WHAT IS A GENTLEMAN?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 239, 15 November 1909, Page 3

WHAT IS A GENTLEMAN?

The latest authoritative definition of a gentleman is, one who is gentle of speech and quite of demeanor, a serene person who does not bluster, or bustle, or hurry, or vociferate, but who pays attention with the intent mind which is requisite to effectiveness. He should have a disposition to see the superiorities rather than the inferiorities in persons, and a preference for the society of hit superiors. He should be gener- j ous, especially to those in his power, should avoid hurting those weaker than himself and must not be a mere pleasureaeeker, but a worker, and a power in the service.: of others. The question, 'What is a gentleman S has been discussed for centuries, and so many definitions have hew made that they could fill a volume. In fact, Dr. A. Smythe-Palmfer has made a collection of such descriptions.

" Gentlemen," said an English writer I ( of 1577, " be those whom their race and I . liloud, or at least their virtues, doo j I make noble and knowe." And the defini-I '. tion was repeated in 1035 without the phraso of a reference to the virtues. "Generosity," wrote one in 1010,"disclaimeth vilenes, sluggisknesse, niggardlinesse, maliciousness*?, lying and cowardlinesse ; so that in a Gentlemen, though there may be found somewhat to be reprehended, yet there ought not to be contained anything worthy of reproach or infamy." From f. Kuller's consideration in 1052 of the true geuiieman '• in their birth, breeding, and behaviour," we learn that '•he is extracted front ancient and worshipful parentage," but also that "it graceth a Gentleman of low decent and high desert when he will own the meanness of his parentage. At the University he is so studious as if he intended learning for liis profession. He is courteous and affable to his neighbors. lAs the sword of the best tempered metal ig most flexible, so the truly generous are molt pliant and courteous in their behaviour to their inferiours." • Among the modern definitions of a gentleman, as quoted by Dr. SmythcPalmer, tii se are outstanding:— By Ordinal Newman : "It is almost a dr'-'irion of a gentleman to say he is one who never inflicts pain." Jy Thackeray : " What a gentleman ? It is to be honest, to be gentle, to be brave, to be wise; possessed of all these qualities, to exercise them in the most graceful manner." By Horace Smith: "AVhoever is open, loyal, and true, of humane and affable | denreanour, is honorable in himself and ' in his judgment of others, and requires no law but his word to make him fulfil an engagement, such a man is a gentleman." , „,. In his 'Sermons for the Tunes (1865) Kingslev laid it down that "the r eht to be eal'led gentlemen and ladies is something which this world did not give and cannot take away."