PR 2YO4 ISG 6a CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY The compleat English gentleman; THE WRITINGS OF DANIEL DEFOE MOORE NO. 518. _ TITLE THE COMPLEAT ENGLISH GENTLEMAN. DATE__1890. LIDRARY BM. wae UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS LIMITED REMAX HOUSE ALFRED PLACE LONDON WCI The Compleat English Gentleman FR S404 C§ }84Oun Ballantyne pros BALLANTY: NE, HANSON AND Co, LONDON ‘AND RDINBURGH ae 5A it 9. ifs ad! rg Cg EU “eZ a ‘The Compleat English Gentleman By Daniel Defoe Edited for the First Time from the Author's Autograph Manuscript in the British Museum, with Introduction Notes, and Index ‘ \ By Karl D. Biilbring, M.A., Ph.D. " London: Published by David Nutt } MDCCCXC Dedicated TO Dr.. FREDERICK J. FURNIVALL; THE EDITOR OF MANY * VALUABLE MANUSCRIPTS AND EAKLY PRINTED BOOKS, THE AUTHOR OF NUMEKOUS- ESSAYS ON EARLY- ENGLISH LITERATURE, BIOGRAPHY, AND EDUCATION, THE LEADER AND GENEROUS PROMOTER OF THE ENDEAVOURS OF HUNDREDS OF FELLOW-WORKERS, LY £ HIS SINCERE AND GRATEFUL FRIEND, © { THE EDITOR. CS eae ee a ~~ —* 5 ag a grea FERED SIS EE beat ¢ Seay ; C1 y at 13( sd Z| RD B es PS Giger SL CONTENTS. FOREWORDS : : ‘ : : x 2 3 PAGE REMARKS ON THE HISTORY OF THE WORD GENTLEMAN — xxxii ON THE EDUCATION OF THE GENTRY IN. FORMER TIMES. xlv TEX] OF DEFOE’S WorRK INTRODUCCION . PART I CHAPTER I. Of the born gentleman, in the common, or modern, or present acceptation of the word, and as the gentry among us are pleas’d to understand it é ed CHAPTER II. Of the great mistakes in the first managing the children of gentlemen, and of the horrible corrupcion of blood from “the suckling them by those (....). That the ignorance and the bad educacion of yentlemen of quallity and fortune is ‘no where in Christendome so entirely neglected as in this nacion, and some thing of the consequences of it! a J 59 1 This heading is struck out in MS. [ viii ] | CHAPTER III. os PAGE Of the generall ignorance of the English gentry, and the true causes of it in the manner of their introduccion into; life é ‘ ‘ : j - 92 rs) ‘ CHAPTER IV. Of what may be the unhappy consequences of this generall defect in the education of our gentry, and a rational pro- posall for preventing those consequences » 144 CHAPTER V. That it is not to late to put a stop to this national defect of learning, and that the yentlemen of England, generally speaking, may in a great measure retriev the loss of their education by a little voluntary applicacion ; and an account of some prop.r and very casie|;methods for the’ doing it I have heard 184 CHAPTER VI. Of the gentleman's yovernment of himself, his’ family, and. fortune . ! ~ 232 \ parr i. CHAPTER I, Of the fund for the increase of our nobillity and gentry in England, being the begining of those we call bred gentle- men, with some account of the difference 256 NOTES : lL 279 INDEX FOREWORDS. SESTSANTTIS Compleat [english Gentleman, by Daniel 7M IP Defoe, which appears now for the first time : Writing, in the manuscript collection of the British Muscum, numbered 32,555 of the Addi- tional MSS. John Forster was the first to mention the existence in print, is preserved, in the author’s hand- . ~ of the work, in his Biographical Essays, London, 1860, | | foot-note on page 155. Fuller particulars were made’ public by William Lee (Life of Daniel Defoe, London, 1869, pp. 451,452, and 457), and to these subsequent writers have added nothing further. . “In one point they have all been misled, for the MS. does not consist of a single work, but includes another, which is bound up with it and fills the leaves 67-100. This second work bears the title, Ou Royall Educa- cion, and will be published shortly by Mr. David Nutt. The Compleat Engtish Gentleman was one of Defoe’s |. | last works, the only one published subsequently being a his Effectual Scheme for the Preventing of Street Robberics, and Suppressing the other Disorders of the b [ x ] 5 . i Night fey 30). Together with the MS. is preserved a printed proof-sheet of sixteen pages, containing the beginning, of the work. This seems to be the only | part which was ever put in type. There is extant a letter written by Defoe to Mr. T. Watts, in Wild Court, the printer of this sheet, which is important, as it fixes the date previous te which the work must have been composed, It is as follows :— Mr. Baker having told me your resolution of taking it in hand and ‘working it off. But I have been exccedingly ill. I have revised it again, and contracted it very much, and hope to bring it within the bulk you desire, of as near it as possible. But this and: some necdful alterations will oblige you to much trouble in the first “shect, and perhaps almost as bad as setting it over again, which cannot be avoided. I will endeavour to send the rest of the copy so well corrected as to give you very little trouble. I here return -the first sheet and as much copy as, will make near three sheets more. You shall have all the remainder so as not to Iet you stand still at all, | Iam, Sir, ; ‘ Sir—I am to “is pardon for keeping the enclosed so long, Your most humble servant, Dr For. Sept. roth, 1720. The terminus a quo is furnished by internal evidence of the work itself. Many historical facts are mentioned, the latest of eas are these :— On page 34, Peter the Great, who died January 28, 1725, is spoken of as the late Czar, and his wife and successor, Catherine I., who died May 17,1727, as the late Empress; whilst Prince Menchikoff, who was deprived of the Regency and sent to Siberia in September 1727, is alluded to as being in exile. Tae Thus, allowing some time for the news to reach London, and taking into account the delay mentioned in the letter, we get the year 1728 and the earlier half of 1729 as the date of composition. The manuscript and proof-shcet appear to have remained in the possession of Defoc’s relations, the: Baker family, for more than a hundred years, ds Mr. Dawson Turner, of Great Yarmouth, bought them in 1831 from the Rev. H. D. F. Baker, the descendant: ~ of Henry Baker, son-in-law of Defoe, for 469, the British Museum not having ventured to go beyond 435.' At the sale of his MSS. in 1859 Defoe’s treatise was purchased by Mr. James Crossley for 475 8s. (including commission).° The British Muscum bought. it on June 20, 1885, at Sotheby’s (Crossley. Sale, lot 2973). The MS. is a small quarto, and consists of 142 leaves, the printed sheet being affixed at the end. According to Mr. Francis B. Bickley, of the British Museum, the binding was certainly done when the MS. belonged to Dawson Turner, since many of his other MSS. are bound in exactly the same style. The proof- sheet has a few corrections, but in .a handwriting different from Defoe’s. The MS. itself is in Defoe’s. own firm, small, and close writing. As a rule, only one’ side of the paper is written op, but many insertions and notes are added on the opposite page. The first leaf 1 Forster, page 1555 Lee, page 457; and Dawson Turner’s Sale Catalogue. * Scethe fly-leaf of the MS., where also this remark in Crossley’s hand is to be found: “ Ler war adulirer of Defoe thts volume is a treasure? Pais contains the title. On the next six leaves arc three different Introductions, of which the first, filling ely 2 runs thus :— ‘The ‘True Bred Gentleman. Noriinc in the world can be more prepofterous, and yet nothing of the kind is more warmly efpoufed and dogmatically infifled upon, than the grofs nocions of! nobillity and gentillity, as they. are at this time entertained among [us].? ‘gimaecio vecdendea by; reafoning, or fupported by argument, we fhould certainly have found fomething among ‘the antients for an opinion that has taken fuch deep root among us. If phylofophy or the laws of Nature were furnifhed with anything to fupply the defect of argument, they would have been fearcht to the bottom long agoe. If anatomy, or the frictef inquiry into the microcofine of the creature called man could afford anything in its favour, fomething might be found in the learned anatomifts of the age. : But if neither phylofophy, reafon, or demonftration of parts can thew any fpecific difference between the Patricij and the Plebei, if | the whole kind is formed in the fame mould, if all the parts arc the fame, if the form is the fame, and the materialls the fame ; where then muft we fearch for the gentleman, amony the os) of antiquity, or among the works of Nature ?? This brief preface does not suit with the beginning of the first chapter, as it partly contradicts and partly anticipates what is said there. The second Introduction (fol. 3-5) is the one adopted for the present edition, as it agrees best with the «treatise that follows, though it seems incomplete, ending abruptly MS. of of. * us omitted in MS, > At the bottom of the page : “ Mr. Furlong at or near the King’s Arms at Hungerford Market in the Strand.” jt xa | \ as it does in the middle of folio 5a. It docs not seem that anything is lost; but that Defoe broke off at this _ point. The third Introduction (fol. 6-7) is in parts very like the one I have chosen, and is full of witty and striking remarks. I reproduce it here :— , Introducion. THE grave ones tell us that every age has its peculiar favourite follyes, fingular to itfelf, which the people are all wayes fond of and blind to the weaknefs of them ; and if I may judge of the pail times by the prefent, I believ tis very true. It is true, in former ages, when the fimple things they have taken up with, have run fome length and this er that vice has been fafhionable for a time, the flucluatiny palate has chany‘d its guf, the habit has fmelt flale, they have grown fick of their old mifflrefs, and fac'd about to fome other’ extravagance : whether this aye will do fo, or how long it may be, or if, when they do, they will change for the better or for the worfe, where is the conjuror that ‘can tell 2" It might be ufefull, if it were not for being tedious, to run over the world and giv a lift of nacionall follyes, and to look back into time and trace periodicall extravagances of particular ages in thofe nations feparately or among man-kind univerfally : how one age has been quarrelfome, another drunken,! another lewd, etc., more than any before them. | But what need when we are come to the heel of time, when the whole lift being, as it were, worn gut, and every humour has had its - day: the world, at prefent, feems to enygrofs them into one generall, and making a kind of democralie of vices, to let them all reign tovether. Yet it is true that even in fuch a Common Wealth of crime there will be fome predominant.* * The age will embrace fome peculiar, and this I take to be our cafe. Pride and j ignorance have been the two tyrant devils of the aye. They have reign’d * too long and yot fuch a footing that, as I doubt, they will not abdicate ; and particu- MS. drud en. MS. predominat, "MS. rigad. [ xiv | dip I larly as we do not fee any worfe to come in their room, forI can not {ce a probable end of their dominion. Pride indeed is an original, a child of Hell by imediate genera- cion, which comes in by a kind of hereditary right ; and it reigns accordingly like a tyrant. . ‘ Ignorance indeed is an upflart, for man was not created a fool : ’Tis a negatio, a deprivacion of knowledge, as darknefs is a depri- yacion of light. aly Nature's produccion is a Charte Blaich, and ‘the foul is plac’d in him like a' peice of clean paper, upon which the precepts of life are to be written by his inftructors, and he has the charge of keeping it fair lay’d upon himfelf. ‘If his intrgduccion is good, if he is well taught, ’tis his felicity ; if not, his foul remains a blank, and the world is a, blank to him, and he is miferable by the accident of his birth, not by his fault. But. if this blank be written upon, but either the writing makes no impreftion or is not carefully preferv’d: this is both his mifery and his fault, and this is the criminal negatio I am to fpeak of. This is Jynorance in the abftract. ; But to bring thefe two together which one would think was impoffible—for how can they confift? Is it poffible a man can be proud of ignorance? was ever a crooked man proud of a hump back, ora cripple proud of his wooden leg? Was ever a man proud of the fmall-pox in his face or vain of being fquint ey’d? To? be proud of knowledge," tho’ it is a blemith too and a great token of degeneracy, yet there is fome foundacion for it. There is fomething at bottom to be proud of, and as Mr.-Dryden faid to Shadwell —- —Prid of wit and fence may be an evil, Liut to be proud of nonfence, that’s the Devil. To be proud of ignorance is to be proud of non-entity. Iynorance is no being, as black is no cclour. Tis a demiffion ;’tis a nothing, if that can be faid to be that has no being. In [fhort, ’tis a-name without a thing, ’'tis a noun of emptynefs, word to fignifye the want of every thing that is worth anything. I might examin here the reafon of the generall ignorance, which we are fo fond of in this aye, and how it comes to encreafe as it } a omitted in MS. ” With a small letter in MS. ®* Folio 7. [ xv ] does; and. | might run it up to its original, (viz.) the defect of education and inftruccion ; and that indeed may be the true natural! reafon as we fhall fee afterward : But Iam not fo much upon the | grave part yet. ; Lut the prefent caufe of our ignorance, at lealt the beit reafon we can give for its encreafe, is its being fthiowabt) and there comes | in the pride of it. : We have a tradition among us, how truce I Ieave to the criticks, that in the reign of Richard I1., commonly, tho’ (as fome fay) faltly : call'd Crook-back'd Richard, the courtiers made themfelves Auarpy to wear under their clothes, that fo they might be in the fafhion and _look like the king,’ regés ad erin plin, So by the rule of our prefent difcourfe, they might fet up for feverall other imitacions in the round thouldred age. The Ruffian ladyes, | am told, in the reign of the lite Czar’s yrandfather, painted their hair red, becaufe - the Czarina's hair was red ; and who know s, had King James I. reizn’d a little longer,’ tham births, warming pans, and borrowd heires might have become a fathion to prevent alienacion of cltates’ and keep the mantion houfe in the right line. How glorious i;norance came to be the fathion fo much among us, is not very eatic to fay, or when it had its original. But that we grow proud of this deformity | muft date from the fact, viz. of its being fathionable. i Dut I aivield hia’ is begging the queftion, that it does not year g orto reduce it to a fair enquiry, how do I prov that it is the fafhion. If I may be allow’d to answer that aunliten with a oe. at the fame time promifing to giv an ample difcovery of the fact® ‘its place, my queftion fhould be, in fhort, this :— [f Ignorance is not the fathion, why is it not more out of fathion ? why do we decline fending our young noblemen and the tons oi out befl gentry to fchool, and efpecially the eldeft fons, the heirs of the eflates ? why muft they have no learning ? The, tho’ weak and foolifh, anfwer is: Why, nobody does it. ’Tix below his quallity. “Jf Zat?” fayes the lady mosher, “thall vey fue go tofchool! my fox! no, inileed, he than't xo among the rabble of ‘MS. 9. * MS. long. * et” indistinct, [; xvi J Re, oe my fon is'a gentleman ; my fon, is he not a baronet by hie blood ? ‘7 \ ? every trades-man’s boys and be bred up among mechanicks., No, no, and he is born a gentleman, and he fhall be bred a gentleman.”