A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

, OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS
John Feme, in his Glory of Generosity, printed at London, an. 1586, p. 147,
says, " The ancients did bear arms for the honour's sake of virtue : For it is one,
" nay, the chiefest honour, for a gentleman to bear a coat of arms, and without
" which none can be called gentle ; and that is commanded by
" laws of nations."
the sanction of the
Guillim, in his Display of Heraldry, Sect. I. Chap. I. says, " How great the
" dignity and estimation of arms ever has been, and yet is, we may easily conceive
" by this, that, as they do delight the beholders, and greatly grace and beautify
" the places wherein they are erected ; so also, they do occasion their spectators
" to 'make serious inquisition, whose they are ; who is the owner of the house
" where they are set up ; of what family the bearer is descended ; and who were
" his next, and who his remote parents and ancestors. It is very notable, that
" these signs, which we call arms at this day, however in former ages they have
" been named, have been of the greatest use and esteem, the knowledge
of which
" is called the Science of Heraldry, or of Armories. Which Edward Bolton in his
" Elements of Arms, calls the Mistress and Queen of Liberal Knowledge ;
for in it
" all the fair arts seem to assemble, and every grace of invention glitters there,
" with much significancy, ornament and utility ; for armories are the only re-
" maining customary evidences or testimonies of nobility now : For neither sta-
" tues, arches, obelisks, trophies, spires, or other public magnificent erections, are
" now in use."
These ensigns of honour, or marks of nobility, are to be met with everywhere,
not only on the frontispiece of public and private buildings, as aforesaid, but com-
monly on tombs, and other monuments of antiquity, and especially are of excellent
on seals, by which we know ancient charters and other evidences of the high-
est importance, whether they be authentic, yea or not. And 1 cannot sufficiently
wonder at the vanity of a great many, who glory in their carrying these marks
and signs of honour, which they do not at all understand ; and must regret it in
the greatest part of my countrymen, who, though otherwise well qualified
in the
knowledge of other liberal arts and sciences, yet neglect to apply themselves to
Lhe study of heraldry ; a science so valuable, that the greatest men in all ages
have thought it worth their study and application : And therefore Thomas Gore,
in his Catalogue of Learned Men, who have written on this science, expresses
himself in these words, " CMJO viri nobiles aliique laudabilem illam Heraldriae
" Artem persequendi acriori extimulentur studio, i$c. ut fiat palam omnibus,
"
qualis in pretio &- Ignore nunc dierum est &- olim fuit res HeraldiCa, in 'toto
"
prope literarum orbe."
Though learned men are generally agreed as to the -usefulness of armories, yet
they difler with respect to the beginning and rise of them, of which I have spoken
ticulaiiy in a book formerly published by me on that subject, entitled, An
.y en the Ancient and Modern use of Armories, to which I refer the curious.
But lest 1 should seem to be defective in my present undertaking, in which I
propose to lay open the several parts of heraldry, I shall therefore brief" account of the nature and rise of arms.
give here a
iy are of opinion that arms owe their first beginnings to the light of nature,
; have been used by all nations, however rude and illiterate, for distinguishing
the more worthy and eminent, from the vulgar and ordinary people ; though they
cannot but allow that arms have been used in greater perfection and regularity in
some countries than in others. The reason they give for their opinion, is, that
d universally practised in all nations must be founded in nature ;
r, which is much the -same, that whatever all countries, whether civil or barbarous,
agree to in the main, though they differ perhaps in some circumstances, must proceed
from the dictates of natural reason. And, to support their assertion, they
the ancient and modern
;nts, not only of this but of the new discovered world, America. Whence
.e conclude, that the use of arms was Amediluvian, and after the Flood, was
produce many instances of the practice of arms among
continued among the children of Noah, and afterwards more particularly, and in
.iter perfection, among the Children of Israel, as they endeavour to prove from
: he prophecy of Jacob and Moses, and more especially from the ad chap, of the
Book of Numbers, where God gives express commandment, " that every man of the