Short Studies in Ethics: An Elementary Text-Book for Schools — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Short Studies in Ethics: An Elementary Text-Book for Schools
John Stuart Mill · en
The best guide for a boy in forming Friendships is to choose none for
his friend whom his father or mother would disapprove of, _if they knew
all about him_.
No. XX.
GENTLEMANLINESS
+The four chief marks of a gentleman are: Honesty, Gentleness,
Generosity, Modesty.+
Thackeray, who is noted among great English writers as a hater of shams,
said: "Perhaps a gentleman is a rarer man than some of us think for.
Which of us can point out many such in his circle--men whose aims are
generous, whose truth is constant, whose want of meanness makes them
simple, who can look the world honestly in the face with an equal manly
sympathy for the great and small? We all know a hundred whose coats are
very well made, and a score who have excellent manners, and one or two
happy beings who are what they call in the inner circles, and have shot
into the very centre of fashion; but of gentlemen, how many?"
These four qualities of the gentleman include more than might appear at
a single glance. Honesty means far more than not stealing. The
"gentleman's psalm" tells us as one of his characteristics that "he
speaketh the truth in his heart." He who does that is honest in his
words, in his deeds, and in his thoughts. He so hates dishonesty that
honesty has become part of his life--it is in his heart. Such a man can
look the world in the face without flinching. He is the most fearless of
men, because he has nothing to hide from the light of day. As one great
man once said of another, "He has the ten commandments stamped upon his
countenance." Here, then, to be honest is to be brave also; we cannot
imagine a true gentleman as a coward.