When they came to sit down, to dinner, my friend, instead of taking his place amongst them, retiring with most profound conges, entreated the company to excuse him for having hitherto lived with them at the saucy rate of a companion; but being now better informed of their quality, he would begin to pay them the respect due to their birth and grandeur, and that it would ill become him to sit down among so many princes--ending this farce with a thousand reproaches: "Let us, in God's name, satisfy ourselves with what our fathers were contented with, with what we are.

We are great enough, if we rightly understand how to maintain it.

Let us not disown the fortune and condition of our ancestors, and let us lay aside these ridiculous pretences, that can never be wanting to any one that has the impudence to allege them." Arms have no more security than surnames.

I bear azure powdered with trefoils or, with a lion's paw of the same armed gules in fesse.

What privilege has this to continue particularly in my house?
A son-in-law will transport it into another family, or some paltry purchaser will make them his first arms.