,illustration3 ,cover ,,the ,,first ,,true ,,gentleman ,a ,study in the ,human ,nature of ,our ,lord ,with a ,foreword by ,,edward ,,everett ,,hale1 ,d4,d4 ,,boston ,,john ,w4 ,,luce ,,company #aijg ,copyright1 #aijg1 by ,,john ,w4 ,,luce ,,company ,boston1 ,mass41 ,u4,s4,a4 ,the ,plimpton ,press ,norwood ,mass4 ,a ,,foreword ,the dictionaries and the students of words have a great deal to say1--perhaps more than is worth while1--of the origin of the word ,gentleman1--whether a gentleman in ,england and a gentilhomme in ,france mean the same thing1 and so on4 ,the really interesting thing is that in a republic where a man's a man1 the gentleman is not created by dictionaries or by laws4 ,you cannot make him by parchment4 ,as matter of philology1 the original gentleman was gentilis4 ,that is1 he belonged to a gens or clan or family1 which was established in ,roman history4 ,he was somebody4 ,if he had been nobody he would have had no name4 ,indeed1 it is worth observing that this was the condition found among the islanders of the ,south ,sea4 ,exactly as on a great farm the distinguished sheep1 when they were sent to a cattle fair might have specific names1 while for the great flock nobody pretends to name the individuals1 so certain people1 even in feudal times1 were gentilis1 or belonged to a gens1 while the great body of men were dignified by no such privilege4 ,the word gentleman1 however1 has bravely won for itself1 as ,christian civilisation has gone on1 a much nobler meaning4 ,the reader of this little book will see that the poet ,dekker1 surrounded by the gentlemen of ,queen ,elizabeth's ,court1 already comprehended the larger sense of this great word4 ,the writer of this essay1 taking the familiar language of the ,established ,church of ,england1 follows out in some of the great crises of the ,saviour's life some of the noblest illustrations of the poet's phrase4 ,it is well worth remembering that the ,received ,version of the ,new ,testament1 which belongs to ,dekker's own generation1 accepts his noble use of language in one of the great central passages4 ,in the very little which we know of the early arrangements of apostleship1 we are given to understand that the ,apostle ,james lived at ,jerusalem1 and that in what he wrote he addressed the ,christians of every race and habit in all parts of that world of which ,jerusalem is the centre4 ,the ,epistle of ,james may be called the first encyclical addressed to all sorts and conditions of men who accepted ,jesus of ,nazareth as the leader of their lives4 ,to this day its practical and straightforward simplicity challenges the admiration of all those believers who know that the tree is to be judged by its fruits1--that it is not enough to cry ,lord1 ,lord1--that it is not enough to say1 ,i believe in this or ,i believe in that2--but rather that the follower of ,christ must do what ,he says4 ,and how does this gentle apostle of apostles define in word the wisdom which is from above8 ,the wisdom from above is first pure1 as the ,master had said1 ,blessed are the pure in heart4 ,then the ,wisdom from above is peaceable1 as the angels said when ,he was born4 ,then the wisdom from above is gentle4 ,the man who follows ,christ is a gentle man4 ,the woman who follows ,christ is a gentle woman4 ,and if anyone eager for accuracy in the use of language choose to hunt the ,greek word which we find in ,st4 ,james's ,epistle through the lexicons1 he learns that the gentleman whom ,st4 ,james knew is he who in dealing with others abates something from his absolute right4 ,he is so large and unselfish that he can grant more than he is compelled to grant by rigorous justice4 ,he is the man who can love his brothers better than himself4 ,these are phrases from the old dictionaries4 ,greater love hath no man than this1 that a man lay down his life for his friends4 ,,edward ,e4 ,,hale4 ,the ,first ,true ,gentleman ,the ,elizabethan poet ,dekker said of our ,lord that ,he was the first true gentleman that ever breathed4 ,the passage is worth quotation3-- ,patience6 why1 'tis the soul of peace1 ,of all the virtues nearest kin to ,heaven4 ,it makes men look like gods1 the best of men ,that e'er wore earth about him was a sufferer-- ,a soft1 meek1 patient1 humble1 tranquil spirit1 ,the first true gentleman that ever breathed4 ,all through ,english literature the word gentleman has had two meanings1 and has been