Genealogy of the family of Forbes

expand with the glories of former clays, a proportionate thrill of
applause will be ever paid to the names ennobled upon them ;
those who can only approach to these as fellow countrymen, will
share the generons feeling ; what then must be the sophistry
which would deny the addition of the enraptured glow which
those cannot but feel who can trace their lineage to the vene-
rated heroes of their country? To check the noble emotion would
indeed be impossible if attempted, and foolish, if possible. While
virtue, piety, and courage are honoured among mankind, the
consciousness of the worth of ancestry will ever make men try
to follow the torch of glory held forth by it, and shrink from
the degenerate part, even in extremity, from the lecollec-
tion of former honour; this is so natural to us, that we ever
call to our assistance, when hardly pushed in life, the brighter
parts of our own history, to confirm our conduct. How many
has this mode of rallying upon our own best strength, in the se-
\'erest trials, saved ! It is fortifying the present from the past ;
and perhaps in the annals of eloquence there is not a more affect-
•"ng and forcible display of oratory than that of the heroic Moore,
at Corunna, to the 42d Regt. " Highlanders-— remember Egypt !"
elevajion of sentiment, and are too severely denoted by Dr. Jojmson'a
mode of designation. What the true character of the gentleman is,
needs no explanation, as it is known and fslt universally : it is in the
mind ; for what the world calls gentility is (as Lord Bacon says) but
ancient riches! The understanding of the spirit of gentility was well
known in France ; and it is a fact well attested, that when Fraccis the
First failed in urging his faith as a Prince and a Soldier, the instant he
exclaimed, " on the faith of a Gentleman," every doubt was removed.
Under the article Miscellaneous Occurrences, A. D. 1304, in Lord
Hales's Annals, is the following insertion : — " To this period must be
referred the taking of the castle of Urquhart, when Edward murdered
every person in it, except the wife of Alexander Bois, the Lord of the
castle. She was pregnant at the time ; and the English had a religi-
ous scruple at killing a child before its birth. The child so wonder-
fully preserved in due time proved a boy. Having slain a mighty bear
that infested the country, he received the appellation of For-bear ; af.