"God and my Right;" there is the only motto he believes in. Such
an ideal is happily opposed to that vulgar ideal which is equally
English, the ideal of wealth, with its formula, "_How much_ is he
worth?" In a country where poverty is a crime, it is good to be able to
say that a nabob need not as such be a gentleman. The mercantile ideal
and the chivalrous ideal counterbalance each other; and if the one
produces the ugliness of English society and its brutal side, the other
serves as a compensation.
The gentleman, then, is the man who is master of himself, who respects
himself, and makes others respect him. The essence of gentlemanliness is
self-rule, the sovereignty of the soul. It means a character which
possesses itself, a force which governs itself, a liberty which affirms
and regulates itself, according to the type of true dignity. Such an
ideal is closely akin to the Roman type of _dignitas cum auctoritate_.
It is more moral than intellectual, and is particularly suited to
England, which is pre-eminently the country of will. But from
self-respect a thousand other things are derived--such as the care of a
man's person, of his language, of his manners; watchfulness over his
body and over his soul; dominion over his instincts and his passions;
the effort to be self-sufficient; the pride which will accept no favor;
carefulness not to expose himself to any humiliation or mortification,
and to maintain himself independent of any human caprice; the constant
protection of his honor and of his self-respect.
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