The Gods and Pleasure and Pain.

King Dionysius and Squire Damocles....

USEFUL INSTRUCTION.

VOLUME II.

60. GENTLEMAN.

A gentleman is a rarer man than some of us think for. What is it to be a gentleman?

to be gentle, to be generous, to be

It is to be honest, brave, to be wise,

and, possessing all these qualities, to exercise them in the most graceful outward manner.

-THACKERAY.

A child should be early taught courtesy. Courtesy is a letter of introduction, and is most charming. It is one of the characteristics of a gentleman; indeed, a man cannot, unless he be courteous, be a real gentleman. --CHAVASSE.

Who is the true gentleman or nobleman? He whose actions make him so.

-OLD SPANISH PROVERB.

Every man may be a gentleman if he will not by getting rich or by gaining access to that self-appointed social grade, that claims the exclusive right to have the badge of gentility-but by the cultivation of those unselfish, kind and noble impulses, that make the gentleman. It is too rarely we find among those, who vote themselves the gentlemen and ladies of the day, anything to warrant the assumption. There is but little of the true metal about them-Personal contact reveals arrogance and pride, and too often a meanness of spirit, and littleness, that disgraces human nature. So far as our observation goes, we are constrained to say, that, while among the poorer classes there is, as a general thing, sad lack of external culture of attention to little personal habits, that are not agreeable to others, and which ought to be corrected, there are really in the lower and middle ranks of society, so called, quite as many true gentlemen and ladies as among those, who claim the exclusive right to these honourable designations.

Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection, must finish him.

--LOCKE.

Come wealth or want, come good or ill:
Let young and old accept their part,

And bow before the awful Will,

And bear it with an honest heart.
Who misses or who wins the prize--

Go, lose or conquer as you can,

But if you fail, or if you rise,
Be each, pray God, a gentleman.

--THACKERAY.

NATURE'S GENTLEMAN.

Whom do we dub as gentlemen?
The knave, the fool, the brute-
If they but own full tithe of gold,
And wear a courtly suit;
The parchment scroll of titled line,
The riband at the knee;

Can still suffice to ratify

And grant such high degree.
But Nature with a matchless hand,
Sends forth her nobly born;
And laughs the paltry attributes
Of wealth and rank to scorn;
She moulds with care, a spirit rare,
Half human, half divine,

And cries, exulting, "Who can make
A gentleman like mine?"

She may not spend her common skill
About the outward part,

But showers beauty, grace, and light,

Upon the brain and heart;

She may not use ancestral fame

His pathway to illume

The sun that sheds the brightest ray

May rise from mist and gloom.
Should Fortune pour her welcome store,

And useful gold abound,

He shares it with a bounteous hand,

And scatters blessings round.