178] Essays AT 
cessors, posterity will have much reason to boast of 
the noble blood of the then existing set of Chevaliers 
of Cincinnatus. The future genealogists, too, of these 
Chevaliers, in proving the lineal descent of their 
honor through so many generations (even supposing 
honor capable in its nature of descending), will only 
prove the small share of this honor which can be 
justly claimed by any one of them, since the above 
simple process in arithemtic makes it quite plain and 
clear that, in proportion as the antiquity of the 
family shall augment, the right to the honor of the 
ancestor will diminish; and a few generations more 
would reduce it to something so small as to be very 
near an absolute nullity. I hope, therefore, that 
the Order will drop this part of their project, and 
content themselves, as the Knights of the Garter, 
Bath, Thistle, St. Louis, and other Orders of Europe 
do, with a life enjoyment of their little badge and 
riband, and let the distinction die with those who 
have merited it. This, I imagine, will give no of- 
fence. For my own part, I shall think it a con- 
venience when I go into a company where there may 
be faces unknown to me, if I discover, by this badge, 
the persons who merit some particular expression of 
my respect; and it will save modest virtue the 
trouble of calling for our regard by awkward round- 
about intimations of having been heretofore em- 
ployed as officers in the Continental service. 
The gentleman who made the voyage to France to 
provide the ribands and medals, has executed his 
commission. To me they seem tolerably done: but 
+i 2.