— And fo the young gentleman has a tutor beftow'd on him to teach him at home ; ‘tis taken for a fcandal.to the heir of the family to be under difcipline and under reftraints, and much more to be under the power and correcion of a forry pedagogue; no, he fhall have a tutor. And what is the Englith of this tutor? ’Tis evedent in the confequence. The young gentleman has a tutor, that is, a play- fellow: while he is a child, indeed, he may learn him his letters and to read Enylifh, and indeed, ‘his Lut forryly too fometimes, and very feldome to fpell it. But more of that in its place. Then, with fome difficulty, he is taught his accidence, which he can rather fay * than underftand, and this carryes him on to 12 or 13 year old, perhaps farther, according as he is dull or quick. If [ead of fol. 7}, There are some very good points in this Introduction ; but that which has been prefixed to the present edition deserves the preference, not only as being more complete, but because it leads more directly to the subject of the work, and indeed supplies some almost necessary observations, intended to make the aim of the book . more easily intelligible, and to preclude misunderstand- ings. It seems not improbable that the two rejected Introductions were written before entering on the composition of the work itself, whilst the third was written, after a good deal, or perhaps the whole, of the book was completed ; and that Defoe desired, at the outset, ‘plainly: to state his opinion on several points on which he feared he had not made it sufficiently clear in the body of the work. The beginning of the treatise itself is not preserved -in manuscript, but the want is fully supplicd by the | ee ips bg [ xvii J] printed portion. One shect consisting of two leaves must have been lost before folio 8, which accordingly is numbered 2 by Defoc himself ; also folio 10 has the old number 3. The beginning of the text of folio 8 is” found on page 8 of the proof-shect ; but two insertions preserved in the printed portion, and which must have been written on the back of the preceding leaf, are lost with the first sheet. The MS. is well preserved, but the close and hurried writing, the indistinct characters, which may very often mean different Ictters, the great number of emendations, additions, and delctcd passages, the extensive use of contractions and of shorthand and other abbreviations, and the uncommon, irregular, and often curious and faulty spelling make it difficult and sometimes perplex- ing to read. Mr. Francis B. Bickley, of the British Museum, who made the copy for the -printer, has per- formed his arduous task in a most satisfactory manner, and, in order to make the reproduction as correct as possible, the editor has himself compared all doubtful, : difficult, or complicated passages with the MS. while correcting the proofs. There are a few shorthand notes in the MS. which it has been impossible to de- cipher, or to get transcribed by an expert ; but they are always short, and never form part of the text. All the shorthand abbreviations in the text we have, I believe, interpreted correctly. As Defoe himself states in the letter to his printer, he has tried to shorten the work,.and there are, in con- sequence, a few deleted passages of some length in the’ MS., which are printed at the end of the present volume among the Notes. [ xviii] | t In preparing the text. for publication I have avoided necdless corrections. In the opening part, which had to be taken from the printed sheet, I have strictly. adhered to the old spelling and punctuation, though it will be seen that both in these and in the use of capital letters, there are many inconsistencies. With regard to the MS. itself, I have adhered to the text, with the following necessary exceptions. “I have expanded all abbreviations, which are very numerous. Defoe uses a short, thick, horizontal stroke for and, only occasionally employing the sign & ; a short, thick, ‘ oblique stroke from right to left for ‘at; a similar one from left to right for ‘iz ; but sometimes the well-known abbreviations yt and y*. Ano with a horizonthl stroke means either wick or what; if crossed obliquely from tight to left, it means particular. Two connected o's stand for good ; a long stroke with an 0, for notwith- standing. Another more complicated shorthand abbre- viation is used for the words government, governor, and govern ; another for wiuderstand and understood ; likewise the words world, would, should, said, children, compleat, king, Christ and Christian, circumstance, pro- wdence, necessary, of, satisfaction, are, some of them usually, some occasionally, represented by shorthand notations ; a dot before some of them signifies the addi- tion of an s,—eg, hings, that's. Acct signifies account ; 7 r Signe — . . i . . und’, wader; m, mm ; prelimin’, prediminary ; bro’, brought; G » gentleman, or gentlemen, or gentry, or gentle; ha’, have; hon", honourable ; S., Spain; S', Sir; Po, Portuguese ; TM, tradesman ; C4! Cardinal; K*, kingdom ; Hund, hundreds ys tho’, thoughts ; Q., Queen ; sev", severall ; Pio, blenipotentiary , P., Parlia- [ xix | ‘ment; ps, peice (Defoe's spelling for piece); gen", general; comp’, company; y™, them ; ordin’, ordinary ; Abishops, Archbishops; Eng. English; Vat. Nost., Paternoster; D., Devil; M., Majesty ; Gent. Gentl- . man; bro. brother; fa., fatter, LA, Lord; ag™,. against ; thot, ought. Defoe also uses the old abbre- viations for cr and rv after p; # with this abbreviation — ‘of cr means merit. The Z between and o or a in such” words as condicion, especially, is either represented by a flourish over the two neighbouring letters, or omitted | altogether. Many of these abbreviations are at once understood, and the meaning of others was found by comparison with the printed sheet, whilst several could only be explained conjecturally by comparing all the passages in which they occur. To this latter class -belong the words notwithstanding, children, good, providence, coit-— oy? pleat, Christian, circumstance, and one or two others. For the sake of scrupulous readers I have pointed out in foot-notes all the passages where such abbreviations occur, though I have mysclf no doubt ‘that the inter- pretations given arc correct. I have been obligcd to supply the punctuation,—as Defoe scarcely puts any commas, and only very rarely puts a full stop or other mark ;—and to regulate the use of capitals (in which I have followed modern usage), as. he puts them quite at random, sometimes even writing. a small letter after a full stop, he makes no distinction between the capital and the small +. I have frequently inserted a hyphen where it facili- tates comprchension, though Defoe never uses it. The apostrophe is often employed ip abbreviations in the [ xx ] MS., but occasionally I have supplied one in conformity with modern custom, as in the Saxon genitive, where Defoe never employs it. Now and then it was neces- sary to insert a word which had been accidentally omitted, and, though I do not think that in any instance there was room for doubt, all such. additions are pointed out at the bottom of the page. With these exceptions, I have endeavoured accu- rately to reproduce the original. ; I have retained Defoe’s spelling, curious and faulty though it often is. In many words he is simply following the older method, but this will not serve to excuse his writing Zormony, propogate, and the like, not once only, but frequently, or as often as the words occur; and it is amusing to note that he scoffs at the country gentlemen for-not knowing how to spell while laying himself so open to criticism, Blunders in, spelling, thereforc, I have only corrected where it was evident that letters had been unintentionally omitted or written twice, as cuumber for cumber, den- gerate for degencrate, bings for brings ; these corrections also have been pointed out at the bottom of the page. pee was very fond-of long sentences, and the MS. shows that le frequently inserted additional clauses. long or short, subordinate or otherwise, explanatory or merely ornamental, Thus the sentence often becomes so long that he is obliged to repeat the beginning of: it with an “TI say”; and even then he seldom scruples to heap fresh superfluitics on the others. It is therefore no wonder that he often forgets to complete the origi- nal construction, and follows the overflowing stream of his thoughts in a different direction. | I necd hardly say that I have not altered such passages in order to | [ xxi | make his style more grammatically correct, nor have I made changes in any other cases where he builds up his sentences regardless of the ordinary rules of the — English language. At the end of the volume I have endeavoured to clear-up a few allusions which seemed to require explanation. It appears, from a passage in the work, that Defoe intended to publish it anonymously ; he may perhaps © have been conscious that one whose conduct had often. been unscrupulous and dishonest could hardly publish a treatise on such a subject under his own name. He begins by adopting the then current acceptation of the. word “gentleman” as “a person dor (for there lies the essence of quality) of some'known or ancient family ” (p. 13). Then he goes on to praise the nobility and gentry as “the glory of Creation, the exalted head of the whole race” (p. 20), and adds (p. 21), “I have the honour to be rank’d, by the dircction of Providence, in the same class, and would be.so far from lessening the dignity IIeaven has vent a I would add lustre to the constellated body, and make them still more illustrious than they are.” The whole book shows that he did not extend the word “ gentleman” beyond: — the aristocracy and rich landed proprietors, among whom he could not, without incurring general ridicule, have classed himself; and he affects, throughout the ee ee a_gentleman for gentlemen, “ ‘He was therefore, by necessity, compelled to conceal his name. 7 He states on page 151 that he was induced to write the book by the case of a nobleman of ancient family, who deeply regretted his neglected education ; but this | xxi] may be only an invention, as Defoe cannot be relied on in such matters. I do not prdpose to give a summary of the whole work, which is not very consistently put together ; but I may mention a few points of special interest, while the longish headings of the chapters in the list of Contents will give an idea of the general plan of the work. . From the numbering of the chapters it is evident that the work is not complete, as also from the text ending abruptly in the middle of a narrative. As the last page of the MS. is covered with writing to the very bottom, we might suppose that part of the MS. is lost. But this assumption is rendered doubtful by a note in Defoe’s writing on the back of the last Icaf. It was his custom to write the number of the chapter on the blank back of the leaf which concluded it, and thus on the back of the last leaf we find Part //. Chapter J. It seems probable, therefore, that Defoe broke off here, perhaps interrupted by the mysterious misfortune which darkened the end of his life. Notwithstanding its incompletencss, the work is valuable on many: accounts, but especially for ‘the picture it gives of the country gentlemen of the period. To this subject Macaulay has devoted special attention in the famous third chapter of his Hrstory of Eugland,. and his description has been accused of great exagg :- tion ; but Defoe’s book corroborates all his statements, even to the remark that there were many justices of the peace who could hardly sign their names to the mwi¢t/mus which their clerk had drawn up. The curious reader. should consult Defoe’s own descriptions and remarks, |! xxiii -] especially pages 57, 58, 65, 66, 89 seg, 237, and the whole of the third:chapter, in order to realize distinctly © the state of ignorance and coarseness in which the Majority of the nobility and gentry still continucd to live. To make them ashamed of their want of culture, --and- to induce them to give their children a better - education, is the principal aim.(or at Icast the ostensible — one) of the book, as is stated on pages 171, 172. It must be acknowledged that Defoe treats his subject — with great dignity. His reasoning is throughout . eminently calm and unpretending, nor does he ever assume a harsh or ungenerous tone; and, though he sometimes reads his victim a severe lecture, he never ceases to treat him as a friend, nor does he descend to mean abuse. He leaves on us the impression that he is not merely repeating commonplaces and _ platitudes, but that he speaks from his own experience and con-. viction ; and, although there is very little method in . the development of his argument, he does not fail to bring vigorously home the truths he wishes to impress upon his readers. The book has, however,.still another aim, and one well worthy of notice. In the second part, which un- — 4 fortunately is not complete, Defoe treats of the geitle- ( men by breeding, and of the increase of their numbers from the ranks of the wealthy merchants. The honour due to trade is a favourite theme in many of his works, and here he pleads the cause of the rich trades- men with much shrewdness and common-sense. Ile docs not, indeed, claim the name of gentleman for the merchant who has amassed a fortune and bought an estate (p. 257); but he urges that the “ polite son,” who fo aewies pe v has received a liberal education, should not be excluded from that honour, and that, in fact, he is admitted into some of the best families in Britain (p. 258). It should be observed that Defoe never attempts to claim the name of gentleman for any professional man,. nor for any onc on account of his personal merit or character, except in one short passage, where he seems to hold that officers in the army and clergymen are gentlemen by right, of their position (p. 46). He admits, in conformity with gencrally received opinion, that the root of the distinction lics in the possession of landed estates. Ancther passage worthy of notice will be found on page 200 -seg., where Defoe repeats his famous disguised self-defence, and powerful attack upon the conceited scholar,’ not quite in the same terms, but in very similar ones, and with even greater force. In both cases the passage is marked by the effective use of the cpiphora, which consists in the frequent repetition of the bitter phrase, “ And yet this man is no scholar!” On page 201 follows a renewed invective against the scholars, which distinctly recalls another passage con- tained in Applebee's Journal? On page 203 he dwells on the distinction between the “ man of polite learning ” and the “ meer scholar”; the former, he Says, is a gentleman, and the latter a mere book-case. These and other similar passages. show the bitter feeling left in his mind by the scornful treatment he had formerly reccived from University men. . 