. Gen. Robert Edward Lee; soldier, citizen, and Christian patriot. Mrs. Roger A. Pryor. The leafy blossoming Present Time springs from the wholtPast, remembered and unrememberable.—Carlyle. An honorable ancestry is a gift of thegods, and should be regarded as such bythose who possess it. What constitutes an honorable ances-try? Surely not merely a titled from nobles may be interesting, butit can only be honorable when the straw-berry leaves have crowned a wise head, andthe ermine covered a true heart. Nearlythree hundred years ago an English wit declared that noblemenhave seld
. Gen. Robert Edward Lee; soldier, citizen, and Christian patriot. Mrs. Roger A. Pryor. The leafy blossoming Present Time springs from the wholtPast, remembered and unrememberable.—Carlyle. An honorable ancestry is a gift of thegods, and should be regarded as such bythose who possess it. What constitutes an honorable ances-try? Surely not merely a titled from nobles may be interesting, butit can only be honorable when the straw-berry leaves have crowned a wise head, andthe ermine covered a true heart. Nearlythree hundred years ago an English wit declared that noblemenhave seldom anything in print, save their clothes ! Who can saythat this is further from the truth to-day than it was in Sir JohnSucklings time ? Position and learning are desirable gifts. Pride is reasonablein those who can point to an ancestor in whom they were high offices have been held by men who were not loyal to theirtrust; and genius—that beacon of light in the hands of true men—has been a torch of destruction in those of the (65). ARMS OF LEE, OF COTON HALL,COUNTY SALOP. 66 GENERAI. ROBERT EDWARD LEE, And wealth ! Wealth has been, and ever will be, a synonym ofpower. It can buy the title, and command the treasures of can win friendship: pour heavens sunshine into dark places:cause the desert to bloom. It can prolong and sweeten life, andalleviate the pangs of death. But the possession of wealth cannot make an ancestry honor-able, unless the riches were gained honorably. Its jewels must not be the crystallized tears ofwidows and orphans; its flow-ers must not have bloomedupon the graves of the crushedand downtrodden. It was said of one, belong-ing to the race from whichGeneral Lee descended, that he was a vigorous gentleman,full of courage and sturdy nature would notbow to court complaints. Hemaintained what he spake,spake what he thought, andthought what he apprehendedto be true and just. Once hecame into court with a gr
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