One values his chosen place of residence, whether he be a native or
not, less for its natural history and advantages than for its civil and
social privileges.
"The hills were reared, the rivers scooped in vain,
If learning's altars vanish from the plain."
And all the more, if, while retaining the ancient manners, it cherish
the family sentiment against the straggling habits which separate
members so widely in our times that intercourse is had seldomer than of
old; names of kindred hardly surviving save in the fresh recollections
of childhood by the dwellers apart; far more of life than we know being
planted fast in ancestral homes, the best of it associated with these,
as if there were a geography of the affections that nothing could
uproot.
A people can hardly have attained to nationality till it knows its
ancestor and is not ashamed of its antecedents. If such studies were
once deemed beneath the dignity of an American, they are no longer.
We are not the less national for honoring our forefathers. Blood
is a history. Blood is a destiny. How persistent it is, let the
institutions of England, Old and New, bear testimony, since on this
prerogative--call it race, rank, family, nature, culture, nationality,
what you will--both peoples stand and pride themselves, lion and eagle,
an impregnable Saxondom, a common speech, blazoning their descent.
"Ours is the tongue the bards sang in of old,
And Druids their dark knowledge did unfold;
Merlin in this his prophesies did vent,
Which through the world of fame bear such extent.
Thus spake the son of Mars, and Britain bold,
Who first 'mongst Christian worthies is enrolled;
And many thousand more, whom but to name
Were but to syllable great Shakespeare's fame."
A strong race, the blood flows boldly in its veins, truculent, if need
be, aggressive, and holding its own, as pronounced in the women as in
the men, here in New England as in Old, the dragon couchant and ready
to spring in defence of privileges and titles; magnanimous none the
less, and merciful, as in the times of St. George and Bonduca. One
needs but read Tacitus on the Manners of the Ancient Germans, to find
the parentage of traits which still constitute the Englishmen, Old and
New, showing how persistent, under every variety of geographical and
political conditions, is the genius of races.
'Tis due to every name that some one or more inheriting it should
search out its traits and titles, as these descend along the stream
of generations and reappear in individuals. And we best study the
fortunes of families, of races and peoples, here at their sources. Even
heraldries have their significance. And it is accounted the rule that
names are entitled to the better qualities of their emblazonries, each
having something admirable and to be honored in its origin.[2]
[Footnote 2: Verstegan, in his Restitution of Decayed Intelligence,
in Antiquities concerning the most Noble and Renowned English Nation,
1634, treating of the origin of names, says:--
"For a general rule, the reader may please to note, that our surnames
of families, be they of one or more syllables, that have either a _k_
or a _w_, are all of them of the ancient English race, so that neither
the _k_ or _w_ are used in Latin, nor in any of the three languages
thereon depending, which sometimes causes confusion in the writing our
names (originally coming from the Teutonic) in Latin, Italian, French,
and Spanish languages. Neither the _k_ nor _w_ being in the Latin
nor in the French, they could not be with the Normans in use, whose
language was French, as also their surnames. As for the surnames in our
Norman catalogue which have in them the letters _k_ and _w_, which the
French do not use, these are not to be thought to have been Norman, but
of those gentlemen of Flanders which Baldwin, the Earl of that country
and father-in-law unto the Conquerer, did send to aid him. Besides
these, sundry other surnames do appear to have been in the Netherlands
and not in Normandy; albeit they are without doubt set in the list of
the Normans. And whereas in searching for such as may remain in England
of the race of the Danes, they are not such as, according to the vulgar
opinion, have their surnames ending in _son_. In the Netherlands,
it is often found that very many surnames end in _son_, as Johnson,
Williamson, Phillipson, and the like; _i. e._ sons of that name of
John, etc.
"Then some have their surnames according to the color of hair or
complexion, as white, black, brown, gray, and reddish; and those in
whom these names from such causes begin, do thereby lose their former
denomination. Some again for their surnames have the names of beasts;
and it should seem for one thing or another wherein they represented
some property of theirs; as lion, wolf, fox, bull, buck, hare, hart,
lamb, and the like. Others of birds; as cock, peacock, swan, crane,
heron, partridge, dove, sparrow, and the like. Others of fish; as
salmon, herring, rock, pilchard, and the like. And albeit the ancestors
of the bearers of these had in other times other surnames, yet because
almost all these and other like names do belong to our English tongue,
I do think him to be of the ancient English, and if not all, yet the
most part. And here by occasion of these names, I must note, and that
as it were for a general rule, _that what family soever has their first
and chief coat of arms correspondent unto their surname, it is evident
sign that it had that surname before it had those arms_."]
Thus the Cock is alike the herald of the dawn and sentinel of the
night; the emblem of watchfulness and of wisdom; of vigilance and of
perseverance, and _Semper Vigilans_, the appropriate motto of family
arms bearing the name with its variations.