This touches the Case of Those Mean Upstarts, that when they come once
to be preferr’d, forget their Fathers, and have not the Wit to Consider,
how soon Fortune may set them Down again where she took ’em up; but yet
at last, when they come to be minded of their Original, it makes many a
Proud Fool sensible of a Scandalous Extraction, that has no Shame at all
for a Scandalous Life.
’Tis hardly safe to Descant upon a _Boasting Mule_, in a _Fable_, when
there are so many of his Brethren in the World, that will Take it to
Themselves. Nay, and Over and Above the Self-conceited Vanity of These
Brutes, there are none so forward neither, to Bespatter Men of Bloud and
Quality, as those that have most Reason to be Asham’d of their Descent.
This Pride of Pedigree is Easily run down, if there be not Power Joyn’d
to the Ostentation: But where there is Authority given to the Folly, as
well as to the Fool, the Indignation that it raises makes the Insolence
Insupportable. Nothing Dash’d the Confidence of the Mule like the Braying
of the Ass in the very Interim, while he was Dilating upon his Genealogy.
As who should say, _Remember your Father, Sirrah_. This comes to the Case
of a _Spaniard_, that was Wonderfully upon the Huff about his Extraction,
and would needs Prove himself of such a Family by the Spelling of his
Name; a Cavalier in the Company, with whom he had the Controversy, very
Civilly yielded him the Point; for (says he) I have Examin’d the Records
of a certain House of Correction, and I find your Grandfather was Whipt
there by That Name. We have in fine a World of _Boasting Mules_ among us,
that don’t care for being Minded of their _Braying Fathers_: But ’tis
the Fate of These Vain-Glorious Fops to be Thus Met withal, and your
Counterfeit Men of Honor seldom Come off better; Wherefore let every Man
look well about him before he boasts of his Pedigree, to make sure that
there be not an _Asse_ in the Family.