Show A GENTLEMAN I 1 this is the late cardinal newmans attempt to dot define ne a gentleman tile the passage occurs in his IX discourses addressed to the catholics of dublin it is almost a definition of a gentleman to say chat gelsone he is one that never inflicts pain this description is both refined and so far as it goes accurate he is mainly occupied in merely removing the obstacles i which hinder the free and un unembarrassed em barr assed action of those about him and he concurs with their movements rather than take the initiative himself his benefits may be considered as parallel to what are called comforts of conveniences in arrangements of a per personal nature like au an easy chair or a good fire which do their best in dispelling cold and fatigue though nature provides both means of rest and animal heat without them the true gentleman in like manner carefully avoids whatever may cause a jar or a boft in the naiades naiads of those with whom he is cast all clashing of opinion or collision of feeling all restraint or suspicion or gloom or resentment his great concern being to make everyone at ease and at home he has his eyes on all his company lie he is tender towards the bashful anti and merciful towards the abused he can cal recollect to whom he is speaking he guards against unseasonable allusions or topics which may irritate he is seldom prominent in conversation and never wearisome he makes light of favors when he does them and seems to be receiving when he is conferring he never speaks of himself except when compelled never defends himself by a mere retort he has no ears for slander or gossip is scrupulous in imputing motives to those who interfere with him and interpreting everything for the best beat he is never mean or little in his disputes never takes unfair advantage never mistakes personalities or sharp sayings for arguments or insinuates evil which he dare not say out froma from a long sighted prudence he observes the maxim of the ancient sage that we should ever conduct ourselves towards our enemy as if he were one day to be our friend he has too much good sense to be affronted at insults he is too well employed pl OY cd to remember injuries and too indolent to bear malice he is pa patient t lent forbearing and resigned on philosophical principles he be submits to pain because it is inevitable and to death because it is his destiny if he be engages in controversy or of any kind his disciplined intellect preserves him from the blundering discourtesy of better perhaps but less educated minds who like blunt weapons tear and hack instead of cutting clean who mistake the point in argument waste their strength on misconceive their adver sary aary and leave tile the question au estion more involved than they find it he may be right or wrong in his opinion but he be is too clearheaded clear headed to be gunj unjust he is as simple as lie he is forcible and as brief as he be is decisive no where shall we find greater candor consideration indulgence ho he throws himself into the minds of his hia opponents he accounts for their mistakes he knows the weakness of human reason as well as its strength its province and its limits if he be an unbeliever he will be too profound and large minded to ridicule religion or to act against it he is too wise to be a or fanatic in his infidelity he respects piety and devotion he even supports institutions as venerable beautiful or useful to which he does not assent he honors the ministry of religion and it contents him to decline its mysteries without assailing or denouncing them he is a friend of religious toleration and that not only because his philosophy has taught him to look on all forms of faith with an impartial eye but also from the gentleness and effemia nancy of feeling which I 1 is a the attendant on civilization not that lit ho may not hold a religion too in his own way even when he is not a christian in that case his je ib ligion is one of imagination and sentiment it I 1 ii the embodiment of those ideas ot of the sublime majestic and beautiful without which there can be no large philosophy sometimes he acknowledges the being of gad sometimes he be invests an unknown principle or aties with the attributes of perfection and this deduction of his reason or creation of his fancy lie he makes the occasion of such excellent thoughts and the starting polut of so varied and systematic a teaching that he even seems like a disciple of christianity itself from the very accuracy and steadiness of his logical powers he is able to see what sentiments are consistent in those who hold a religious doctrine at all and he appears to ot others hersto to feeland feel and to holda hold a whole circle of theological truths which exist in his mind otherwise than a number of deductions such are some of the linea ments of the ethical character which the cultivated intellect will form apart from the religious principle n they are seen within the pales of the church and without it in holy men and in profligate they form the beau ideal of the world they partly assist and partly distort the development of tile the catholic they may the education pf af a st francis do de sales or Cardi cardinal ual pole they may be the limits of contemplation temp lation of a shaftesbury or a gibbon basil anti and julin julian were fel low students at the schools of athens and one became the saint and doctor of the church the other the scoffing and relentless foe |