422 "'TIS BUT OPINION AFTER ALL." gentlemen coincide in this opinion, I bow with submission to their decree, for they are competent judges of each other. To expect or hope for the concurrence of all classes in venturing an opinion on any subject would be the height of arrogance and folly: the very old fable of the old man, his son, and the ass, teaches us thus much; the old Latin saying, "frustra laboret qui omnibus tentat placere," corroborates it; and daily experience stamps the seal of conviction on our minds of its truth. If, however, every one suffered this to deter him from giving an opinion or promulgating his ideas on any point, the effect would be that no new light would be thrown on any subject. It is discussion that brings forth truth; and he who modestly puts forth his opinions, and subjects them to the criticism of those better informed, I cannot but hope really benefits society. I say I hope, because such are the feelings under which I venture my imperfect impressions. I cannot hold any man merely stating his ideas, or the impression made on his mind by any circumstance, to be guilty of an act of the smallest presumption, unless he does so in such a manner as to lead to the supposition that he considers his opinions incontrovertible, or that he wishes or expects those opinions to be the fiat by which others are to form theirs. Of this charge I not only hope, but confidently trust I stand acquitted in the minds of my readers. I feel at least I am innocent of such intention. I have to crave pardon of my readers for the egotism I have been guilty of; but I felt it necessary in entering on a subject the most difficult to handle to one who never wishes to offend. If I should therefore say any thing, that, taken "ad hominem," may hurt WHEN DOCTORS DIFFER," ETC. ETC. 423 the pride of any one, let me entreat him to attribute it to impressions made on my mind by the given opinions and sentiments of my progenitors, that have grown with my growth, and strengthened with my strength:" if those sentiments are wrong, my teachers were more in fault than I. 66 If we were to ask fifty men in fifty different grades of society, and different occupations in life, each to give his definition of what constitutes the gentleman, it would be found that very few, if any of them would coincide in their ideas. Fifty men of the same class would perhaps very nearly agree on this point; but unless they were of the same class, they assuredly would not. Therefore the utmost any one can hope who ventures on so ticklish a task is, that his opinions may meet corresponding ones among those in a similar standing in society to himself, be that standing what it may. When Mr. Hercules set himself about cleansing certain Augean stables (not kept quite as stables are now-a-days), it will be allowed he undertook a toughish job; but as he was a toughish sort of gentleman, it only required time on his part to ensure its completion; and having completed it, he was certain of commendation for his pains: not so the poor wight who attempts describing the gentleman: he is sure of the labour; also sure of the reprehension of some one; but as for the commendation, he is fortunate if he gets it from any one. I do wish Master Hercules had undertaken this job-many may say they wish so too, and may also think I should have been better employed shovelling away while he wrote: but as he did not, suppose I must attempt it. I It is not easy to define anything definitely some 424 AN UNRAISINABLE PUDDING. may think it is: and by way of a sample of talent, I will ask them to define a plum-pudding: they may say they could do it merely by the six following words, "a pudding with plums in it." This certainly is a plum-pudding; but suppose I choose to make one with only one plum in it, this would also be a plum-pudding: if so, what becomes of their definition? They may say there never was one made with only one plum in it granted; but that is no reason there never may; and, in fact, let them try a school-pudding; they will find that by way of a great treat they may get something very like it, and in these hard times, but for Sir Robert Peel's tariff, they would probably, ere this, have been treated with the identical thing itself. : The mentioning a plum-pudding and a gentleman in the same sheet may appear somewhat incongruous I admit; but the incongruity is not altogether so great as may be at first imagined, as the latter very often partakes of the former in one way, and I must confess sometimes in another. In the first case, he is pudding-eating gentleman; in the other, a puddingheaded gentleman: but they bear a closer affinity than this, inasmuch as it requires many good and expensive ingredients to make either a perfect plumpudding or a perfect gentleman. Certes to make the school-pudding, the ingredients are not usually great in number or particularly choice in quality. Though no pupil of Ude or Kitchener, I will venture to give a receipt for a school-pudding: in fact, I could make one. I will afterwards try my hand at a gentleman. In the latter I may probably fail; but if this dish were produced by some one else, I think I could form some faint idea of the style of man employed in its GRACE (VIZ. GREASE) BEFORE MEAT. 425 concoction. But for the benefit of all or any of those intending to set up a school, I will give the promised receipt for the pudding (the old stagers know it well enough): - flour (not of the best quality) in proportion to the number of boys or young ladies (for the latter the quality somewhat less bad, but not much); water à discretion (of anybody); fruit à discretion of the mistress (who is always in this most discreet); suet or any unctuous matter (the produce of last week's cooking) to help down the delicious composition; to be, in formâ medici, "taken" before the meat (Mem. as a choker to save the latter.) What a blessing of Providence the same hand does not make the leg of mutton! All that can be done here is to get it tough enough; but young teeth are tough as well as the mutton, and mutton can only be got tough to a certain degree, otherwise the young gentlemen and ladies would all come home feather weight"in spite of their teeth." On whatever subject I venture to write, I always do so from practical experience, the only excuse I can make for writing at all; so I do in this matter, having paid close upon a hundred a-year for such indulgence in two different schools; in return for which I shall write something illustrative of my opinion of those finger-posts to juvenile minds yclept preceptors and preceptresses Messieurs, Mesdames, et Mademoiselles, au revoir. Let us now see what ingredients we want to make a gentleman. If we ascertain that, we may possibly do a something to alleviate those heart-burnings so often felt on the occasion of races to be ridden by gentlemen, and those by gentlemen-jocks for I really consider the qualification or disqualification of a man to ride where gentlemen only are intended to 426 INGREDIENTS FOR A GENTLEMAN. do so, to be as clear as the difference between a known half-bred horse and the thorough-bred one-I say known, because we pretty well know that we do not know how half the half-bred ones are bred. I have said it required many rare ingredients to make a gentleman—that is, what in every sense of the word must be held as a perfect gentleman. These ingredients I conceive to be, good family, good education, good society, good manners, and good conduct. These I consider constitute a gentleman. If we add to these, polished and winning address, and carriage, I think we see something like a perfect gentleman. That a man may be a gentleman without possessing all these advantages, or by possessing them in a very moderate degree, we all know, and courtesy allows the title to many such. Personal merit and superior talent very properly in many cases break down the barrier between the man of family and the plebeian, and every liberal mind must rejoice in seeing the latter burst those bonds that held his forefathers as serfs to his more aristocratic brethren. If, however, fortune only has elevated him (which in a commercial country it may do) to a rank in society to which his most sanguine hopes never aspired, let him remember he owes it to no merit of his own. If superior talents have done this for him, the high attributes of such a mind should teach him that there are numbers of his fellow-men in whose bosom lies the germ of all his qualities, but from its having fallen on a more sterile soil, wants the means to burst forth and, above all, let him remember that no men despise the advantages of birth but those who do not possess them; and that in those who profess to do so, it is at best but a vulgar bravado, a feeble and futile attempt to depreciate advantages they cannot enjoy. : |