tleman is a man of truth, lord of his own actions and
expressing that lordship in his behavior, not in any manner
dependent and servile either on persons or opinions or possessions.
Beyond this fact of truth and real force, the word denotes
good-nature or benevolence: manhood first, and then
gentleness.--Power first, or no leading class.--God knows that
all sorts of gentlemen knock at the door: but whenever used in
strictness, and with any emphasis, the name will be found to point
at original energy.--The famous gentlemen of Europe have been of
this strong type: Saladin, Sapor, the Cid, Julius Caesar, Scipio,
Alexander, Pericles, and the lordliest personages. They sat very
carelessly in their chairs, and were too excellent themselves to
value any condition at a high rate.--I could better eat with one
who did not respect the truth or the laws than with a sloven and
unpresentable person.--The person who screams, or uses the
superlative degree, or converses with heat, puts whole drawing-rooms
to flight.--I esteem it a chief felicity of this country that it
excels in woman."

So writes Emerson, and proceeds to speak of woman in language which
seems almost to pant for rhythm and rhyme.

This essay is plain enough for the least "transcendental" reader.
Franklin would have approved it, and was himself a happy illustration of
many of the qualities which go to the Emersonian ideal of good manners,
a typical American, equal to his position, always as much so in the
palaces and salons of Paris as in the Continental Congress, or the
society of Philadelphia.

"Gifts" is a dainty little Essay with some nice distinctions and some
hints which may help to give form to a generous impulse:--

"The only gift is a portion of thyself. Thou must bleed for me.
Therefore the poet brings his poem; the shepherd, his lamb; the
farmer, corn; the miner, a gem; the sailor, coral and shells; the
painter, his picture; the girl, a handkerchief of her own sewing."

"Flowers and fruits are always fit presents; flowers, because
they are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the
utilities of the world.--Fruits are acceptable gifts, because they
are the flower of commodities, and admit of fantastic values being
attached to them."

"It is a great happiness to get off without injury and heart-burning
from one who has had the ill