J793* literary olla. No. ix. 295 



j virtuous Houynlinms whether it would not be better that 

 they were exterminated from the face of the Globe. 



N<7»« proprice Telluris herum natura neque ilium, nee me, 

 nee quemquam natuit. 



" In this active and busy age, where every one is expec- 

 ted to act a part, there is a clafs of men who formerly 

 ad great sway in the direction of public affairs, but seem 

 now to be fallen into general contempt, and appear fitted 

 only to minister to the avarice and luxury of those whom 

 heretofore they looked upon as greatly their inferiors. 



" It will readily be perceived that the land proprietors 

 are those I mean to treat of. To these and thejr unoc* 

 cupied descendents, the epithet oi gentleman was formerly 

 only applied j now-a-days we have not only gentlemen 

 of the law, of physic, of divinity, and trade, (whose pro- 

 fefsions seem to be entitled to it,) but the appellation is 

 surely abused and prostituted when applied to some low- 

 er orders ; and evidently so, when bestowed upon an im- 

 pudent varlet out of livery, who forsooth is dignified with 

 the appellation of gentleman, though perhaps it is bestow- 

 ed with great impropriety even upon liis master. 



" Though the profefsion of divinity is most honourable 

 and respectable, when the profefsors of it behave in a 

 suitable and becoming manner, yet it does not appear to 

 me that they ought to affect the appellation of gentlemen 

 The idea of the sphere they act in, imprefses one with 

 the notion of some characteristic epithet, lefs worldly, and 

 more suitable to their profefsion 5 and surely those who 

 affect it, as conceiving it attached to theirprofefsion, though 

 of low birth, and illiberal education, most certainly dis- 

 grace it, and bring themselves into contempt, by which 



