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Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1229, 11 February 1878, Page 3

What as Ostentatious Man Is. — A clergyman, while composing a sermon, made use of the words "unostentatious man.” Throwing down his pen, he wished to satisfy himself, ere he proceeded, as to whether a great portion of his congregation might comprehend the meaning of these words, and he adopted the following method of proof : Ringing the bell, the footman appeared, and he was thus addressed by the master; — “ What do you conceive to be implied by an ostentatious man ?” “An ostentatious man, sir,” said Thomas; "why, sir, I should say a perfect gentleman.” “Very good,” observed the vicar; "send Ellis (the coachman) here.” " Ellis,” said the vicar, " what do you imagine an ostentatious man to be ?” “An ostentatious man, air,” replied Eliis, “why, I should say an ostentatious man means what we call, saving your presence, a very j oily fellow.” It is hardly necess my to add that the vicar substituted a less ambiguous word. «S Homer was a beggar; Plautus turned a mill; Terence was a slave ; Bcethiua died in gaol; Paul Borgheze had fourteen trades, and yet starved with them all; Tasso was often distressed for five shillings; Bentivoglio was refused admittance into a hospital he had himself erected; Cervantes died of hunger; the celebrated writer, of " Lusia i” ended his days, it is said, in an almshouse, and at any rate was supported by a faithful black servant, who begged in the streets of Lisbon for rh* only man in Portugal on whom God had bestowed those talents which have a tendency to erect the spirit of a downward age ;: Vangelas left hia body to the surgeons to pay bis debts as far as the money would go; Bacon lived a life of meanness and distress; Sir Walter Raleigh died on the scaffold; Spenser, the charming ''penser, died in want; the death of Collins came through neglect first causing mental derangement; Milton so'd his copyright of "Paradise Lost” for fiTeen pounds,: at three payments, and finished his life in obscurity; iTyden lived in poverty and distress; Otway died prematurely, aod through hunger: Lee died in the streets ; Steele lived a life of perfect warfare with bailiffs; Goldsmith’s “Vicar of Wakefield” was a"ld for a tritie to save him from the grip of the law ; Fielding lies in the bu’ yiug t-round of the English factory at Lisbon without a si one to mark the spot; Savage died in prison at Bristol, where he was confined for a debt of right pounds; Butler lived in penury and died poor; Chatterton, the child of genius and misfortune, destroyed himself.