industrious Virtue: Let them reflect upon those great Men who first made the Name of Nobility venerable; and they shall find that amidst the Government of Nations, the Dispatch of Armies, and Noise of Victories, some of them disdain'd not to work with a Spade, to dig the Earth, and to cultivate with triumphing Hands the Vine and the Olive. These indeed were times, of which it were well if we had more Footsteps than in ancient Authors. Then the Minds of Men were innocent and strong, and bountiful as the Earth in which they labour'd. Then the Vices of human Nature were not their Pride, but their Scorn. Then Virtue was itself neither adulterated by the false Idols of Goodness; nor puff'd up by the empty Forms of Greatness: As since it has been in some Countries of Europe, which are arriv'd at that corruption of Manners, that perhaps some severe Moralists will think it had been more needful for me to persuade the Men of this Age to continue Men, than to turn Philosophers.
But in this History I will forbear all farther Complaints, which were acceptable to the humour of this time, even in our divine and moral Works, in. which they are necessary. I therefore return to that which I undertook, to the agreeableness of this design to all Conditions and Degrees of our Nobility. If they require such Studies as are proportionable to the greatness of their Titles; they have here those Things to consider, from whence even they themselves fetch the Distinctions of their Gentility. The Minerals, the Plants, the Stones, the Planets, the Animals, they bear in their Arms, are the chief Instruments of Heraldry, by which those Houses are exalted above those of the Vulgar: And it is a shame for them to boast