1) See slpplebee’s Journal, Oct. 30; the passage is reprinted in W. Lee's Lite and Unpublished Writings of Daniel Defoe, iii. 435 Sey. * Of November 6. ae Sw A little farther on Defoe enters more minutcly on the question in what true learning consists ;—“ the know- ledge of things,” he says, “not words, make a scholar” (p. 212). He recommends the study of history, gco- graphy, astronomy, philosophy, and natural science, urging that one may know these things without being acquainted with the learned languages, as there are good translations of all Latin and Greck books of im- portance. “ Thus, men may be scholars without Latin and philosophers without Greek” (p. 215).- May any one, he asks, who has the knowledge of philosophy and all the other sciences, be called a man without learning, ignorant, and untaught,: or does he not indeed deserve the name of a scholar? (p. 217.) Thelwhole disqui- | ‘sition shows how highly Defoe valued the title of — scholar, netwithstanding his previous ‘invectives, and ‘how much he would have liked to bear it. But as the word is generally connected with a meaning different from that which he.wishes it.to bear, he misses his point, though in other respects his remarks are just and worthy of notice. The same thoughts, springing from the same feelings, are thus expressed by Goldsmith in. his Lngutry into the Present State of Polite Learning, | Chapter IX. :— “To acquire a character for Icarning among the English, at present, it is necessary to know much more than is either important or useful. It seems the spirit of the times for men here to exhaust their natural sagacity in exploring the intricacics of another man’s « thought, and thus never to have leisure to think for | themselves. .... From this fault also arises that mutual contempt between the scholar and the man of 2 € [ xxvi J the world, of which every day's experience furnisheth instances.” | Locke also had previously pronounced the opinion ‘that “a great part of the learning then in fashion in the schools might be left out from the education of a gentleman without any great disparagement to himself, or prejudice to his affairs.” “ School learning,” as Mr. Quick has, no doubt justly, observed,' “was in those days even more estranged from the business of life than it has been since.” Thus the protest of Defoe, who looked on life from a practical point of view, secms: fully explained and justified. At the same time Defoe also takes occasion to de- nounce the practice of teaching in Latin, then general at grammar schools and the Universities, observing that if “science and all the liberal arts” were taught in English, this would greatly help to soon do away with the ignorance of the gentry (p. 208). The work is written in the classic style which has so ofteu been praised in Defoe. His mastery of language in this late work is still as complete and admirable as ever; the sentences flow in an uninterrupted stream, and the author never seems to hesitate except, as indeed often happens, to return to his proper subject after a digression into which his flood of language has éarried him. The most obvious peculiarity of his diction is -the tendency to write over-long sentences, and to use as many words as possible ; but this excessive copiousness ‘of expression rarely or never destroys the lucidity, or even the simplicity, of his language. Ile never indulges ' Essays on Educational Reformers, 2nd editivn, Cincinnati, 1888, p. £3. , : [ xxvii ] in the clumsy or grotesque classical constructions which characterized many writers of the previous century, nor in the oppressive quotations from Ilorace, Virgil, and “their chiming train,” upon whom so many others still liked to “draw a bill” (p. 222). His only quotations | are taken from Holy Scripture, when his subject sug- gests, perhaps, an allusion to David or to Solomon's fool. Sometimes his style certainly becomes a little too rhetorical, but not to any offensive extent ; and the ‘general impression left on the mind is that his words were allowed. to arrange themselves naturally as the course of his ideas suggested. He does not much con- cern himself with the elaborate. balancing of sentences, * nor go out of his way in search of choice words and laboriously polished expressions; but the ease and freshness of his style make him delightful to read. Nor does he make any deliberate cfforts at wit, though a pleasant jew de wiots now and then occurs, as it were,. spontancously ; or a happy simile gives poctic eleva- tion tothe page. I would instance especially his com- parison of the happiness of an ignorant noble to that -of a stag in his forest (p. 158), less for the appropriate- ness of the comparison than for the beauty of the language. It recalls some! of. the similes in the //rad, where the poet, in elaborating his description, has lost sight of the comparison for which it was begun ; and the reader admires the vivid picture for itsglf rather than for any light which it throws on the original subjcct. Defoe tells us himself (p. 219) what his ideal style is; it should be “manly” ahd “polite,” “free and plain, without foolish flourishes and ridictilous flights [ xxviii ] of jingling bombast, or dull meannesses of expression below the dignity of the subject.” Notwithstanding some minor defects, such as the frequent use of “I say,” “viz.,” “as above,” and other like locutions, which are really irritating, we must, acknowledge that he suc- ceeds fairly well in attaining his own standard. The length of the work and the very deliberate cvo- lution of the argument will doubtless deter many readers, and I cannot defend the many superfluous re- petitions of the same ideas, which, morcover, are some- ~— times superficial or commonplace. We should, however, remember that the book was not written for us hasty and fastidious moderns, but for = readers of his own time, who may be safely pe ae: st had much more patience, and who had a s eet Sis for this kind of literature. Goldsmith _: i (The Bec, No. 6), “Few subjects are more interesting to society at pre- sent, and few have been more frequently written upon, than the training of youth.” In fact, the press teemed, not only with English writings on the subject, but with translations of French, Italian, and Spanish books on education. It is not surprising, then, that Defoe, who | always understood the public taste, should have taken’ up so promising a subject. While former writers had, for the most part, produced only masses of dreary and unrelieved commonplace, he at least excites our in- terest, though of course his book is not to be compared with such a work as Locke’s /Zoughts on Education. Defoe has treated the subject in a manner of his own. There are many books, bearing the same title as his, or a like onc, which give directions for the education of youth, and in some cases include a compendium of ( ‘[. xxix ] . necessary knowledge. Defoe limits his cfforts to the exposure of. existing mistakes, only rarely suggesting plans for improvement ; and his aim is to show that a’ liberal education is necessary to a gentleman of ied birth, and that without it he could not be called a, “complete gentleman.” In: this attempt he lays so much stress on the acquisition of book-learning that he — seems to forget the moral clements which form the character of a true gentleman. We should not, perhaps, treat this omission as indicating a fundamental defect of mind in Defoc himself; yet it is significant that on page 274, where he describes a perfect gentleman, the “mention of “his mind fortified with virtue and solid judgment against the fopperics and follyes of the age,” | not only comes last, and as a mere addition to “his’- agreeable behaviour, his good humour, great stock of common knowledge, his knowledge of several modern | languages, and his school learning,” but here and in other places, when he makes a bricf remark on “the . noble and virtuous qualities of a gentle character,” he utterly fails to express them distinctly or adequately. . He can only be in part excused for this deficiency by . the aim of his book, which, it is true, gave his thoughts a somewhat different direction, as he desired to blame the gentry rather for ignorance than for lack of gener- . ous character. There is sometimes considerable monotony in_ his discussions, from his dwelling too long on some one point; but frequently the argument is enlivened by little stories, dialogues, and amusing anecdotes. In these, Peter the Great (of whom he had formerly written a Life) frequently appears, and he quotes sayings of [ xxx ] Charles IT, of ‘Queen Anne, and of his well-beloved William of Orange. He also gives-anecdotes of the- Earl of Oxford, who once compared pedigrees with a newly created peer; of Sir Thomas Hanmer, called Number Fifty ; of the Pension Parliament; and of a petition which had to be reprinted in order. to make it intelligible to Members of Parliament, ‘because the numbers in it were given in figures instead of full words. There are even some stories which fill many pages and contain long conversations ; they are told in’ a lively style, and are perhaps the best, certainly the most amusing, part of the book (cf pp. 43-38, 123- 141,)51-171, 18$-208, 268-275, 276-278). Asis his wont, Defoe introduces this latter kind of stories as taken from his own personal’ experience; but some probably are fictitious. Of course they interrupt the continuity of his arguments; and once he does not even scruple to relate alittle story which does not touch at all upon the subject under consideration (f pp. 151-153); but he is ingenuous enough to confess that he is quite aware of this. Finally, I will mention a very effective artifice, which Defoe sometimes uses with admirable skill in order to show. the absurdity or the meanness of a thing. He sets up a mock defence, in which either the ridiculed person is introduced as defending his own cause, or the author stands up for the person whose folly he wants to expose, and conducts the defence in’ a perfectly natural and apparently serious tone. In both cases the result is a playful satire, which nevertheless shows the inanity of the cause in all its barencss (fF, for instance, pp. 65-66). Bey J [ oxxei ] In order to illustrate certain statements of Defoe's, 1 originally intended to append a number of notes at the end of the text ; on second thoughts, however, it seemed more advisable to arrange them in connected order and give them in the shape of forewords. Still, this intro- duction is not, and docs not pretend to be, much more than a mere collection of notices principally intended to throw a clear light on two points, and necessary for a full appreciation of Defoe's works: (1) The changes mm the meaning of the word gentleman 5 y2) The education. of the upper classes of Lugland tn former times. As ‘the latter is a subject, or forms part of a subject, which . has lately begun to interest not a few people in England, viz, the History of Fducation; I feel confident that, though my remarks may be imperfect, they will not be: thought altogether futile. The collection of these notices has involved a large amount of work, as the material had to be dug up from a heap of old books, of which only few proved service-' able, and many did not yield any contribution at all. This may scem surprising, as it-is well known that all the books on education down to the time of Rousseau’ —at least, all Ienglish books—are concerned only with . the bringing up of young gentlemen. ut I was less interested in the theory! than in illustrating the actual state of education; besides, almost all the books, especially of the sixteenth and the ecarlicr part of the seventeenth century, written as they are by pedantic scribblers, contain nothing but a dull tissue of childi-h 1 A.very useful book on the history of educational theory, in England,. is Mr, Robert Hebert Quick’s Lssays on Educational Reformers, 2nd ed., Cincinnatl, U.S.A, 1888, ~N [ xxxii_ } rhetoric. Usually, they: all follow the same insipid method, beginning their argument with a Latin or Greek quotation, going’ on with a lengthy declamatory exposition of its truth, and winding up with the un- measured praise of some antique hero, Alexander or Cwsar, whom they represent as the paragon of cxcellent breeding. A long list of these books is given in Watt's Tibliotheca Dittannica under the head Education ; all the better ones will be found mentioned in the present sketch. \ History of the meanings of the word “ gentleman” The English words gentleman and gentlewoman are simply translations of the French gente homme and gentille femme,and thus originally meant only a man or woman born of a familyof a certain social rank It may be safely assumed that the Normans who accom- panied William the Conqueror brought the terms with them, and that they were among the earliest words translated into English. Dr. Murray tells me that the slips for the Mew English Dictionary accord- ingly show the word gexti/, in the meaning of “ well born,” in familiar use with all writers from about the year 1200; many of the instances are given in Prof. Ed. Mitzner’s HW rterbuch (Altenglische Sprach- proven), By reason of “collateral associations,” which always adhere to words, the terms gentleman and gentlewoman came by degrees to connote all such qualities or adventitious circumstances as were usually found to ‘i xxxili ] belong to persons of gentle apt Thus, medival- writers frequently urge that without such virtucs as “trouth, peté, fredome, and hardynesse, nobody ought to be called a gentleman.” \ As a matter of course the additional meanings which the two words included, besides the quality of birth, must have varied in different) ages according to the changing qualities, morals, and|manners of persons of gentle extraction. In the ave of ‘chivalry a true ‘gentleman was distinguished, | besides his -birth, by valour, honour, gentleness and respect towards the fair sex, truth, humility and pitty ; and knowledge of manly exercises, courtcous manners, music and singing, acquaintance with the order of precedency in rank, and ability to carve, were his accomplishments rather. than scholastic learning, or even the faculty to read or write. I'rom this it: is a long way to|the modern definition which I remember to have readjin a little American book‘ devoted to the subject, saying “ “he truest gentle man ts he who combines the most cultivated mind with the most sympathetic and unselfish heart.” rks by Mr. Stuart Mill's Logic, qucted in Latham's 1 [| have been assisted in these rem; discussion on the word in his System of ed. of Dr, Johnson’s Dictionary, under “Gentleman.” “2 Wright, Religie to keep your fingers clean, it is the best way to eat nothing but with a fork. If any one at the table has lent