To find a satisfactory definition of gentleman is as difficult as to
discover the philosopher's stone; and yet if we may not say just what
a gentleman is, we can certainly say what he is not. We may affirm
indisputably that a man, however rich, and of however fine a title in
countries where rank is acknowledged, if he behave selfishly, coarsely, and
indecently, is not a gentleman. "From which, young gentlemen, it follows,"
as the good professor used to say at college, as he emerged from a hopeless
labyrinth of postulates and preliminaries an hour long, that the guests who
abused the courtesy of their hosts, upon the late transcontinental trip to
drive the golden spike, may have been persons of social eminence, but were
in no honorable sense gentlemen.
It is undoubtedly a difficult word to manage. But gentlemanly conduct and
ungentlemanly conduct are expressions which are perfectly intelligible, and
that fact shows that there is a distinct standard in every intelligent
mind by which behavior is measured. To say that a man was born a gentleman
means not at all that he is courteous, refined, and intelligent, but only
that he was born of a family whose circumstances at some time had been
easy and agreeable, and which belonged to a traditionally "good society."
But such a man may be false and mean, and ignorant and coarse. Is he a
gentleman because he was born such? On the other hand, the child of long
generations of ignorant and laborious boors may be humane, honorable, and
modest, but with total ignorance of the usages of good society. He may
be as upright as Washington, as unselfish as Sidney, as brave as Bayard,
as modest as Falkland. But he may also outrage all the little social
proprieties. Is he a gentleman because he is honest and modest and humane?
In describing Lovelace, should we not say that he was a gentleman? Should
we naturally say so of Burns? But, again, is it not a joke to describe
George IV. as a gentleman, while it would be impossible to deny the name to
Major Dobbin?
The catch, however, is simple. Using the same word, we interchange its
different meanings. To say that a man is born a gentleman is to say that
he was born under certain social conditions. To say in commendation or
description of a man that he is a gentleman, or gentlemanly, is to say
that he has certain qualities of character or manner which are wholly
independent of the circumstances of his family or training. In the latter
case, we speak of individual and personal qualities; in the former, we
speak of external conditions. In the one case we refer to the man himself;
in the other, to certain circumstances around him. The quality which is
called gentlemanly is that which, theoretically, and often actually,
distinguishes the person who is born in a certain social position. It
describes the manner in which such a person ought to behave.
Behavior, however, can be imitated. Therefore, neither the fact of birth
under certain conditions, nor a certain ease and grace and charm of manner,
certify the essential character of gentleman. Lovelace had the air and
breeding of a gentleman like Don Giovanni; he was familiar with polite
society; he was refined and pleasing and fascinating in manner. Even the
severe Astarte could not call him a boor. She does not know a gentleman,
probably, more gentlemanly than Lovelace. She must, then, admit that
she can not arbitrarily deny Lovelace to be a gentleman because he is a
libertine, or because he is false, or mean, or of a coarse mind. She may,
indeed, insist that only upright and honorable men of refined mind and
manner are gentlemen, and she may also maintain that only men of truly
lofty and royal souls are princes; but there will still remain crowds of
immoral gentlemen and unworthy kings.
The persons who abused the generous courtesy of the Northern Pacific trip
were gentlemen in one sense, and not in the other. They were gentlemen so
far as they could not help themselves, but they were not gentlemen in what
depended upon their own will. According to the story, they did not even
imitate the conduct of gentlemen, and Astarte must admit that they belonged
to the large class of ungentlemanly gentlemen.
(_December_, 1883)