III. If you ascend two generations anterior to Rodulfus count of Augsburg, there is no family of more doubtful origin than that of the house of Austria. Upon coming to the grandfather of Rodulfus, historians find themselves surrounded with such thick darkness, that they don’t know which way to turn themselves; nor is it a point beyond contest, who the grandfather of Rodulfus was. Notwithstanding this, there have not been wanting Spanish historians, who, by running up the line of their ancestors, have, without touching or tripping, traced them to the destruction of Troy. Penafiel de Contreras, an author of Grenada, went further than this; for, as Mothe le Vayer informs us, he fabricated a genealogical chain of one hundred and eighteen successions, and made Philip the third descend in a right line from Adam; and because the duke of Lerma, Philip’s favourite at that time, should not be under less obligations to his pen, he formed another of a hundred and twenty-one from Adam to the duke, entwining the sovereign and favourite with two kings of Troy and with Æneas, by means of their two sons Iulus and Asaracus, from one of which he made the king descend, and from the other the duke. IV. There have not been wanting in other nations those who have flattered their princes to the same excess. John Messanius derived the succession of the kings of Sweden, without the least interruption, from the primitive father of mankind; and William Slater did the same thing, in compliment to James the first of England. V. Truly one would be apt to think, that such fulsome incense must stink in the nose of the idol to which it is offered; for Vespasian despised some flatterers, who derived him from the stock of Hercules; and Cardinal Mazarin treated with great scorn, one who traced his origin to Titus Geganius Macerinus, and Proculus Geganius Macerinus, ancient consuls of Rome. Thus those lose the fruits of their adulation, who pour it forth without bounds. VI. But to return to our subject: I repeat, that there is no pre-eminence people have less reason to boast of, than that of nobility; every other is personal, and proper to a man’s self; this is derived, and may be deemed the reflection of a borrowed light. Nobility is a mere extrinsic denomination, and if you would make it an intrinsic one, it must be done by rational means. The virtue of our forefathers was their own, not ours; and Ovid, in the following compendious sentence, expressed all that is capable of being said on the subject: _Nam genus, & proavos, & quæ non fecimus ipsi,_ _Vix ea nostra voco._