"unreal mockery, hence!" 427 



I trust that those who may have so far flattered me 

 as to have read my fugitive thoughts and opinions on 

 various subjects, will give me credit for not intending 

 to venture a treatise on the relative position of the 

 gentleman and the plebeian, but will feel convinced I 

 never attempt anything like a treatise on any sub- 

 ject; but as in gentlemen-riders and gentlemen-jocks, 

 the term Gentleman will be brought in question, it 

 becomes necessary to myself that my ideas of what a 

 gentleman is should be known, otherwise I should 

 make at best but a matih^e emhrouilUe of the whole. 

 Fortunate will it be for me, if, in treating on so deli- 

 cate a subject, I escape with no stronger manifestation 

 of displeasure. I have said, many or some might 

 think six words would define a plum-pudding ; 1 

 really do think I have shown they would not. Many 

 think a gentleman as easily defined ; but they would 

 equally find themselves in error ; for the opinions of 

 the attributes of a gentleman vary in accordance with 

 the source from which they emanate. Pindar tells us 

 the beau, ideal of one of his heroes of a gentleman was 

 the eating " fat pork and riding on a gate." I once 

 heard a gentleman described as " he who had money, 

 and the will to spend it." The honest blufi!* country- 

 man says, " he's a gentleman that keeps his horse, and 

 pays everybody their own." The low tradesman thinks 

 the nice young man quite a gentleman who wears showy 

 waistcoats, clothes in the extreme (consequently out) 

 of fashion, and pays him. The worthy keeper of an 

 inferior lodging-house holds up her lodger as a gentle- 

 man if he allows her to cater for him, and consequently 

 keep her family out of the cribbings at his expense. 

 Multifarious and equally erroneous are the opinions 

 formed of gentlemen by inferior people. Erroneous 



