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THE FARMER. 81 



counterfeit gentleman, an imitation, and not the genuine thing. 

 The true gentleman, with or without study, will practice what 

 is essential in that high code. The tailor and the dancing master 

 can produce the sham gentleman, but only the kindly and gen- 

 erous spirit of Almighty God possessing the heart, can ever pro- 

 duce the true one, and where that spirit is it cannot fail to produce 

 him. 



Accordingly the true gentleman is as likely to be found, and 

 is as often found among plain farmers, so called, as in any rank 

 of society. At any rate, that is my experience. Let me illus- 

 trate. 



A few weeks ago, I was passing in a liglit carriage along a 

 narrow country road. Within the space of a mile I met four 

 very broad and heavy loads of grain on their way to the thresh- 

 ing mill. The four drivers were plain farmers, of course, or 

 farm laborers, and strangers to me. Each of the four, on see- 

 ing me approach, turned out his team to the very wall, and 

 stopped it ; and three out of the four, as I came up, stepped 

 forward, and asked me with a thoughtful solicitude for my con- 

 venience, whether I thought there was room enough for me to 

 pass easily. There was room enough, and I passed on, gratified, 

 refreshed, as one always is by any such act or word of a high 

 and beautiful courtesy. And then I called to mind some 

 instances that I have known, of men wearing a garb, and 

 displaying an equipage, and driving at a pace, which they 

 imagined made gentlemen of them, but who, after running 

 down a cliild or an aged person, rushed on without stopping to 

 inquire what harm they had done, or whether there was any 

 thing they could do about it. Which were the true gentlemen ? 

 these elegant men with fast horses and heedless hearts, or those 

 plain teamsters of mine.? Perhaps neither. A single cup of 

 cold water given in the name of a disciple, will not make a 

 Christian, and a single act or word of gracious courtesy does 

 not make a gentleman. But this may be said of my teamsters, 

 that if that spirit of courtesy of which I had the benefit were 

 uniform in them, and in the grain ; if they do habitually mani- 

 fest such kindly, unselfish consideration for the convenience and 

 gratification of others, in the intimacies of their homes, by the 

 wayside, with strangers, on all occasions, little and large, and 

 in all the relationships and intercourse of life ; if what I saw 

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