one go about making a gentleman?
Environment plays, comparatively speaking, a very small part. "The
appellation of gentleman," this is from a gentleman of the Seventeenth
Century, "is not to be affixed to a man's circumstances, but to his
behavior in them." It is extremely doubtful if courtesy can be taught by
rule. It is more a matter of atmosphere, and an instinct "for the better
side of things and the cleaner surfaces of life." And yet, heredity,
training, and environment all enter into the process.

It is a polite and pleasant fiction that courtesy is innate and not
acquired, and we hear a great deal about the "born lady" and the "born
gentleman." They are both myths. Babies are not polite, and the "king
upon 'is throne with 'is crown upon 'is 'ead" has had, if he is a
gentleman, life-long training in the art of being one. There is still in
existence a very interesting outline which was given by Queen Victoria
and Prince Albert to their oldest son, the Prince of Wales, on his
seventeenth birthday. It contained a careful summary of what was
expected of him as a Christian gentleman and included such items as
dress, appearance, deportment, relations with other people, and ability
to acquit himself well in whatever company he happened to be thrown.

The King and Queen, although they were probably unaware of the fact,
were acting upon the advice of an authority on good manners at court a
number of years before their time. "Indeed," says the old manuscript,
"from seven to seventeen young gentlemen commonly are carefully enough
brought up: but from seventeen to seven-and-twenty (the most dangerous
time of all a man's life, and the most slippery to stay well in) they
have commonly the rein of all license in their own hand, and specially
such as do live in the court." If we bring the sentence up to date, and
it is as true now as it was then, we may substitute "business" for
"court." Business men as well as courtiers find the ages between
seventeen and seven-and-twenty "the most slippery to stay well in" for
it is during these years that they are establishing themselves in the
commercial world. As a general thing, but it is wise to remember that
there is no rule to which there are not exceptions, by the time a man is
twenty-seven his habits are formed and it is too late to acquire new
ones.

Most children undergo a painstaking and more or less painful course of
instruction in good manners and know by the time they are men a