used to describe a man of certain qualities as well as a man of a certain birth4 ,a hundred and fifty years before ,dekker wrote it was declared that truth1 pity1 freedom1 and hardiness were the essential qualities of a gentleman4 ,our ,lord in ,his human nature personified these things4 ,every gentleman in ,christendom derives his ideal from ,christ whatever may be his dogmatic creed4 ,no virtue1 perhaps1 was so characteristic of our ,lord as ,his devotion to truth4 ,he declared before ,pilate that it was the end for which ,he was born4 ,he condemned all those who hindered its diffusion and tried to make it the monopoly of a caste4 ,he tabooed all absurd asseverations1 the occasional use of which was but a confession of habitual lying4 ,he taught that lies were of the ,devil1 and that it was the ,holy ,spirit who led men into all truth4 ,he said that sincerity was the great light of the ,spirit1 that all double-minded men were in the dark1 and that their fear of the light of day was their own sufficient condemnation4 ,the ideal gentleman all through the ages has conformed his conduct in the matter of truth to the ,christian standard4 ,he has avoided mental reservation1 abhorred lying1 and1 though he has garnished his speech with oaths1 his yea has meant yea1 and his nay1 nay1 and he has regarded his word as his bond4 ,again1 courage and pity were combined in the character of ,christ as they had never been combined before4 ,now the combination is common enough4 ,we have the seed and can grow the flower2 but every man who excels in both is in some sense a follower of ,christ4 ,the courage of our ,lord1 though it included physical courage1 was not of that calibre which is more properly called animal1--animal courage implies a want of imagination1 and is probably incompatible with pity4 ,christ in the garden of ,gethsemane tasted death for every man1 and held out a hand of sympathy to that vast majority who must for ever regard it with strong dread4 ,yet by ,his precepts1 by ,his life1 and by ,his death ,he taught men that fear can be mastered1 though it is a form of suffering seldom altogether spared to the highest type of man4 ,apart from their religious significance1 the trial and crucifixion of ,christ form the scene in the world's history of which humanity has most reason to be proud4 ,christ1 in ,his human nature1 was a ,galilean peasant4 ,he excused to his face the ,roman ,governor who stooped to threaten a prisoner in ,whom he found no fault4 ,judge and prisoner changed places4 ,the distinctions of the world dissolved before the distinctions of ,god4 ,at ,pilate's bar all gentlemen recognise their hero1 an example for ever of the powerlessness of circumstances to humiliate4 ,on the ,cross not only did our ,lord maintain that composure which witnesses to the supreme power of the soul1 but with still balanced judgment ,he refused to impute sin to the ,roman conscripts whose orders were to crucify4 ,he made a last effort to console the grief of ,his mother and ,his friend1 and set ,himself to give hope and encouragement to the suffering thief who believed he was receiving the due reward of his deeds4 ,a genius however great1 a gentleman however perfect1 could imagine no story of courage more noble or more inspiring than the one set down in the ,gospels4 ,a new pity came into the world with ,christ4 ,the lump is not yet leavened2 even the white race is not yet pitiful4 ,all the same1 the emotion of pity is a power1 and does1 broadly speaking1 distinguish ,christendom from the heathen world4 ,it is part of the ideal of all those who are conscious of having an ideal at all4 ,gusts of anger1 both national and individual1 sweep it out of sight2 it is paralysed by fear1 rendered blind by use and wont2 again and again its scope is narrowed by the reaction which follows upon affectations and exaggerations2 but it is never killed4 ,it has been part of the moral equipment of a gentleman since ,christ went about doing good1 revealing to men the secret ,nature could not teach them--breaking1 as it seemed to them1 the uniformity of her relentlessness--the secret of the divine compassion4 ,the independence of mind and manner inculcated by our ,lord still marks a gentleman to-day4 ,did ,he not teach that a man's conduct must at all times be ruled by his code and not regulated by his company8 ,he must maintain the same attitude towards life whether he find