you his knife, spoon, or fork, you must be sure to wipe it well upon your napkin, or else send it to :the side-board to be wash’d.” P. 99: “’Tis not civil to pick your teeth at the table with your knife or fork, or rinse your mouth after you have din’d, if there be persons: of quality in the room.” P. 91: “If we be to ‘eat out of the [same] dish, we must have a care of i putting in our spoons before our superiours, or. of eating out of any other part of the dish than that which: is directly before us.” P. 92: “ Having served your self with your spoon, you must remember to wipe it, and indeed as oft. as you use it; for some [!] are so nice they will not eat pottage, or anything of that nature, in which you put your spoon unwip'd, after you have put it into your mouth. Some are so curious, they will not endure a spoon to be used in 2 several dishes ; and therefore in several places ’tis grown a mode to have spoons brought in with every dish to be used only for pottage and sawce.” Among the rules for behaviour while travelling, the author observes, on p. 116: “If in your journey you be constrained to take up your quarters in the same chamber with the qualify’d person, you must give him leave to undress and to go to bed first; and when he -has done, you are to strip and go to bed after him, and to lie so as to give him no disturbance all night.” P.117: “It is not tolerable to comb your head in the kitchen [of the inn], where your hairs may fly into the dishes, upon the meat.” , There are many more curious and amusing parti- { ixxxi | culars in this little book, but I-am afraid it would: lead - too far to quote more from it. , Nothing is more common in books on the education. . of young gehtlemen than, complaints of. fashionable bad habits. .The foremost is excessive drinking, which . was for a very long time in England what it is still. too much in Germany, the common amusement of all ° sorts of people. Brinsley (Ludus Literarius, 1612) calls it “the plague of the English gentry ” (p. 223); he thinks it was introduced into England from the - Netherlands about the time when Sir John Norrice was there. In 1634, Henry Peacham, The’ Compleat - Gentleman, p. 9, writes: “ To be drunke, sweare, wench, follow the fashion, and to do just nothing, are the, attributes and markes now adayes of a great part of ‘our gentry.” Again, in 1661, Clement Ellis complains that usually a gentleman “drinks as stoutly as if he © meant to carry liquor enough with him in his belly to quench the flames of hell” (Gentsle Sinner, p. 44). According to J. Gailhard, The Complete Gentleman (1678), part ii., p. 3,country gentlemen uscd to em-— ploy their time with “ hawking, coursing, and Hunting ; with taking tobacco,and going to the alehouse and tavern, where matches were made for races, cock-fighting, and the like ; and if a gentleman be not as forward as they ; are, then he-is proud, he is an enemy to good fellow- — _ship, and is a man not fit for society ; thence dicing’ 1 Dice play is also mentioned in 7 he Institution of a Gentleman (1555) as being ‘“‘no honest pastyme: although it be a game much vsed amonge noble men and gentlemen, yet doth it vngentle them.” ; Ss [ Ixxxii ], and carding will follow, which at last. are attended with loss of estates and destruction of families... . . Indeed to speak the best of such gentlemen, we use to say, he is an honest country gentleman ; that is, often apt to be fooled, who has neither much wit nor experience.” An anonymous “ Gentleman of. the Middle Temple,” who, in.1729, wrote a book under the title Zhe Young Gentleman's New Year's Gift, expresses himself even in stronger terms: “There is not a more worthless and despicable animal than a true country booby, who, calling himself a country gentleman, spends his life only in eating, drinking, and sleeping; and dis- tinguishes himself in nothing from the brutes, but “only that, whereas they keep within the bounds of nature, he prides himself in the excesses of it” (p- 35). . Similar complaints are uttered in numerous other books. One writer is even much distressed that “ the’ custom and fashion of lying has grown epidemical . (The Gentleman's Library, by a Gentleman, 3rd ed., London, 1734, p. 204), One cannot, of course, believe everything or everybody. But Locke, too, complained that lying was “very much in fashion amongst all sorts of people.” Fielding’s novels, also, tell us a great deal about the bad manners and habits, especially of the country gentlemen ; they abound in examples of half- educated, brutal squires, who bully their wives and daughters, and drink deep, and curse abominably .! In : : ; As for the then very common habit of swearing, compare also Dieleuts Essay on Projects, ed. Hi. Morley, p. 144; and Clement Ellis, Gentile Sinner (1661), p. 37. [ Ixxxii | many ways, in fact, as Macaulay has observed,' they did not materially differ from a rustic miller or ale- housekeeper of our time. If we bear these things in mind, we shall refrain from accusing Defoe of exagger- - ation, as otherwise many readers might be tempted to do. as At the end of my task I gratefully and sincerely acknowledge the valuable help kindly and freely granted to me by friends and others. I have already men- tioned what share Mr, Francis B. Bickley has in the reproduction of the text; he has also very readily assisted me in looking out several things for the Notes: when I was away from London. Dr. Furnivall, Mr. Sidney L, Lee, Mr. R. Hebert Quicky and Mr. T. Widgery have made me acquainted with several useful books; the first two also lent me some rare ones. ~ I repeat my thanks to Miss C. L. Cooper and to Dr. Murray for their kind communications, which have .- assisted me in my remarks on the word “ gentleman.” Miss Cooper and my good friend Mr. W. Leo Thomp- son have taken the great trouble of reading the proofs of the text with me. Both, as well as Dr. Furnivall, have also looked over parts of my MS, of this Introduction in order to improve my English, and have helped me in correcting the proofs of it as well. Fe I conclude with quoting Mr. William Lee’s opinion of Defoe’s book ; the MS, was then still in Mr. Crossley’s possession ;—“ Mr. Crossley,” he says, “would do great service to all lovers of pure English Literature if he 1 History of England, voli. chap. jit. [ Ixxxiv ] could be persuaded ‘to publish this valuable work of Defoe.” , Now that his wish is fulfilled, I hope that readers will share his opinion. a KARL D. BULBRING. VOERDE IN WESTPHALIA, Now, 19, 1889. The Compleat English Gentleman Containing Usefull Observacions on the General Neglect of the Education of English Gentlemen with the Reasons and Remedies The Apparent Difference between a Well Born and a Well Bred Gentleman Instruccions how Gentlemen may Recover the. Defficiency of their Latin, and be Men of |. Learning tho’ without the Pedantry _ of the Schools ! INTRODUCCION. ws PREHAT I may begin with the fame brevity fuio3 OVI EES} that I purpofe to go on with, I fhall | 2 onely obferv here by way of introduccion a that there are two forts or claffes of men who I am to be underftood to {peak of under the denomination of gentlemen : 1. The born Gentleman, 2. The bred Gentleman. The complete gentleman I am to {peak of will take them in both; and ncither of them, fingly and ab- ftractedly confidred, will ftand alone’ in the clafs of a compleat gentleman without fome thing that may be faid to comprehend both. The born gentleman is a valuablé man if bred upas _ a gentleman ought to be, that is, educated in learning and manners fuitable to his birth. This I muft infitt on as a preliminary, that I may not be cenfur'd and condemn’d unread, and bring upon me a clamour from the numerous party of old women (whether male. or femald), idolators who worfhip efcutchcons and trophycs, and rate men and families by the d/azonry of their INTRODUCCION. their houfes, cxclufiv of learning or eeeeene of all perfonall merit. On the other hand, the fon of a mean perfon furnifh'd. from Heaven with an originall fund of wealth, wit, fence, courage, virtue, and good humour, and fet apart - by a liberall cducation for the fervice of his country ; that diftinguifhes himfelf by the greateft and beft a¢tions ; is made acceptable and agreeable to all men by a life of glory and true fame; that hath the naturall' beauties of his mind embellifh’d and fet off with a vatt fund of learning and accquir’d knowleg; that has a clear head, a generous heart, a polite behaviour and, in a word, fhews himfelf to be an accomplifh’d gentleman in every requifite article, that of birth and blood excepted: I muft be allowd to admit fuch a perfon into the rank of a gentleman, and to fuggeft that he being the firft of his race may poffibly raife a roof tree . (as the antients call it) of a noble houfe and of a fuccefion of gentlemen as effectually as if he had his ,Pedigree to fhow from the Conqueror's army or, from a ‘centurion in the legions that landed with Julius Carfar. Out of the race of either of thefe, the compleat gentlcman I am to defcribe is to be deriv’'d. How to reconcile the antient line to this and bring them, however degenerate, to embrace the modern line, tho’ exalted by the brighteft virtue and the moft valuable accomplifhments of a man of honour, is the difficult cafe before me. I am refolv'd however to giv antiquity its due homage; I hall worfhip the image ‘d antient lineage as much as poffible withoyt idolatry; I fhall giv it all the reverence and refpect that it can pretend to INTRODUCCION. rs to claim, fearch for all the glories of birth and blood, and place them in full proportion: no luftre of antient gentry fhall be ecclypft by me, onely with this excep- cion, that I muft intreat the gentlemen who are to/.4, value themfelves chicfly upon that advantage, that they will foop fo fow as to admit that vertue, learning, a- liberal educacion, and a degrce of naturall and accquir’d -knowledge, are neceffary to finifh the born gentleman; and that without them the entitul’d heir will be but the fhaddow of a gentleman, the opaac, dark body of. a planet, which can not fhine for want of the fun communicating its beams, and for want of being plac'd “in a due pofition to recicv and reflect thofe beams when they are communicated and reciev'd. ! In condicioning for fo fmall an advance in the favour of true merit, and infifting upon its being, as I faid, abfolutely neceffary, 1 think we differ upon fo {mall a point, that I can not doubt of reconciling it all in the end of this difcourfe and bringing the blood and the merit together; fo we fhall foon produce the beft and moft glorious peice of God’s creation, a complete gentleman ; which is the deferv’d fubject of the whole work. ; I fhall begin with the born gentleman. I fhall do him all the honour due to his diftinguifht quallity and birth ; I fhall giv him the preference upon all occafions; I fhall allow him to be fuperior becaufe he is prior or fcignior in blood, expecting nothing of him in return but this trifle onely, that he be dut cguall in merit, not tying him down, no, not to that claim of his quallity that he fhould exce// his inferiors in virtue as he does in degree. In INTRODUCTION, J.In all this I ‘think [ am extremely civil to .him, and ufe him like a gentleman. I muft indeed, for his fervice, fhew him the miftakes which were_committed among _his_anceftors, efpecially thecLady-mothepy Si the Zady-aunts, the introducers of his junior be- ee a in his moft early yeares | who for want of erudition have expofed him to ignorance and weaknefs of underftanding and left his head unfurnifh’d and his mind unfinifh’d, left him loaden with wealth, but unfupply’d with the means of. making ufe of it: unguided and unable to guide him- . felf, and untaught and, what is worfe, in moft. things unteachable. I fay, I muft be allow’d to thew him fome of thefe miftakes; but this, as I fhall make appear at large, is not onely neceffary in the cafe before me, but is very much for his fervice alfo. Yet in . doing this I fhall ufe him tenderly, treat him per-. fonally with all poffible deference and refpeét, and humbly addreffing him for his own benefit to retriev the lofs, lead him by the hand into the way to do it; fhowing him how to place himfelf in. the rank which God and Nature defign’d him for, and at laft deliver him up to himfelf and into his own pofeffion in the full perfeccion of a gentleman. If in doing this it naturally occurs that his anceftors, whether fathers or mothers, or both, or indeed any kinds or degrees of his relacions into whofe hands he ‘fell and who had the charge of his erudition, were ex- ceedingly in the wrong, and that their ill conduct fhould be a little expof’d in this work, the neceffity of it will appear fo evedently that I fhould be inexcufable if it were omitted, not fo much for the fake of what is paft INTRODUCCION. paft as of what to come; not, fo much to reproach i them (perhaps in their graves), for that I do not call _ neceffary, but to prevent the example fpreading in ‘ thofe families intoa further practife; and fo ’tis for the fake of thofe yet in the cradle or perhaps not born. I kno’ this mifffortune of our gentlemen is plac’d to the account of the fex; that indulgent mothers are charg’d with violently oppofing the committing their fons to the conduct of the fchooles, fubjecting them to difcipline and putting them, as ’tis call’d, under the government of their inferiours ; infifting that ‘tis below their quallity to have ¢heir fons, for they fpeak it with an emphafis and with contempt, correéted by a forry fellow of a pedagogue and plac’d under the domineer- ¢45. ing law of a little fchool tyrant. “Shall sy fon be fent to fchool to fit dare headed and fay a leffon to fuch a forry, diminutiv rafcall as that, be brow beaten and > heétor’d and threatn’d with his authority and ftand in fear of his hand! my fon / that a few ycares after © ~ he will be glad to cringe to, cap in hand, for a dinner! no, indeed, wy for shall not go near him. Let the Latin and Greek go to the D—1. My fon is a Gentle- man, he fha'n’t be under fuch a fcoundrel as that.” Now it*is true that this is one part of the charge and that ladyes are certainly to blame, becaufe, tho’ in this or that place a forry inferiour fellow, as they call ’em, may bea fchoolmafter, yet a {choolmatfter is not: an inferior by his office, and in many places we find “the moft venerable, grave, learned and valuable perfons have been plac’d at the head of.a Grammer School, in | whofe hands. the children of perfons of the .beft rank have been entrufted with fuccefs and who very well. kno’ INTRODUCCION. ‘kno’ how to govern themfelves in the government even of their fuperiors, as is the cafe in the great {chooles of Eaton, Winchefter, Weftminfter, Felfted, Bishop Stort- ford, Canterbury, and others, where the children, nay the eldeft fons of fome of the beft families in England, have becn educated, and that with great fuccefs.; and yct with all decent regard to the dignity of their birth and to the great fatiffaccion' of the young gentlemen