[SECT. I.]
IF an inclination to any particular pursuit in the fields of
Science could insure the attainment of its object, and
the ardent desire of information supersede the laborious in-
vestigations, by which alone it is acquired; I should feel
less diffidence in submitting to the publick the following
sketches.
OF a study so obsolete as that of Heraldry, the examina-
tion promises little to those, who have not felt the influ-
ence of that partiality to it, which however delightful
to themselves, has been more frequently ridiculed than
praised.--It has been my endeavour to explain this subject
from the result of what I have read or learned, consci-
ous, that though by adepts in the science, some errors
may be detected, and some conjectures refuted, I have
not
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not departed from my original plan of accommodating
this study to modern system.--And let me induldge hopes
that I may at least afford amusement to those, who need
not information.
[Introduction]
HERALDRY in its present state has just pretensions to be
ranked in the circle of sciences; so general in its usage,
so infinitely various in its discriminations, and so classical
in its specific differences, that if system be the ground-
work of science, this claim may be fairly advanced. Yet,
this has been the effect of successive ages, in the progress
from its invention for military regulation, when the rudest
symbols were sufficient for the chief purpose, that of
distinction of one man, or hand of men from another, to
its connection with the graphic art, when the most shape-
less delineations, which were from the first cause only
attractive, became splendid by painting and enamel.--It
would be an uninteresting talk to examine all the early
treatises upon Heraldry, and to collect their very vague
and fanciful conjectures, and the numerous evidences ad-
duced by these authors concerning the origin and use of
arms.--May who have thought that comparative anti-
quity must necessarily decide on the merit of their fa-
vourite science, have traced it far beyond the scope of
Chronology, to the Egyptians, and their "land of dark-
ness." [no plan to continue. S. U.]
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