himself among just or unjust1 friends or enemies4 ,he must not salute his brethren only1 nor be only kind to those that love him4 ,he must remain an honest man among thieves1 ready to rebuke an offender to his face1 but still a gentleman1 who does not revile again or suffer the passion of revenge to destroy his judgment4 ,this moral independence is the rock on which character is built4 ,the man whose actions depend upon his environment has but a sandy foundation to his moral nature4 ,upon this strong rock of moral independence rest also the best manners4 ,self-assertion and self-distrust are singularly allied4 ,it is the ill-assured who push in their ardent desire to be like somebody else4 ,it is dignity rather than humility which is recommended to us in the parable of those who chose the chief seats at feasts4 ,it is a common thing to hear it said by simple people in praise of some one they regard as pre-eminently a gentleman that he is always the same4 ,no doubt the publicans and sinners whose friendly advances ,christ accepted without apparent condescension said this of ,him4 ,he was so entirely ,himself among them that the vulgar-minded ,pharisees whispered to one another that ,he must be ignorant of the sort of company ,he was in1 or surely ,he would make plain the gulf fixed between ,himself and them4 ,by conventionality our ,lord seems never to have been bound4 ,on the other hand1 ,he did not wantonly overthrow the conventions of ,his day4 ,when a social custom struck ,him as injurious1 ,he told those who gave in to it that it stood in the way of better things1 substituting custom for conscience4 ,on the other hand1 ,he fell in with the usual ways of respectable people in a great many particulars1 praying in a village place of worship beside ,pharisees who stood up to bless themselves and publicans who dared not so much as lift their eyes to heaven1 taking part in a service which was far enough removed from the sincere1 spiritual1 and wholly unsuperstitious worship to which ,he looked forward as ,he talked beside the well4 ,christ had a horror of tyranny in every form1 and ,he seems to have regarded it as a peculiarly heathen vice4 ,the kings of the ,gentiles exercise lordship over them1 ,he said4 ,some bold translators emphasise ,his meaning by saying lord it over them4 ,dekker was right4 ,a true gentleman is not harsh1 implacable1 or capricious4 ,the breaking of other men's wills gives him no pleasure4 ,christ's followers1 ,he said1 must avoid all selfish wish for ascendency4 ,a ruler1 ,he said1 should regard himself as the servant of all4 ,where ruling is concerned the counsels of ,christ seem1 like all ,his most characteristic utterances1 to be calculated rather to inspire aspiration in the minds of good men than definitely to regulate their action1 for in more than one of the parables ,his words imply that an ambition to rule is a lawful ambition1 and that increased responsibility may be looked to as a reward4 ,theoretically the ,christian attitude towards power has always been the gentlemanlike attitude4 ,hall1 the chronicler1 writing in #aedh1 says in the ,chronicles of ,henry ,,vi43 ,in this matter ,lord ,clyfford was accounted a tyrant1 and no gentleman4 ,it is commonly said to-day that ,christianity has never been tried4 ,such a judgment is superficial in the extreme4 ,the moral teaching of ,christ has never been entirely carried out by any community nor perhaps by any man1 but to speak as though it had no great influence is sheer affectation4 ,the white people have wasted1 it is true1 their time and their blood in quarrelling about dogma2 but every ,christian sect has recognised in the divine character of the ,nazarene ,carpenter who suffered upon the ,cross the perfectibility of the human race1 and in their highest moments of aspiration and repentance peoples and rulers alike have pleaded ,his merits before ,god4 ,nothing but this recognition could have curbed the cruel pride of the ancient world1 have undermined the barriers of race and caste with a sense of human brotherhood1 have cast at least a suspicion upon the theory that might is right1 and made respect for women a necessary part of every good man's creed4 ,entirely apart from what is usually called religion in ,england to-day1 truth1 pity1 freedom1 and hardiness are the ideals of the race because nineteen hundred years ago ,christ was born in the stable of a ,jewish inn4