It is usual to begin the life of a distinguished person with an account of his family and parents. Sometimes the line of descent is traced back generation after generation, and it is boasted from what celebrated ancestors he sprung. Sometimes it is acknowledged that he was of obscure origin, and has been the founder of his own fame and family. In either case, it is thought that the circumstance is honorable to him. In the first, he derives splendor and dignity from the great men from whom he descended. In the second, what can be more creditable, than to have risen from nothing, by his own industry and talents, to an equality with those whose natural advantages were superior? Two of the Evangelists who have written the history of our Saviour, begin their account of him |
