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Article COLLECTANEA. ← Page 2 of 3 →
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Collectanea.
of one and the pretension of the other ate equally ridiculous . True gentility cannot be " exclusive , " any more than virtue . The needy man may aspire to become a gentleman—at least in mind and feeling . A king cannot be more—he may be less . Certain worldly advantages , which some are born to , others inherit , and many acquire , may , and in most cases do materially help to form and maintain the title and character of an English gentleman . Money has helped to make many
men good and happy , others wicked and miserable : the want of it has been known to do the same . Neither of these consequences is certain . In the former case , a man fills his station , aud disgraces or " adorns " it ; in the latter , he merely fills his station , or rises above it . Personal distinctions are not as they were . Gentility is not Rank and Title , although it should always belong to both . Morality and intellectuality bring all men to their proper bearings , aud all worthy men to a level .
There is no legal standard for a gentleman , any more than for superiority in works of art . Fine clothes , and fine words , and even fine ideas , make , as it were , the gilt frame to a picture—setting off the whole , but apart from the intrinsic merit of the production . How many " mere copies" and wretched "originals" are elaborately framed and highly varnished ? A man may claim his right to the title of Duke , or Lord or Baronetor even Esquirehe may insist upon being called a
gentle-, , man , but by what means does he compel people to regard him as such ? " DE FOE AND HIS CREDITORS . — "They consented to compound his liabilities for five thousand pounds , and to take his personal security for the payment . In what way he discharged this claim , and what reward they had who trusted him , an anecdote of thirteen years later date ( set
down in the book of an enemy ) will tell . While the coffee-houses raged against him at the opening of the reign of Anne , a knot of intemperate assailants in one of them were suddenly interrupted by a person who sat at a table apart from theirs . " Come , gentlemen , " he said , " let us do justice . I know this De Foe as well as any of you . I was one of his creditors ; compounded with him , and discharged him fully . Years afterwards he sent for me ; and though he was clearly discharged , he paid me all the remainder of his debt voluntarily , and of his own accord ;
and he told me , that , so far as God should enable him , he meant to do so with every body . " The man added , that he had placed his signature to a paper of acknowledgment , after a long list of other names . Of many witnesses to the same effect , only one other need be cited . Four
years later , when the House of Lords was the scene of a libel worse than that of the coffee-house disputants , but with no one to interrupt it , De Foe himself made an unpretending public statement , to the effect that the sums he had at that time discharged of his own meremotion , without obligation , " with a numerous family , and no help but his own industry , " amounted to upwards of twelve thousand pounds . Not as a matter of pride did he state this , but to intimate that he had not failed in duty .
The discharge of law could not discharge the conscience . " The obligation of an honest mind can never die . " EXPEDIENT TO ESCAPE SLAVERY . — " On the 8 th of June , a box labelled , " This side up , with care , " marked , " To J . Bennett , Louisville , Kentucky , " and , in another place " crockery-ware , " was brought up to the wharf , at Memphis , preparatory to shipping . Soon after the box was landed on the wharf-boat , a strange noise was heard within , and upon its being opened , a live negro was taken from it . He had been almost suffocated in his confinement : hence the alarm , It seems that
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Collectanea.
of one and the pretension of the other ate equally ridiculous . True gentility cannot be " exclusive , " any more than virtue . The needy man may aspire to become a gentleman—at least in mind and feeling . A king cannot be more—he may be less . Certain worldly advantages , which some are born to , others inherit , and many acquire , may , and in most cases do materially help to form and maintain the title and character of an English gentleman . Money has helped to make many
men good and happy , others wicked and miserable : the want of it has been known to do the same . Neither of these consequences is certain . In the former case , a man fills his station , aud disgraces or " adorns " it ; in the latter , he merely fills his station , or rises above it . Personal distinctions are not as they were . Gentility is not Rank and Title , although it should always belong to both . Morality and intellectuality bring all men to their proper bearings , aud all worthy men to a level .
There is no legal standard for a gentleman , any more than for superiority in works of art . Fine clothes , and fine words , and even fine ideas , make , as it were , the gilt frame to a picture—setting off the whole , but apart from the intrinsic merit of the production . How many " mere copies" and wretched "originals" are elaborately framed and highly varnished ? A man may claim his right to the title of Duke , or Lord or Baronetor even Esquirehe may insist upon being called a
gentle-, , man , but by what means does he compel people to regard him as such ? " DE FOE AND HIS CREDITORS . — "They consented to compound his liabilities for five thousand pounds , and to take his personal security for the payment . In what way he discharged this claim , and what reward they had who trusted him , an anecdote of thirteen years later date ( set
down in the book of an enemy ) will tell . While the coffee-houses raged against him at the opening of the reign of Anne , a knot of intemperate assailants in one of them were suddenly interrupted by a person who sat at a table apart from theirs . " Come , gentlemen , " he said , " let us do justice . I know this De Foe as well as any of you . I was one of his creditors ; compounded with him , and discharged him fully . Years afterwards he sent for me ; and though he was clearly discharged , he paid me all the remainder of his debt voluntarily , and of his own accord ;
and he told me , that , so far as God should enable him , he meant to do so with every body . " The man added , that he had placed his signature to a paper of acknowledgment , after a long list of other names . Of many witnesses to the same effect , only one other need be cited . Four
years later , when the House of Lords was the scene of a libel worse than that of the coffee-house disputants , but with no one to interrupt it , De Foe himself made an unpretending public statement , to the effect that the sums he had at that time discharged of his own meremotion , without obligation , " with a numerous family , and no help but his own industry , " amounted to upwards of twelve thousand pounds . Not as a matter of pride did he state this , but to intimate that he had not failed in duty .
The discharge of law could not discharge the conscience . " The obligation of an honest mind can never die . " EXPEDIENT TO ESCAPE SLAVERY . — " On the 8 th of June , a box labelled , " This side up , with care , " marked , " To J . Bennett , Louisville , Kentucky , " and , in another place " crockery-ware , " was brought up to the wharf , at Memphis , preparatory to shipping . Soon after the box was landed on the wharf-boat , a strange noise was heard within , and upon its being opened , a live negro was taken from it . He had been almost suffocated in his confinement : hence the alarm , It seems that