them- felves; and I need fay no more in the cafe than to obferv the apparent difference in the future conduét and juft character for their accomplifhment, as gentlemen and: as noblemen, b between the perfons fo educated and thofe who by the force of the female authority, as above, have been thus unhappily robb’d of their edu- cacion, _ The difference, I fay, of thefe is evedent, the jirf? have been the glory of their country, the ornament of the court, the fupports both of prince and_people; | while the /atfer have been the meer outfides of gentle- men, ufclefs in their generacion, retreated from the State, becaufe uncapable to ferv it; born for them- felves, given up to their pleafures, as if they came into the world for no other end but to continue the race and hand on the name to pofterity. Their youth is worn out wallowing in fenfuality, floth, and indolence, till wearyed with a life of levity, gayety, and wanton exceffes they dye, as it zverc, onely to make room for the untaught heir to live the horrid fcene over again: > and thus ignorance and fullnefs of bread is the uttmoft of the family enjoyments, and they dye thoughtlefs, But ' Abbreviated in MS. INTRODUCCION. But I jean not joyn: with thofe who thus load the ladyes with all the weight of this complaint ; for were it fo, (1) the gentlemen would be inexcufable in fuffring it, and I can never believ, if the fathers were not con- fenting at leaft and paffivly yielding to it; the fatal jeft could ever be carryed on to fuch a length : they might indeed confent to the mother’s importunity, or, if you will, to her affuming and authority, in not fending Zer Jon to this or that particular fchoolmafter upon the points fuggefted abov, (viz.) his being a mean fellow. But the father could never confent without inexcufable ‘ignorance and folly to the totall ommiffion of his fon’s: learning in generall, and to the breeding him up per- fectly illiterate, meerly Wecaufe his quallity was to. exempt him from the difcipline of a fchool and from the being fubject to an inferiour fchoolmafter. On the contrary, the father, fuppofing him’ to have any fence offs. Miata the advantages of erudicion and the lofs it would be to his fon not to be taught, would take care to have him plac’d out to fuch fchools as are proper for perfons of quallity to be taught ‘in, and where he would fee the fons of gentlemen, equal! at leaft and perhaps fupceriour to himfelf in dignity, brought up and inftruéted in the fame manner. . 2. It muft therefore be that, however prepofterous fuch a thing may feem in the fence of men of better judgement, and however fcandalous to their own characters fuch an unaccountable indolence and -neg- lect of their families really is, that yet the fathers are certainly guilty of it, as well as the mothers ; that they . come into the practife, whether they come into the weake 1 Atm omitted in MS. 410 INTRODUCCION. weake womanifh reafon of it or no; that they look upon learning as a thing “of indifference and of no great ufe ‘to a gentleman ; that leaving his fon a great eftate. is enough and makes a full amends for all the pretended defficiencies of' the head ; that making them {chollars does but plunge them into politicks, embark them in parties, and endanger their being fome time overthrown and ruin’d; that the ignorant man is the fafe man, and he that isnot concern’d in the broils of the. State is, fure not to be fhipwreck’d-among the ill pilotes and the — rath difturbers of the public peace. Thefe weak, but. willfull reafonings on the father’s fide joyn’d to the fiery © pride of the mother kcep' the heir at play with his nurfes and pages, till he is too big to go to fchool at all, and till getting a taft of pleafure and a difguft at all reftraint he grows paft government; and ’tis no wonder that a tutor can do nothing with him but what he pleafes. 1 MS. kecps. THE. THE Compleat Gentleman. CHAP, I. Of the Born Gentleman, in the Common, or Modern, or Printed’ sheet, Prefent® Acceptation of the Word, and as the Gentry. pug te among us are pleaf'd to underfland it. ‘i EFORE I enter too far into this nice Sub-_ en} ject, “tis neceffary, for keeping all Clear 1 3 about me, that I fhould explain my Terms ; “At! that I may have no Difpute about Words, no Mifts and Fogs to difperfe as I go on, and may — make as few Parenthefes as poffible to interrupt the reading. F I matter® not your long Etymologies and Deriva- — tions, nor all the tedious Harangues, whether of the © Ancients or the Moderns, upon the Word Gentleman; its Interpretation from its jingling with the Word_ Generous; whether the Patricii of. Rome and the — Generofi 1 Corrected to Gedtleman born in a handwriting different from Defoc’s. : * ar Modern, or Profent i is struck out, and marked for deletion, ~ hy the corrector. 3 Corrected to value, but not by Defoe. 12 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. Generofi of the modern Jtalians were not Synonimous, or which of the two are the moft significant. It may ferve in the fchools for a good The/is, and. long learned Differtations-may be made upon it, that the Word Gentleman being inftituted and legitimated in our Language, as fignifying a Man of generous Principles, of a great generous Soul, intimates a kind of an Obligation upon thofe who affum’d the Name to diftinguifh themfelves from ‘the reft of the World by generous and virtuous Actions. Thofe Inferences,. however far-fetch’d, preach.well, and may have’ some Place in the Rofirum of the Pedagogues, where the good, ‘well-meaning Inftruétor does his beft to teach Good-manners to his Scholars, as well as Letters, and to prepare their Minds for higher Reafonings. But when the Confequences appear to be drawn from weak if not wrong Premifes, that Inftru€tion will lofe its Energy, and the Inftruétor muft look out for a better Foundation. But I muft place the Object in a differing Perfpec- tive, we muft fee it in quite another Light: be it a better or a worfe Explanation, we muft underftand it as it is at prefent underftood, and taking People in their own Way, talk to them of it juft as they talk of it to us; and fo, as the Backfword Aen fay, beat them out ef their Play: and it muft be done too with ‘her own Weapons. in a word, we muft fhew them their Miftakes, and the Folly of thofe Miftakes, by the fame Light which they. faw them in before, and while they underftood them to be no Miftakes, To take any other Courfe would be wafhing ¢hio- pians, and meer beating the Air; we arc all Spaniards, or rather ARu/fians, in fuch things as thefe ; we scorn tg alter ofd Opinions, or old Ufages, even when we can't defend them; nay, we don’t care to do it, tho’ we know we are in ‘the wrong. I don’t wonder at the old Pharifees among the Hebrews The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. 13 Hebrews, who fet up the. Traditions of the Elders, CVEN >, 3, above the written Law of Alofvs, or at the Papifis who rank their oral Fragments of religious Inftitutions above ' the written Gofpel: 1 fay, I don’t wonder at them at all, when I fee our felves fo wedded to Error, and fo pofitive in Miftake, that even Demonftration will not remove us, Our modern Acceptation of a Gentleman then, and . that in {pjte of defeated Reafoning, is this, A perfon © BORN (for there lies the Effence of Quality) of fome known, or Ancient Family ; whofe Anceftors have at leaft for. fome time been raifd above the Clafs of Mechanicks. If we will cxamine for how long it mutt be, that is a dangerous Inquiry, we dive too deep, and may indeed ftrike at the Root of both the Gentry and' ! Nobility ; for all muft begin fomewhere, and would be traced to fome lefs Degree in their Original than will fuit with the Vanity of the Day: It is enough there- '. |. fore that we can derive for a Line of two or three Generations, or perhaps lefs ; fo that in fhort, the main Support of the thing, which is Antiquity, and the Blood cf ‘an Ancient Race, is a tender Point, and is not without its Defects; but, like a Rope of Sand, if )» it be ftretch’d out too far it feparates and falls back into the Mafs or Heap of the meancft Individuals, Nor indced is it poffible to avoid this Defect, and therefore I wonder our modern Pretenders to the Title — of Gentility fhould lay fo much Strefs upon what they call a long Defcent of Blood. I would give it all its due Honour, but don’t let us ftrain it too hard, or run too far into the Search, becaufe we know it muft | dwindle into Diminutives at laft: all Great things begin in Small, the higheft Families begun low, and therefore to examine it too nicely, is to overthrow it all. It is a ftrange Folly in the beft of Mankind to Cap Pedigrees ; fince as the talleft Tree has its Root in the » + - Dirt ; and the Florifts tell us the moft beautiful, Flowers 14 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. Flowers are raifed out of the groffeft Mixture of the Dunghill and the Jakes; fo the greateft Family has its Beginning in the Throng, and the Scarch brings it to nothing. Is it not enough that our Fathers were Gentlemen as far back as we can have any good Account of them ? Since they that look fartheft back muft lofe their Fathers in the Search, or they will lofe themfelves as to the thing they fearch for; they muft ftop /fome chere, or they will find themfelves xo where; they muft run at laft into a Beginning that will baulk the Enquiry, and bring them all to nothing, that is to the Canzai/le and to the 206. I remember a Conteft of this Kind.between a certain * modern Nobleman and the late Earl of Oxford of the! ancient illuftrious Family of De Vere. The Earl of Oxford valued himfelf upon the Glory of his Anceftors, their Fame, their great Actions, their Victories in foreign Service, and the like ; as for his perfonal Glory, the Stream ran fomething low, and as for his Family it was apparently extinguifhing with himfelf. The modern Lord was a Man of Spirit, had ferv'd Voluntier under the Fountain of Glory Gu/flavus Adolphus, and behav’d'fo in the Prefence of that true Heroe, as to have his-publick Teftimony of his Bravery ; but the other told him he was of no Family, he had no Blood : The modern Lord deny’d the Fact, told him he was of as noble Race as he; came of as good a Family as his Lordfhip, and challeng’d to Cap Pedigrees ; and fo they began. Tam Anbrey de Vere Earl of Oxford, fays the Earl: my Father was Audrey de Vere, Earl of Oxford ; my Grandfather was Earl of Oxford, my Great-grandfather was Francis de Vere, Lieutenant-Gencral to Queen : Eltsabeth; his Father Horatio de Vere, Colonel of Horfe, and fo back to a long Race; ’till the other feeing The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. fecing him at a ftand, bid him hold, for it was enough ; and he mutt have {topp'd a little farther, whether he would or not. Then the modern Lord began thus, I am [iddiam Lord ———— my Father was Lord Mayor of London and my Grandfather was the Lord knows who, and fo I am of as Good a Race ag any of you. Where it is ob- fervable that in all Enquiries of this kind, after we come a few Ages back and pafs a Heroe or two, the farther we go beyond that, the lower we go; like diftant Profpects of the greateft Object, the farther you go from them the lefs they feem, ’till at laft diffolving themfelves in Mift and Cloud, Perfpective fails, and they entirely go out of fight and difappear; fo the greateft Heroes in the World, and of the moft ancient Families, if we carry their Names back beyond their. proper Diftance, they difappear, and are no more to be found. It is enough then; I fay, and a Gentleman ought to be fatiffy'd with it, if we can, trace our Line back as far as our Anceftors are to be remember’d for great and good Actions; left going on to ftrain the Line too far, we fink it again below what we would have it be: It is fufficient to derive from Virtue and Honour, let it ftand near or remote is not the Queftion ; nor can that ‘Part add to the Luftre, becaufe there is no Standard of Antiquity fettled to rate a Gentleman by, Nor is it yet determin’d, no not in the Jargon of the Heralds, How many Defcents make the Son of a Cobler commence Gentleman, or give' an Efcutcheon of Arms and the red Hand, nay the Coronet it felf, toa Plbeian. Not therefore to fearch too far where the thing will not bear the Inquifition, I fhall take it as the World takes it, that the Word Gent/eman implics a Man of Family, born of fuch Blood as we call Gentlenten, ».4 A fuch 1 gfues in printed sheet. 15 16 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. fuch Anceftors as liv’d on their Eftates, and as muft be fuppof’d had Eftates to live on, whether the prefent Succeffor be poor or rich. Now tho’ this Birth, @/ter\a//, is but mean in it felf abftraéted from other Merit, yet this I muft alfo grant, that a Dignity thus raifd at firft flows in the Blood, that it is handed on from Family to Family, and from Age to Age, by the meer Confequence of Generation : Nay, I will grant an invifible Influence of the “Blood, if they pleafe, as if there were fome differing Species in the very Fluids of Nature; that the Spirits of a finer Extraction flow’d in the Veffels, or fome Anitmalcule of a differing and more vigorous kind which exifted in the Blood, fir’d the Creature with a fuperiour Heat differing from thofe which mov'd in the Veffels of a meaner and lower Kind of Creature ; as the Waters of fome Fountains and Rivers whofe Courfe lies thro’ rich and fruitful meadows or fertile Plains, or which flow down from Mineral Springs or golden Mountains, have in their Streams more fecret Virtues, more healing and fructifying Qualities, more golden Sands than other Currents equally large which flow from unhealthy Bogs, moorifh and ‘fenny Grounds, or barren and fandy or rocky Defarts, whofe Waters are thick and muddy, which impoverifh the Lands they flow over, and whofe ftagnate Waters rather poifon and kill than nourifh and heal the Lands or Creatures that drink them. This is granting as much as can be demanded, and, perhaps, more than is demanded, and is the exaét Figure which they would form in our Minds concerning the Original and Conftitution of a Gentleman; as if he were a different Species from the reft of Mankind, that Nature had caft in another Mould, and either that he . was not created at the fame time, or not made of the fame Materials as the reft of the Species of Men. This exalted Creature of our own forming we are : now The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. now to fet up upon the Stage of Honour, rate him above the ordinary Price, and ranking him in a higher 7 Clafs than his Neighbours, call him a Gentleman, Ando. now having made an Idol of our own, like Medu- chadnessar, we would have all the meaner World fall down and worfhip him. , I allow indeed (I might fay I am forc’d to allow) that there are and may be accidental Degeneracies by - so corrupt Mixtures of Blood, that the original Stream is fometimes difhonoured and injured by promifcuous Coatttions,-ami—Marrfages with Derfonsof Plebeian 7 tt Pb a ith \Race ; yet it is infinuated that there are fome Globules .. - haa in the Blood, fome fublime Particles in the Animal Secretion, which will not mix with the hated Stream of. a mechanick Race, but preferve themfelves pure and entire, and in time expels the degencrate Mixture, and reftores its original Purity; and the Learned often exprefs themfelves in fuch cafes thus, 77s. Such a one has good Blood in his Veins, tho’ his Father indeed did marry below himfelf, and his Mother was a Shop- -° i keeper's Daughter or a Citizen’s Daughter of no Family ; yet he is of a good Family originally, and he has now married a Lady of an ancient Family in the North ; fo that the Quality of his Race will be kept up, and the Blood is reftor'd. This is the Language of the Times, which I mutt comply with, and muft confent to affift in the carrying’ it on, even to fuch ridiculous height, that as fome Seétaries have been juftly reproach’d with feparating from the World, and refuling to marry with Unbelievers, os and as the Pharifces of old faid to the Publicans, Stand off for Tam holier than Thou: So I muft join, for the prefent purpofe, with thefe People that value them- felves on their unmix’d Blood, and call them Gentle- 4.8 men, tho’ they want a Pair of Shoes, and the Ladies who fcorn to marry a Tradefman however rich, wife, B learned, 18. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. learned, well-educated or religious, tho’ at the fame time they have little or nothing to fupport the Character of their Birth, and perhaps, not Means to fubfitt. Unhappy Humour! truly ridiculous, and indeed prepofterous! and yet in this manner I muft proceed in meer Conformity to the Cuftom of the Times, at leaft 'till I come to the juft Diftin€tions which I fhall afterwards make, and by which, if poffible, we may undeceive the World, divorce their Minds from an efpoufed Error, and fet the real Gentlemen in a truc Light, that we may no longer make a Harlequin of the Man we fhould admire: But fetting up a. new Clafs truly qualify’d to inherit the Title, turn the ancient Race into the Woods a grazing with Nedu-. chadnessar, notwithftanding all the Trappings of their Antiquity, high Birth, great Anceftors, and boafted Family Fame, ’till they learn to know themfelves, ’till their Underftandings return, and ’till they can be brought to confefs that when Learning, Education, Virtue and good Manners are wanting, or degenerated and corrupted in a Gentleman, he finks out of the Rank, ceafes to be any more a Gentleman, and is, 7/0 Sacto, turn’d back among the lefs defpicable Throng of the P/edeti. That when it is thus, the Species alters, the Manners make the Man, that the Gentility dies in them, and like a fine Flower ill tranfplanted the Kind is . loft; that they lofe all Pretence of right to the Quality they bore, forfeiting their Claim of Blood they' really ought to rank no otherwife than according to Mcrit. The firft thing which feems neceffary in this Work, and ; This is the beginning of folio 8 of the MS. After che /efs de- Mpicable Throng of the Platet? is a mark for an interpolation, which is lost with the preceding leaf, the next words being really ought fo rank, &c. After as the great Fountain of Order has fet them, another insertion is lost, which extended as far as the paragraph - Venice and Poland, &c, on page 11 of the printed sheet. ‘The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. 19 and which may be of ufeito fet this Affair in a Clear Light, is to examine our modern Notions about _ Nobility of Blood; upon what Principles they ares — raifed, and to what Abfurditics they are carry’d by. fome People, fetting every thing in its due Order, _ as the great Fountain of Order has fet them: See. who is in the Right and who in the Wrong, that fo we may place the Gentleman where he fhould . _ be placed, and then we may honour him ashe fhould. be honour’d: For_the Defign of this Work is not at. all to level Mankind, to blend the Low and the High together, and fo make a meer Mob of the People. Vad 3h Tis evident God Almighty in peopling the Earth acted with the fame Wifdom, and with the fame excellent Order, as he did in peopling the Sky, nay even the Heavens themfelves. In the Firmament he placed glorious Lights ; glorious indced they, are in all their Degree, but of different Magnitude. It is true that even thofe which appear as if they were of Iefs Magnitude far than others, may be fo to us only as their Station is nearer or more remote. But it.is the fame thing to us ftill, that near or remote Situation is appointed to form the Difference of their appear- ing Luftre. Here we fee a Suz, an immenfe and amazing Globe of Fire fhining in its full Strength, warming us with his illuftrious Beams, enlivening and envigorating the © ° . _ World with its Genial Heat, giving new Seafons in it their Order, and putting a new Face upon Nature, and > clothing her with Beauty and a renewed Youth at his Vernal Returns, There the humble Moon and her Sifters the Planets with their Satc//ites, the Plebcrt of the Skies, dark and opake in themfelves, thine by Refleétion only, and ‘borrowing Beams from the Putrictan Sun, give Light without Heat, pale.and languid, and feem to be in a wonderful a 20 pf. to. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. wonderful Round of Negative-Glory what they really are not. ° Tho Wand ring, fix'd ; tho retrograde, yet true; Tho’ Chang’d, the fame; and tho the fame, yet new; Tho diftant, near ; immenfly high, yet low ; Swift, yet not rapid ; tedious, yet not flow ; Tho’ dark, yet clear, tho’ all opake, yet bright; Fair without Beams, and without Luftre bright, Thus Heaven, I fay, aéts with the fame Wifdom in placing his Creatures in differing Ranks and Claffes in every Part of the Creation ; nay even in the Ceeleftial Creation it ol are told there are different Claffes © even among the Heavenly Inhabitants themfelves, such as we call Angels and Archangels, and fuch as facred ‘Text diftinguifhes by Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, and Powers: Nay, and if we may believe the fublime Mr, -J/7/ten, who talk’d of thofe Places as if he had been born there, there were abundance more Claffes than we have pene oe al In the very fame Method God proceeded when he eftablifhed a Nation under his own Government here on Earth, and whom he govern’d in an immediate Theocrafie: Do we not read of the Princes of //rac/. . Heads of the Houfe of their Fathers, Honourable Men, and Men of Aenown, &c? All this is in favour of the Gentry and Nobility of the World, and to let you fee I am far from levelling the Clown and the Gentleman, the Great with the Mean and Bafe. No; not the Rich with the Poor, which, by the way, may at the Bottom be the Effence of that Diflinction, bs we fhall fee in its Place. All this, I fay, will let you fee that I am far from ‘intending to leffen or difhonour the Gentleman I am {peaking of: I allow him to be the Glory of the Creation,’ 1 The print has SArnes, which the corrector has altered to Fair. The eo ee GENTLEMAN. | 2) ‘Creation, the exalted Head of the whole Race, that ‘demands Honour and Diftinétion from the reft of the jm. World. I have the Honour to be rank'd, by the Direc: - tion of Providence, in the fame clafs, and would be fo. far from leffening the Dignity. Heaven has given us, : that I would add Luftre, if that was poffible, to the conftellated Body, and make them ftill more illuftrious than they are. | But this is to be done, not by dreffing them up like ~ Aétors upon a Stage, adorning worthlefs and degenerate °° - Heads with Laurels and Bays, that they may act the © Conquerors who never drew a Sword: and the Poets who never meafur'd Quantity, tranfforming Faces, tranf- pofing ligures, and making the Actrefs appear to-day °° a Godde/s, to-morrow a Queen, and the third Day a Warting-woman, and the like, as the Part fhe is to act requires. The Gentleman is to be reprefented as he ‘really i is, and in a figure which he’ cannot be a Gentleman te without; I mean as a Perfon of Merit and Worth; a Man of IIonour, Virtue, Senfe, Integrity, Ifonefty, and Religion, without which he is Nothing at all, as we fhall see in its place. But of that by it felf. ! Venice’ and Poland are two particular countryes, 411. where the notions? of nobillity in blood are* at this” time carryed to the higheft and moft ridiculous extreme. The Venetians are without difpute an antient people,. they call themfelves the unconquer’d remains of the antient Nowens ; and I am not for difputing it with ~ them at all, any more than, I will with our IVelch gentlemen whether they are the unconquer’d remains of the antient ritains ; if they are not the degenerated’ race of them ’tis well cnough. x I’. 1 As the rest of the text of the me sheet corresponds with that of the MS., the latter will be followed in future. lo 2 notion in MS. and print, 7 ¢s in print. * degenerate in prin -22 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. I will not doubt but that, according to’ antient hiftory! when the Goths and Vandals and other barbrous? nacions over-run Jta/y, when the Evxarchs who took refuge at Ravenna, and fet up their petty governments there, were no more, and _ all face of government began to wear out in /fa/y, I mean as it was Noman, when the Kingdom of Lombardy diffolved itfelf, and all the other kingdoms of that part of the world made up the great Empire of Charlemain, or Carolous* Magnus, and of the /vanks, from whom to this day all the Luropean nacions are among the Greeks call’d Franks ; 1 will not, I fay, doubt but that the Veneti or the Paduans, for they were the head of ‘them, and other inhabitants of the {ea-coaft, and of the country upon the banks of the Po, retiring to the in- acceflible iflands and the low grounds at the mouth of that great river, the fame which is now call'’d the Dogade, or the mere dominion of the Duke and Senate of Venice, defended themfelves againft all the forces of the darbarians, and erected a new nacion made up of many nacions. That all the families difperf'd among the provinces of J/a/y, who abhorr'd the bondage of the barbarians, finding those Veneti enjoy’d there both liberty and peace, principally by the help of their fituacion, and particularly by their naval ftrength, which they by meer neceflity ereéted, fled: to them, and dwelling among them, became foon after manumiz’d and made freemen and encorporated into the fame ‘common body. As they form’d their firft conftitution into a Common- wealth, the fame as it remains at this day, and* dreffing up their government in the fame form and exactly after the modelle of the Common-wealth of Rome, fo they * Instead of azticnt hiflory the print has a long stroke. ~~ * barbarous in print. * Carolus in print. * and not in print. oe The COMPLEAT idea I, ‘they had their Sexatus Populufgue on one hand, and. the 7ridunes of the people on the other; they were divided into the Senate and the feofle, or as it follow'd © the Nobilfity and the Commons, exactly the fame as . the Patricti and the Phebet? of Rome; and as the Romans upon all emergencics of the State, extra- ordinary dangers from enemies, and the like, chofe a Dictator and afterwards the Cw/ars affum'd the title of perpetual] dictators, and then that of /iferator ; fo the :) © Venetians appointed a Dege or Duke in the nature of a Diclator, or of a temporary Juiferator, onely that this is morc limited and reftrain’d by much, as he is rather the fervant than the governor of the Common.- : wealth. 7 Now what follow’d among the I‘cwetians? Pride.’ ftepping in, as ‘it ufually does, where the degeneracy of nature opens a door, affifted to put an immoderate rate: upon this clafs of nobillity, tho’ without the fir virtue which raifed them; the Senators meriting at firft: greatly from the people who came to dwell among’ them, as is faid, for the protection they gave them againft the barbarians, were in return greatly honour'd as they indeed deferv'd ; their names were reverenc’d and the merit defcending in thofe firft ages to their poftcrity, the honour entail’d it felf of courfe. The prudent and well-managing of the gavernment _was the teftimonial of their reall defervings ; and in the next age all thofe familyes, on whofe wifdom, ... valour and fidelity to their country the g¢reatnefs of the Common-wealth began fo foon to flourith, were firft made Counfellors and Directors of the State, and then ennobled ; I fay sade, becaufe ’tis evident the Zribunes made them Councillors, and eftablifhed them in the Government, and the 7rébunes confequently gave them nobillity ; to which was added that the Doge or Duke fhould be allways chofen out of that body, with power — in’ i 24 ‘Soe Lo The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. ° in the faid Doge and nobillity to confer nobillity to other families, as merit and reafons of State fhould make reafonable ; and had they ftopped there they. had done well. Here began nobillity in Venice, and a juft beginning . it was; nobillity, as it ought to be, was made an appendix to, or attendant on, virtue: True merit, fidellity to, and fervices done for, their country, exalted the firft patriots of the State, and eftablifh’d them- {elves as 'the rule for thofe noble perfons to act by in taking fubfequent patriots into that illuftrious body, giving nobiility afterwards as the reward of virtuc, and thereby firing the minds of the growing and afpiring ‘generacions with refolutions to purchafe nobillity at the fame rate, (viz.) by noble and generous accions, by a general! courfe of glorious merit, fo to rife to honour on the wings of virtue, which indeed is the onely juftifyable gradacion. ‘All this was right, and thus to make a nobleman. or a gentleman, would certainly add luftre to the name, and men might juftly’ value themfelves upon the honours’ fo acquir’d and fo conferr'd. But two things are to be brought in abatement of the plea. Not againft the honour for I am ftaunch to the principle I layd down; the honour I allow to be valuable, but then the merit too muft remain. But if. the vertue defcends not with the titles, the man is but the fhaddow of a gentleman, without the fubftance. - If vertue gave being’ to his degree, where the caufe ". dyes the effect ceafes; the degenerate’ offfpring of Zn the noble, virtuous, gallant fpirit finks the nobleman, °° - becaufe the nobleman finks the hero; the honour muft — go with the merit: If he has not the virtue which is the merit, how can he be call’d noble? What remains to the miferable fkeleton of a nobleman? The walking fhaddow } honour in print. 7 MS, ding, >. MS. dengerate. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. thaddow of a duke who once was noble, but of whom it may be faid, the man remains, but the D... is dead, as a renegado is no more a chriftian. 2. The advancing men to honours without the merit, is abufing the honour and the man too. It is indeed a peice of mockery, and is a fcandal of the nobillity and gentry; ’tis dreffing little Dazv/d in Saul’s armour—the one a ftripling, and the other the 25 talleft man in //racd: Poor David could. not walk, .