Page:The Grammar of Heraldry, Cussans, 1866.djvu/19

Rh Heraldry has been styled 'the science of fools with long memories.’ That its true objects have been misunderstood, and that its reputation has been seriously damaged by injudicious writers in attempting to attach fanciful interpretations to devices and tinctures, there can be no question; but, as the noble science has existed from time immemorial, so must it continue to flourish as long as the pride of ancestry forms any part of the nature of man. Indeed, in the present day, the education of no gentleman can be considered complete unless he possess at least an elementary knowledge of Heraldry.

Gibbon, in his Autobiography, very justly remarks: 'A lively desire of knowing and recording our ancestors so generally prevails, that it must depend on the influence of some common principle in the minds of men. We seem to have lived in the persons of our forefathers; it is the labour and reward of vanity to extend the term of this ideal longevity. The satirist may laugh, the philosopher may preach, but Reason herself will respect the prejudices and habits which have been consecrated by the experience of mankind. Few there are who can seriously despise in others an advantage of which they are secretly ambitious to partake. The knowledge of our own family from a remote period will always be esteemed as an abstract preeminence, since it can never be promiscuously enjoyed. If we read of some illustrious line, so ancient that it has no beginning, so worthy that it ought to have no end, we sympathise in its various fortunes; nor can we blame the generous enthusiasm, or even the harmless vanity, of those who are allied to the honours of its name.’