432 " TAKE ANY FORM BUT THIS." 



to him than if, in speaking of a virtuous woman, we 

 were to say she did not walk the streets or the lobbies 

 of Drury Lane Theatre. 



In some corroboration of this, I beg to mention 

 an anecdote of a friend of mine. He was a man 

 of good family, good education, and some talent. 

 On going to reside for some time in a large pro- 

 vincial town in which he had no acquaintance, he 

 mentioned this circumstance in the presence of a per- 

 son I have named, in the course of what I have 

 written, as holding a prominent situation in the sport- 

 ing world as a man of business and high integrity ; so 

 his business-ideas led him to think that in a letter of 

 introduction given to my friend he did his best in de- 

 scribing him as a very respectable man. The letter 

 was open, so my friend of course saw the contents. 

 Many persons would think he ought to have been gra- 

 tified by such a recommendation ; so far from being so 

 he flew into a great rage, on reading the ill-fated, or, 

 as he considered, ill-worded letter. " Respectable !" 

 cried he several times over : " respectable and be d d 

 to him ! by G , were he a gentleman and styled me 

 respectable, I would have him out. Did he suppose I 

 wanted him to tell people I was not a thief? " I need 

 not say the letter of introduction was never delivered. 



Respectable, so far as it regards tradesmen and 

 yeomen, is as high a term of commendation as can be 

 applied to them ; and if they would be content with 

 being respectable, without wishing to be thought (as 

 they term it) genteel, or, in other words, gentlemen, 

 their banker's account would, perhaps, often be better 

 filled, and the bankrupt account in the Gazette be less 

 so : but this craving for a something unpossessed ruins 

 half the world, and is the means of rendering thou- 



