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.
61/542 page 45
![The perfect English Gentleman is the Phoenix of the human species. There is wanting in Frenchmen, to attain to this height, nothing but a more elevated and intense sentiment of personal dignity, a more religious respect for the divine part which the Almighty has vouchsafed to men. . . . The perfect English gentleman never follows solely his impulses, and never lowers himself. He carries conscientiousness and the remem- brance of his dignity into the smallest details of life. His temper never betrays him, for it is of the same character with his exterior ; his house might be of glass ; every one of his acts can bear the broadest light and defy criticism. If educa- tion, circumstances, and travel have favoured this develop- ment, it is of him. above all, that we may say, he is the lord of creation. 1843, Count Warren, British India (translated from the French by Lieber). The first condition for obtaining respect in England in any class, is to be what is called a gentleman ; an expression that has no corresponding term in French, and a perfect knowledge of which implies in itself alone a pretty long familiarity with English manners. The term gentilhomme with us is applied exclusively to birth, that of homme comme il faut to manners a,nd station in society, those of galant homme and homme de merite to conduct and character. A gentleman is one who, with some advantage of birth, fortune, talent, or situation, unites moral qualities suitable to the place he occupies in society, and manners indicating a liberal education and habits. The people of England have a remarkably nice feeling in this respect, and even the splendour of the highest rank will seldom mislead them. If a man of the highest birth depart in his conduct, or merely in his manners, from what his situation requires of him, you will soon hear it said, even by persons of the lowest class, ‘ Though a lord, he is not a gentleman.’ M. de Stael Holstein, Letters on England. [T. Ballantyne, Essays in Mosaic, p. 63.] ‘ Russian does not possess any single term combining th three constituent qualities of a gentleman, good breedin liberal education, and high honour,’](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29008529_0063.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
