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SECT. 4. Of Pride of a generous and noble descent.
PRide of descent is, when men do boast of their noble Extraction and Generous O∣riginal: This is a thing most ridiculous, for a man to boast of that which belongeth to ano∣ther: It is better that others be known by thee, then thou be known by others. Plato saith, that every King cometh of a slave, and every slave of a King: * 1.1 The great Tamerlain was the son of a Peasant, and kept Cattel; Arsaces King of the Parthians, was of so base a stock, that his Parents could not be known, yet he got such re∣nown by his vertue, that his poste∣rity were called Arsacides, as the Emperours of of Rome were called Caesars, of Augustus Caesar. Per∣tinax a Roman Emperour, was son of an Artificer, his Grandfather∣was a slave. Agathocles King of Cicily, the son of a Potter. The Emperour Probus, the son of a Gardiner. The Suldan of Cayro, was cho∣sen out of the Mamalukes, to which honour none might arise, unless he had first been a slave. Divers Popes likewise were basely de∣scended. Little cause have men to pride them∣selves in the Nobility of their birth, when they come by it by their Parents, who by some vertuous or noble acts, exceeded other