- Talking of the baron's ancestor puts me in mind of the baron's great claims to respect, on the score of his pedigree.
- I am afraid to say, I am sure, how many ancestors the baron had; but I know that he had a great many more than any other man of his time;
- and I only wish that he had lived in these latter days, that he might have had more. It is a very hard thing upon the great men of
- past centuries, that they should have come into the world so soon, because a man who was born three or four hundred years ago,
- cannot reasonably be expected to have had as many relations before him, as a man who is born now. The last man, whoever he is
- - and he may be a cobbler or some low vulgar dog for aught we know - will have a longer pedigree than the greatest nobleman now alive;
- and I contend that this is not fair.
