The introduction states that the author, the Reverend Father Claude François Menestrier, was born in Lyons in 1631, and had been for many years a member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). He wrote many other learned treatises on heraldry. For the tinctures the French use the same terms as ourselves, except that for green they employ _sinople_, because _vert_, properly pronounced, is not easily to be distinguished from the fur _vair_. This is a sensible distinction, as is also their expression, _contre hermine_, to describe what British heralds call ermines, in contradistinction to ermine, a difference so little marked in our case as easily to pass unnoticed and give rise to errors. The conventional system above mentioned of engraving the tinctures is also the same in France as in Great Britain, and these devices may be easily fixed on the mind of the merest novice by a short study of Mr. J. Ashby-Sterry’s entertaining (proposed) work on “Heraldry made Easy:” “If _Argent_, my friend, you would wish to attain, You’ll do it by leaving your paper quite plain. If metal more tempting you wish to seek for, Deck paper with dots, it will represent _Or_. Perpendicular lines, by armorial rules, Convey to the herald the notion of _Gules_. But lines horizontal and perfectly true Mean _Azure_, best known to the vulgar as blue. For _Vert_ take your pencil,--I beg you’ll attend,-- Draw parallel lines to the course of the bend. The sinister bend you must follow, I’m sure, To give to the eye the idea of _Purpure_. Lines crossing each other and forming a plaid Will simulate _Sable_, so sombre and sad. For _Tenne_ your pencil should cunningly blend The lines of the fess and the sinister bend. Lines crossing each other and forming a net, Will signify _Sanguine_, you must not forget!” As most of the principal heraldic devices used on British arms were adopted when Norman French was our courtly language, and are described in that tongue, it does not require much study to enable anyone who can decipher a British coat-of-arms to do the same with an ordinary French shield, or even to understand the written description of one. Yet coming to more advanced heraldry, dealing with such questions as descents, marriages, arms of assumption, of succession, of concession, and the proper marshalling of arms, the difficulties increase, and many apparent contradictions arise. Until the downfall of Louis XVI., the aristocracy of France was not only the most ancient and the proudest in Europe, but, speaking generally, possessed higher hereditary privileges and greater power than the nobility of any other civilized nation in the world.