frequently it seems entertained by families which, having great
substance, cannot be satisfied without rank and title.

My uncles had once extended this view to each of us three children;
urging, that as they themselves intended not to marry, we each of us
might be so portioned, and so advantageously matched, as that our
posterity, if not ourselves, might make a first figure in our
country.--While my brother, as the only son, thought the two girls
might be very well provided for by ten or fifteen thousand pounds
a-piece: and that all the real estates in the family, to wit, my
grandfather's, father's, and two uncles', and the remainder of their
respective personal estates, together with what he had an expectation
of from his godmother, would make such a noble fortune, and give him
such an interest, as might entitle him to hope for a peerage. Nothing
less would satisfy his ambition.

With this view he gave himself airs very early; 'That his grandfather
and uncles were his stewards: that no man ever had better: that
daughters were but incumbrances and drawbacks upon a family:' and this
low and familiar expression was often in his mouth, and uttered always
with the self-complaisance which an imagined happy thought can be
supposed to give the speaker; to wit, 'That a man who has sons brings
up chickens for his own table,' [though once I made his comparison
stagger with him, by asking him, If the sons, to make it hold, were to
have their necks wrung off?] 'whereas daughters are chickens brought
up for tables of other men.' This, accompanied with the equally
polite reflection, 'That, to induce people to take them off their
hands, the family-stock must be impaired into the bargain,' used to
put my sister out of all patience: and, although she now seems to
think a younger sister only can be an incumbrance, she was then often