When he graduates the greatest knowledge he has acquired is how to dress well, play foot-ball, and the college yell. That is what constitutes the gentleman of to-day. Slender hands of medium size, long and narrow feet, and a well-attired, graceful form may afford gratification to some fastidious eyes, but neither these, nor to have a grandfather or father who has accumulated a competency is sufficient to constitute a gentleman, and since blood degenerates, neither the tailor nor the toilet can make a gentleman. Good clothes are not good habits. Riches and rank, as the world knows them, are not necessarily associated with gentlemanly qualities, nor elevation of character.
Silver is silver without the mint's impress.
So with rank in its relation to character, Titles, princely wealth, great talents, and graceful accomplishments may be desirable acquisitions, but they do not constitute their possessor a gentleman. On the other hand comparative poverty is compatible with character in its highest form. A man may be uncouth, knowing little of social etiquette, homely and poor, yet he may belong to the uncrowned aristocracy. He who looks scornfully on him who is compelled to labor, is like Hermes, who had a mouth and no hands, and yet made faces at those who fed him-mocking the fingers that brought bread to his lips. Such a one is no gentleman.