The True Gentleman
The True Gentleman is the man whose
conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose
self-control is
equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man
conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man
of his
inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to
humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe
before power, or boast of
his own possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with
sincerity and sympathy;
whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights
and feelings of others, rather than his own; and who appears well in any
company,
a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe.
- John Walter Wayland (Virginia 1899)