and animals."

GENTILITY.

------True Gentrie standeth in the trade
Of virtuous life, not in the fleshy line;
For bloud is knit, but Gentrie is divine.

--_Mirror for Magistrates_.

I have mentioned some peculiarities of the Squire in the education of
his sons; but I would not have it thought that his instructions were
directed chiefly to their personal accomplishments. He took great
pains also to form their minds, and to inculcate what he calls good
old English principles, such as are laid down in the writings of
Peachem and his contemporaries. There is one author of whom he cannot
speak without indignation, which is Chesterfield. He avers that he did
much, for a time, to injure the true national character, and to
introduce, instead of open, manly sincerity, a hollow, perfidious
courtliness. "His maxims," he affirms, "were calculated to chill the
delightful enthusiasm of youth; to make them ashamed of that romance
which is the dawn of generous manhood, and to impart to them a cold
polish and a premature worldliness.

"Many of Lord Chesterfield's maxims would make a young man a mere man
of pleasure; but an English gentleman should not be a mere man of
pleasure. He has no right to such selfish indulgence. His ease, his
leisure, his opulence, are debts due to his country, which he must
ever stand ready to discharge. He should be a man at all points;
simple, frank, courteous, intelligent, accomplished, and informed;
upright, intrepid, and disinterested; one that can mingle among
freemen; that can cope with statesmen; that can champion his country
and its rights, either at home or abroad. In a country like England,
where there is such free and unbounded scope for the exertion of
intellect, and where opinion and example have such weight with the
people, every gentleman of fortune and leisure should feel himself
bound to employ himself in some way towards promoting the prosperity
or glory of the nation. In a country where intellect and action are
trammelled and restrained, men of rank and fortune may become idlers
and triflers with impunity; but an English coxcomb is inexcusable; and
this, perhaps, is the reason why he is the most offensive and
insupportable coxcomb in the world."

The Squire, as Frank Bracebridge informs me, would often hold forth in
this manner to his sons, when they were about leaving the paternal
roof; one to travel abroad, one to go to the army, and one to the
university. He used