— much lefs fight, in that drefs, Well did King Charles II. ° fay, he could make a knight, but could not make a gentle- man, "The king underftood what went to that qualli- fication, and that a title no more made a gentleman than the lyon’s fkyn would make the afs a lyon; The gentleman muft have the merit, or he is not at all advanc'd by his title ; the $77 no more makes a gentle- man, than:the fearf makes a doctor: To exalt a -fool is onely making a jeft for the town; in a word, to knight a booby is an affault upon nature, and is a fatyr upon the clown himfelf; fee what Andrew Marvell, fayes upon fomcthing of this kind. To fee a white ftaff make a beggar a lord, aud fearce a wife man at a long Counce Board. When I mencion the advancing men to titles without | merit, I may be fuppof’d to touch upon the modern cuf- tome of felling nobility in Venzce for 100,000 ducates ; and, if indeed the man fo advanc’d had nothing to en- title him to the honour but the money, the fatyr would be juft: But I am told the Venetians go upon three {tipulacions when they make thofe advances. I, They never take that method to raife money by’ encreafing the familyes of the nobility except in times of heavy war, when the State is preff’d, and when ’tis neceffary to raife a confidcrable fum for the exigencies of State. 2. When 26 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. 2. When they have voted for taking in a certain. number of perfons into the nobillity, it is referr'd to the Council to fingle out fuch familyes, and fuch perfons, as have deferv'd well of the Common Wealth. 3. The advancing. the money on thefe occafions is really doing a fervice to the public, and may be ‘allow’d to have fome merit in itfelf. But now we come to the main claufe wherein this article of nobillity in Venzce is brought under our fatyr. The antient nobillity value themfelvts fo much above : the created nobillity, that there feems to be an .im- placable animofity between them, and they will fcarce falute one another or at leaft would not for a time. » Now this comes exaétly within the cenfure which I am paffing with fo much juftice upon the times. Ifthe antient nobillity had either any fuperiour perfonal merit of their own, upon the ‘foot of which they could juftly rate themfelves above the other, or if the modern nobillity lay under any fcandal, upon the foot of which. they could be reproacht as unquallify’d for Nobillity, that they had no merit but their moncy, or were really perfonally unworthy being enobled; this would in either cafe juftifye the contempt with which they treat them. But fuppofe now that the noble Venetian of the antient creation, fuppofe one of the Confarzni, the Bragadint, the Boccalini, the Cornari, or the Alocenigi ; fuppofe him a bully, a rake, a B....oraW.... oran E...., aman ufelefs to the Common Wealth, degenerate, vitious, unworthy of the honour and titles which he bears, and which he inherits, but knows not how to deferve: fuppofe him difhonouring his glorious anceftors by his deficiency of that vertue, courage, learning, ‘and fidellity to his country, which juftly raif’d his anceftors to the dignity of counfellors, and 1 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. and rankt them among the nobillity: Shall the no- billity of blood remain, with this weight upon its fame?- NO! 'tis' inconfiftent with the nature of the thing; the blood of a gentleman poifon’d and tainted with -- crime is loft, and ought to be no more valued. as a generous ftream.? Suppofe, on the contrary, a nobleman: of the modern creation, and allow him to be a perfon of merit, of wifedom, of prudence, of learning, able for council, for embaffys, for confidence; a man_ of conduct in the field, brave, enterprifing, experienc'’t, and’ faithfull, and worthily honour’d, and enobl’d on all. thefe accounts; befides the advancing fo much money, as is faid above, for the public fervice in a time of exigence. a7 Now the cafe is this: the firft of thefe, notwith- ° ~ ftanding* all thofe extremes of contrarys, fhall contemn the laft for the meer antiquity of their creation ; how abfurd is the pride of this, and how contrary to the nature of the thing! The firft has nothing to value himfelf upon but the remote vertues of his forgotten anceftors, which weigh no more in the fcale of his perfonall merit, than the efcutcheon of his arms painted upon filk would weigh againft the other man’s” 100,000 duckets. In a word, the laft has the merit, the firft the anti- quity ; pray which has the beft claim to the honour? ; The. firft has family without vertue, the laft has the virtue to build the family: the firft ought to be the laft nobleman of his houfe, as the laft is the firft noble- man of his. Yet thus it is af Fewer; the antient. nobillity look upon the modern nobillity with the utmoft contempt, fo as they will hardly keep them . company 1 it 7s in print. 2 The passaye from Shal/ the nobillity to generous ue is scratched out in the MS., but it stands in the print, which ends 3 Abbreviated in MS, here.: 28 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. company, or give them the civilityes of their rank, if they mect them in the ftreet. Let us bring the cafe nearer home. With what contempt do: we degrade a Knight of the Garter who has once difhonour'd his dignity by crime. The trophies of his ‘honour, the enfigns of the Order, are thrown down. His coat of arms, how- ever illuftrious, and even glorious, from the nobillity of his defcent, are taken from over the ftall, are tran{- verf’d, torn in peices, thrown on the ground, and kick’d out at the door of the chappel of the Order, His name is declar'd infamous and deteftable, and his memory unworthy of being preferv'd in the roll among the Knights Companions. If this is the treatment which a man once fo exalted, fo great, fo honourable, fhall receive in the particular cafe of treafon and rebellion againft the Soveraign, why fhall not a gentleman forfeit his rank and be fuppof’d degenerate when he difhonours his blood by other equal, or even lefs, degrees of crime, fuch for example as a gencrall contempt of all morall virtue, a total degeneracy of manners, and in a word an avowed practife of all degrees of fcandal and crime? It is a little hard, and we muft think eurtalves impofed upon by cuftome and other crrors of the age, that a man fhall ftand attainted in blood, and his pofterity after him, for crimes againft the Govern- ment he lives in, and fhall yet preferv his blood entire, and the ftreams of it be efteem’d pure and uncorrupted, when he gives up all obedience either to God or good manners, Such a conduct degrades the gentleman 7//o facto and fhows him in the form of a vile and degenerate wretch, And why fhould he not be taken as Nature fhows him? why fhould he not be accepted for what he is, and not for what he is not? @ : : : In The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. In Poland this vanity of birth is .ftill: worfe; 'tis there carry’d up to fuch a monftrous cxtravagance, that the name of gentleman and the title of a Svaro/?, a Palatine, or a Caftollan, gives the man a fuperiority over all the vaffals or common~ pcople,. infinitely” greater than that of King or Emperor, reigning over ‘them with more ‘abfolute power, and ‘making them more miferable than the fubjects. either of the Grand. Seignior or the Chan of Tartary, infomuch that they trample on the poorer. people as dogs and frequently - murder them: and when they do, are accountable to 29 nobody, nor are call’d fo much as to giv a reafon for / 1, it. Were this haughty carriage and the violence uf’d upon that account allow’d by the conftitution of their 5 country, the poor people were only to be commifer- © ated, and their unhappynefs would be that they were the fubjeéts of fuch a Government. But then I fhould have nothing to do with it in this place. But as it is the confequence of meer pride and arrogance founded upon birth and the pretended pre- rogativ of blood, it is an example which, of all ever met with, moft expofes the thing I am {peaking of and is indeed the reproach, inftead of being the true char- acter, of a gentleman. For take the nobillity and gentry of Poland, not onely as we kno’ them to be by converfing with them in their private capacity, but as they appear in hiltory ;. in the firft place, they are the moft haughty, im- | perious, infulting people in the world. he had the genius lent by Heaven, not by-the blood of } , his family ; he had the head, and, above all, had a fence 14 of his want of knowledge, which fir'd his foul with an earneft defire to kno’, to Jearn, and to be inftructed. He fought wifdom, thro’ the whole world ; he applyed for knowledge in every branch of fcience. He knew he wanted it before, and he knew it was to be obtained, and this made him unwearicd in his applicacion to en- creafe his knowledge, to cultivate his underftanding. This made him refolv to travell, that he might fur- nifh his head with knowledge: the want of it made him uneafie and unfatiffy’d with himfelf and with his whole empire: he abhorr'd to-be ignorant of any thing, and from hence he refolv'd to fee every thing that was to be feen, hear every thing that was to be heard, know every thing that was to be known and learn every thing that was to be taught. But we re | ; oe The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. But as God afk’d Adam after the fall, Who told thee that thou weft naked ? fo the queftion readily occurrs here (and I affure you it has fome.weight in it), Who told the Csar of Mofcow that he was ignorant? We kno’ ’tis the particular property of a Rufs-to think they kno’ every thing, and to abhorr.to be taught by -any body; but it was not fo with the Czar. What ever he kriew he found he might kno’ more of, nay he found other men knew more than himfelf. It was his ufuall faying that every cobler that came but from Germany or Holland knew more than he did. They tell us that one of the main occafions of his: , being more than ordinarily fencible of the want of fence and underftanding in himfelf, as well as in his own people, was at the firft feigé of Afoph, where he was oblig'd to raife t a fiege after the killing of two German engineers, mecrly for the ignorance and unfkilfulnefs of his oun, After that he went to Arch-Angel, where he converft with fome of the Dutch and Englifh merchants and commanders of fhips, and where he found, as he often faid, every cabbin boy taking obfervacions, keeping the fhip’s reckonings and. able to fteer and work a fhip better than any of his people ; and that every mate or boatfwain underftood more of navigation than the beft man in all his empire. There he built himfelf a yacht or pleafure boat, and had allmoft drown'd himfelf to learn how to work it. Thefe things taught him to know his own ignorance and defficiency, and fir'd him with refolutions of improv- ing himfelf that he might improv his whole empire. This made him, according to Solomon, Scarch for know- ledge as for filver and dig for it as for hid treafure Prov. 2. 4. / If this fence of felf-defficiency was able to form the ‘ foul of an Emperor, and to finifh him for a hero, would not G2 NN 44% 38 | The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. not the fame humble thoughts affift and accomplifl: a gentleman, if improv'd and follow'd with the fame ap- plicacion ; and if it was not below an Emperor thus to - furnifh his foul with knowledge, and even to force nature dnd form a genius to himfelf, to polifh and finifh his mind for he great acelonsnhich were before him in life, how can it be below a private gentleman to: do the fame? ; Indeed, if the Czar-had not been bred abroad, one would not have taken him to be what we'call a gentle- man, cfpecially an Englifh gentleman ; for do we ever mect with an Englifh gentleman that does not think himfelf wife enough and learned enough? Do not we Englifh gentlemen think, that to be a good fportfman is the perfeccion of education, and to fpeak good dog language and good horfe language is far abov Greck and Latin ; and that a little damming and fwearing among it makes all the reft polite and fafhionable. I met with one of this fort of gentlemen once that was very bright upon the fubject. with me. “ What occafion has a gentleman to trouble himfelf,” faid he, “with books, and to fpend his time poring over old hiftoryes? what have we to do with the lives of a parcell of rotten kings and emperors, the Czfars and Alexanders of the world? aren’t they dead and in their graves and for: gotten? and there Ict them lye and be forgotten. What does it fignifye to us to enquire after them?” “There's Sir T....2P....” (adds he) “and my Lord ,...; they have been travelling as they call it; tis rambling over the Aills and far away, moil- ing themfelves in clambring over the mountains of the Alps and the Pyrenees and I kno’ not where) hunt- ing in every hole and corner to fee graves and ruines, and to look upon the old heaps, that they may fay they have feen the place where fuch a town ftood, the vault where fuch an emperor was bury’d, and it may be they had ‘The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. had fcen the town too, if it had not been loft, and the ° Emperor too, if he had not been dead; and what if: they had ? all they could fay when they came home would be, I have feen fuch a town and fuch a Ca-far, to which one would anfwer as the Dutch do in the like cafes, — Had you not un fac? had you not a bag? that is to fay, if you’had, why did you not bring ‘em away with you? Here was my Lord .....,” adds his Worfhip, - » bantering a noble perfon who frail {pent fome yeares abroad, “went over to Affrica, and w hat did he fee there? _! hy why he faw a lyon, and fo have I done in the tower ; well, but he faw the ruines of the great city of Carthage, that is to fay he faw Carthage lyeing in ftate, for it feems it was dead: he-faw a great heap of rubbifh and they told him, there the city of Carthage ftood. Very good, and his Lordfhip values himfelf much upon it. —Why,” fayes he, “I faw London once in rubbifh, and that was better; for it had this difference, that London is rifen again from the dead, and fo is not Carthage, and never will; and I think I am even with his Lord- fhip and have fav'd a labour of rambling a thoufand miles for nothing.” Then my country efquire was witty upon the gentle- men jthat read and travell to flow themfelves with know- _ledge, that are curious in fearching into antiquity, and looking back into the records of time; that read the glorious accions of great men in order to imitate their vertue and, that by knowledge treafur'd up, make them- felves rich in abillityes as well as defire to ferv their country. Dut he fets his foot upon it all as ridiculous, enjoys his efpoufd brutallity, hunts, hawkes, fhootes, 39 and follows his game, hallows to his dogs, dams his fer- s 15. vants, dotes upon his horfes, drinks with his hunt{man, and is excellent company for two or three drunken elder brothers in his neighbourhood ; and as