Miscellaneous Back Matter [pp. 472A-RD06]

GENTILITY.
on both opinion and power. The snobbery satirized so keenly
by poets and novelists, is a quality and not a character. It is
incident to all ranks in society, and may be found wherever
you find human nature. It is not the representative of any
peculiar east, but is that ludicrous apeing of the gentility of a
higher class, seen in all ranks, from a squire's footman up to
Majesty itself. And apropos to this, are people to blame for
trying to better their manners or improve their minds or appearance?
Where would the world be now, in matters of this sort, if
snobbery had have been bayonetted down by the public opinion of our ancestors? Would we not have still spread our
floors with rushes rather than the pictured velvet of Wilton,
and ate with our fingers as the merry courtiers of the reign of
Elizabeth? A gilded oxcart was fine enough for majesty then.
What would a favorite servant say to that method of riding
now? Wo-uld it not be enjoying one's self under difficulties?
He, whom satirists term a snob, acts just as any self-made
man would under similar circumstances; and, with a few exceptions, too often like the wealthy everywhere, spoils his children
with too much indulgence, and by amusing himself with them
instead of training them, leaves a posterity of peacocks, who,
in a life of pleasure, spread to the sunshine those bright dyes,
the showing of which, unfortunately, compels an exhibition of
so much as to render the glistening gems laughing imps that
slyly ridicule their owner. We do not like the vulgarity of
what is usually called a snob, but we must remember he has
had no opportunity to be otherwise, and that his position has
been acquired by his unaided talents. While we respect the
power of his money, and acknowledge the consideration it confers, it is hardly fair to laugh at his awkward gentility. May
he, too, not laugh at our conversation stalking on stilts, the foppishness and effeminacy, the extravagant habits that lead us to
spend what we cannot earn, and weakens the ability to earn;
our utter impotency in the practical affairs of life, and think
that the safe and substantial steamer, with all her soot and
smoke and dirt, is both a sublimer and more useful object
than the fluttering pinnace that a ripple sinks as a cockle-shell
or the paper boats that children launch in a mill-pond? May
he not think, too, fine young gentlemen but the ornamental
appendages of his grandeur, that he feeds fine wines and dinners to, as his wife does the robbins, to bring a little music in
the dining-room?
We might just as well attribute to a class vanity, humility or
avarice, as snobbery. All have it, more or less.
Fanatic hatred of vice is noble, if the act corresponds with
the profession; but we should not allow our indignation to lampoon the man before his sins gather to a head in crime. Intolerance, like all the passions, was given for the purpose of keep
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