The ideal of a gentleman, or, A mirror for gentlefolks : a portrayal in literature from the earliest times / by A. Smythe-Palmer.
- Abram Smythe Palmer
- Date:
- [1908]
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The ideal of a gentleman, or, A mirror for gentlefolks : a portrayal in literature from the earliest times / by A. Smythe-Palmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.
121/542 page 105
![The Christian Gentleman is not neglectful duly to cultivate his intellectual powers. . . . Social order we believe to be of God’s appointment. Hence it must be necessary for those whom He has placed in the higher stations to be fitted for those stations. The time is gone by when the circumstances of birth or position were sufficient, without some suitable qualification ; and if every one of gentle degree is expected to profit by the advantages he possesses, it would surely reflect upon religion if that were considered as a reason for neglect. To apply, therefore, the intellect, so as to unite its vigorous exercise with its due cultivation, seems obviously the part best adapted for whomsoever Providence has raised above his fellows ; and the common rules of social life, in consequence, point out a suitable education. 1850, Sir A. Edmonstone, The Christian Gentleman's Daily Walk, pp. 33-7. The man of education and leisure then may roam widely [in his reading], but as a Christian he will be careful and discriminating. He is an economist of time, and therefore peculiarly diligent that his precious hours be not misem- ployed. The frivolities which load the tables of the idle, so distinctive a mark of the present age, are little suited to his taste ; novelties, merely as such, engage not his attention ; nor, above all, does he ever knowingly permit his eye to fall on what may shock, or in any way disturb his better feelings. And as he would fence his own principles from unnecessary exposure, so is he equally scrupulous in guarding the principles of those who may come within his privacy. Thus he thinks it a sort of treachery to allow upon his shelves works of an evil and injurious tendency. It may not be possible indeed to banish, especially from a numerous collection, all of which he does not approve ; and such is the perversity of the human mind, that erroneous opinions and false sentiments will con- stantly be found mixed up with what is worth preserving ; but he makes it a point of conscience to prohibit all that pestilent, but, alas ! too numerous class of writers, who, by ‘putting light for darkness and darkness for light’ (Isa. v. 20), by making vice attractive and religion and virtue repul- sive,—corrupt the hearts of the young and unwary. No wit, * no prescription, no general applause, will procure his sufferance](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29008529_0123.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
