerning our grandparents-it is
difficult to lay any claim to the most
indirect connection with titles or IT,
He'd folk. Our usual substitute for
titles is old families; the presump-
lion being that everything is good
which is old, in respect to family,
age has advantage, because we can
boast of the capacities and virtues
9f the dead and forgotten without
fear of contradiction. We can do
any quantity of romancing about our
great great grandfather, and have
no fear of detection. We can speak
IF his culture, his generosity, ana
,hivalrv unabashed, although as
,nred Inv records and traditions that
10 was IGNORANT, mean, and despica-
DIe. Then, in so new a country, 1t Is
something, we think, to have great
albeit we must
575mit ON reflection that the common
,st neople have had the same.


Not unfrequently we are so put
o it that we brag of living on means
hat we have not earned, but have
Inherited, which is the quintessence
# vulgarity. 1t may be fortunate
o have money left US, especially
yhen we have no ability to make
nv ourselves; but to exult over 1t,
md feel superiority on that account,
s the vilest sort of snobbery. Labor
n these days is honorable every
where, and to eat the fruit of labor


L.