here is his _ felicity, fo here is the uttmoft of his accomplifhments. When s 40 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. When! he comes to the eftate, tis not the fame oncly but worfe ; for, his pride encreafing without his fence, he comes at laft to the perfeccion of a fool, namely to be proud of his ignorance. This makes/him talkative, and that makes him intollerable, becaufe he talks non- fence and impofes it upon you for wit, argues without knowledge, grows dogmatic in his folly and at laft quarrellfome, till, in a word, you muft grant the moft egregious ridiculous noife of his tongue to be fence and liften to it too, or you muft fight him. By this time, he gets a wife and perhaps an heir as wife as himfelf. If the lady bea toy, a flutter, an empty weakling like her fpoufe, fhe is happy; if not, fhe is undone; if fhe is a woman of fence and wit, fhe is ruin’d ; for to be ty’d down to converfe with a fool, Heavens! what lady of any underftanding can bear it! In a word, fhe languifhes under the infupportable weight of it a few yeares; when being fmother’d with the fume and-fmoke of nonfenfe and impertinence, fhe expires, and ought to be put down among the various. diftempers in the yearly bill /uffocated ! Thefe are the gentlemen of whom the great Rochefter fayes they are good Chriftians, for they allwayes believ Heaven has given them a full fhare of brains, and that they have wit enough. . In witt alone Heaven is munificent, Of which to all fo juft a fhare ts lent Lhat the moft avaritious are content, sind none Cre thinks the due divifion’s fuch, His own too litth, or his friends’ too much, But I fhall be loft among fools, the crowd is fo great that, as’ in a wood the buthes are fo thick, I fhall never find 1 The subsequent text, as far as i t¢s order, is marked for dele- tion, but is not struck out. ? Abbreviated in MS. ® that as indistinct in MS. we Us ue avy The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. find my way out. I muft come back to the faét before me. Perhaps I may touch this fore place again in its order. But I return to the queftion about the late Czar of , Mufcovy, which requires fome thing to be faid to it, viz., _ who told hi at he was ignorant? It is indeed one 9 ‘of the hardeft things in the world to convince any man that he is ignorant; like the fin of ingratitude ‘tis what no body cares to confefs. The mocion muft be fupernatural. It is not dictated by common principles ; if it were, the world would be all wife, learned, knowing, and fully iriform’d ; for Lf fools could their own tenorance difecrn, They'd be no longer fools, becaufe they'd learit Here I might take up-a whole chapter by way of cffay upon the extraordinary quallificacion of conceit, the puff't up empty accomplifhment, the coxcomb’s glory mencion’d as above, viz. opinion, wit, of which Roch- efter merrily fums up the bleffing in two lines, thus, With an eflate, no witt, and a young iwtfe, The folid comforts of a coxcomdb life. It muft be confefft (fo nature direéts by the force’ of. fecond caufes) that ‘tis very hard for a man thoro’ly ignorant of witt and good fence, that knows not what it is or means, not to miftake in his own favor, not to believ his naturall baftard wit to be good fterling, ‘and fo put it off for current coin when it is really a counter- feit. Now if this be his cafe, firft, you need not wonder that he ds angry that you won't take it. For like an honcft man that puts off brafs s money, if he does not know it is counterfeit, ’tis no breach of juftice, and he is not blam’d, and, if you charge his integrity, he refents it: fo our falavites gentleman refents it to an extremety, if you reproach his. underftanding, becaufe he believs it to be very good. 2. You 41 42 f 16. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. 2. You are not to wonder that he fcorns to be in- form’d when he is allready. fo fully perfwaded, that his wit is confumate and at leaft fuperior .to yours, who pretend to inform him. Nothing can be a greater af- front to him than to offer to teach him who thinks himfelf able to teach the world, and that pretends both: to have fence himfelf and judge cf cvery one’s. elce, Crede quod habes, ct hates, if, according to the doétrine, to believe that we have wit is to be wife, happy! W.... the flower of his family, mafter of the fineft fence, the fineft language, and the greateft fhow of wit of his whole generacion, no matter where he had it, what tho’ his anceftors for three ages never had any and he was never taught any ; yet asthe immenfe fund is fecur'd in the mine tho’ never dug up, and the fub- ftance cxifts in his imagination, the reallity is as cvi- dent and the operation as effcétuall as the divifion of colours in the prifme, where the eye fees what isnot and realizes nonentity to a demonftration. I fhould be very unwilling to treat the Englifh gentlemen rudely, when they are fo civil to themfelves. Nothing is more affronting to a gentleman than to con- tradiét him when he takes the affirmatio upon him, and if he affures me then that he is a man of fence, that he has a fund of brains and a ftock of wit, whether it be mother-wit or clergy, it matters not; good manners fay I am oblig’d to believ it, and while I fubmit to the popery of it, how can I go about to undeciev him ? that would be popery indced of another kind, (viz.) to preach one thing and profefs another. Here a man is embarrafft in an inextricable labrinth: he is bound on one hand to fee the fool (nature forbids _ fhutting our eyes againft the light), and he is bound on the other hand-to recognize the wit ; and, which is the * part particularly perplexing, both thefe center in the fame object, yet it muft Le done, the laws of Nature * command The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. command one, and the rules‘of decency, which is nature in a gentleman, oblige the other. Thus he fubmits to worfhip the idol when the deity is abfent, as our people, bow to the candles upon the altar when they deny the — Reall Prefencc, a fort of popery that every body may not think of. I muft fay, however, ’tis fomething hard that, when Coll..Ch..... rattles at W....s and talks fo ridiculoufly that the very foot-men grin and fnecr at . it, I muft fit by and fay yes and xo juft as his brains jingle, and accquifce in what cvery body that hears him knows to be the worft of nonfence oncly becaufe he weares a red coat and a fword, and, it may be, has two or three orderly men, corporalls or fergeants allways at his heels, who will knock a man down with their halberds, if we fhould not Ict him knock us down . with his toungue. I once met cafually with one of thofe fons of ignor- ance in a country coffee-houfe. He had in his com- pany two clergy-men' and his younger brother. One of the clergy-men' was the chapline of the family, the other a divine of fome note in the next town, who, however, enjoy'd a living by the gift of thofe two gentlemen's father, who was yet alive, tho’ the fons were both of them then grown. The two brothers had a warm difcourfe about learning and wit, and it was as much as both the clergy-men could do to keep them from quarrelling. The younger brother had been bred at the Uni- verfity, and had acquir'd a good ftock of learning, “which he had the felicity to graft upon a noble ftock of originall fence. He had a genius above the common rate, and, as it was improy’d by a liberall _educacion, it made him extremely valued by the beft men, and particularly quallify’d by a polite converfa- tion 1 MS, Clergy man, } 43. 44 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. tion for the beft company. The elder brother was a gentleman, that is, he was heir to an eftate of about 3000 pounds a year, and expected to, be chofen Par- liament man at an eleccion which was then at hand. He had been a hunting early that morning, and his: man ftood at the coffee houfe door with the French horn in his hand; and the muftering being juft ready to go home, the park and manfion houfe being about a mile out of the town, but meeting with his younger brother in the town, with the two clergy men, they came all together to the coffee houfe to read the news. When every one taking a feverall paper in his hand, . the gentleman happens to read a paragraph telling us that fuch a gentleman was made Commiffioner in fome bufinefs or other, I do not remember whether of the ‘Cuftomes or Excife or fome other employment under the Government ; at which he threw down the paper in a kind of paffion : “D....m ‘em,” fayes he, “what fool muft he be now that they have given him a place!” “Who is it?” fayes the brother. ; “Why, there,” fayes he, “look, ’tis that beggarly fellow, Sir Tho... .” “Why, brother?” fayes the younger, “he is a very pretty gentleman I affure you, a man of merit, and * _ fit for any employment whatfoever.” “A gentleman and a man of merit, what d’ye mean by that? What family is he of? Why, his grandfather was a citizen, a tradefman! he a gentle- man!” ' Younger ; “I don't kno’ what his father was, or his grandfather ; but I affure you ne has all the quallifica- tions of a ” Elder brother: “Of a what? Y a fcoundrel. I tell you he is but one remove from a fhopkecper, his father was a——” Younger: The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. ; Younger : “Nay 1 muft interrupt you now, brother, as you did me. Let his father be what he will, his merit will make a gentleman of him in fpite of family; befides he is a baronet by birth.” Elder: “ A baronet ? yes, his father got money by bubbling and tricking and jobbing, and bought ‘a patent of a poor gentleman that was ftarving.” Younger ; “ Let the patent be bought by ait it will; he inherits it, he didn’t buy it.” Elder : > “Well that does not make him a gentle- man; you kno’ what King Charles faid, that he could make a knight, but could not make a gentleman.” Younger : “ But L tell you, Sir Thomas was a gentle- man before he was a knight.” Elder: “Wow do ye make out that, Doctor, with all your fchollarfhip ?” Younger: “Don't be fo witty upon your younger brother: I am no doctor, and yet I can make out that well enough. IJIe was a man of vertue and modefty, had a univerfall knowledge of the world; an extraordinary ftock of fence, and withall is a compleat fchollar.” Elder: “And thofe things, you fuppofe, make a . gentleman, do.ye?” Younger: “ They go a great way towards it, in my opinion, I muft confefs.” Elder: “Not at all! they may make him a good man perhaps and a good Chriftian'; nay, they may. make him good company, but not a gentleman, by no means. I can’t allow that.” Younger : “ Then I don’t know what a gentleman is at all, or what it means.” ; Elder: Then I am forry for your head. Have you gone all this while to fchool, and don’t know what a gentleman is?” Younger : 1 Abbreviated in MS, 45 , 46 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. Younger: “1 am mighty willing to learn, efpecially of my elder brother.” : Elder : “Why then your elder brother may teach you. I take him to be a gentleman that has the blood of.a gentleman in his veins. Nothing can be a gentleman but the fon of a gentleman.” Younger : “And vertue, parts, fence, breeding, or religion, have no fhare in it.” Elder: “Not at all. They may conftitute a good man, if you will, but not a gentleman. He may be the D... if he will, he is ftill a gentleman.” Younger: “Well then let me be the good: man, and you fhall be the gentleman. But I tell you, Sir Thomas has a thoufand good things in him, and above all I take him to be that good man too; for he is a very religious gentleman.” Ltder : “Very good then ; he would have made a good parfon, it may be, or a bifhop; but what's that . to a gentleman?” Here the minifter put in, tho’ modeftly too: “Sir,” fayes he, “I hope you will allow a clergy-man may be a gentleman,” Elder ; “What, do I touch your cloth too, Doétor ? I don’t allow it I affure you. A parfon a gentleman? No, I affure you I. allow no tradefmen? to be ‘gentle- men.” Then the chaplain fpokc: “ That's too hard, Sir,” fayes he, “upon our cloth. I hope you don’t call us tradefmen' neither.” Elder brother: “Not tradefmen'? why, what are you? Is it not your bufinefs to work for your bread, © and is not that your trade*? Is not the pulpit your fhop, and is not this your apron, M' Book Beater ?”— Here he took up a chaplain’s f{carf and gave it a twirle into his face, at which both the clergy-men rofc up, as if they MMS. T pen, as often. ?2MS. 7; as often. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. = 47 ‘they would be gon; but the younger brother took him up, but with refpect. Younger brother: “Q brother, don’t abufe your friends! remember you are a gentleman, what ever they are; and I think they are gentlgmen: too.” Elder brother: “1 find my brother don't kno’ what / 1. a gentleman is, indecd. Pray how do you make it out with all your fchool trumpery? A parfon a gentleman, how do you prove that ?” Younecr: “It is not my bufinefs to prove them gentlemen by birth, becaufe I don’t kno’ their fami- lyes; but I kno’ there are fome very good familyes of both their names. But there is fuch a thing as being a gentleman by office. What d’ye think of that ?” Lihter: “ By office! What fort of gentlemen are they, pray?” Younger: “ Why, for example, tho’ I did not mean that, the King's Comiffion I think conftitutes a gentle- _ man effectually. Don’t we call ani officer in the Army © a ‘gentleman? I think fighting for his country and his King, and entrufted by the King with command, gives him a title.” Elder: “1 don’t kno’ that; he is at beft but a mercenary.” ! Younger: “No, no. Mercenaries were allwayes fuch foldiers as. are hyr’d out from one nation to another meerly for pay, fuch as the Swifs, the Grifons, and fuch as they. But we muft diftinguifh in this cafe. Soldiers entred into the fervice of their Sove- raign can not be called mercenaries.” Elder: “ Well, but the parfons don’t were the King's Comiffion: what’s that to them ?” Younger: “TI don’t kno’ how you'l come -off, that way: they wear a higher comiffion than! the King’s, I affure you.” Lider: PMS. ys 48 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. Elder: “A ,commiffion d’ye call it? what, the bifhop’s commiffion! that won’t do. That’s all a church trick, a peice of pricft craft.” Then the minifter put in again : “Come, gentlemen,” fayes he, “pray, don’t differ about us. The young gentleman fhall call us what he pleafes. We have a higher commiffion than he thinks of, or perhaps he has not fpent many thoughts about it. Whether the King can do it or not, we won't difpute ; but we have our commiffion from him that, we are fure, can make a gentleman. Pray, don’t differ about that.” ’ Younger: “Well, I believ your claim good, that way too, and I take a clergyman to be a gentleman by office, too, tho’ that was not what I meant.” Elder; “Tt’s well if you kno’ what you meant.” Vounger: “ Yes, I xno’ what I meant, and I nam’‘d it to you before. I fay a man that beares the King’s -‘Commiffion and is entrufted with the command of his fubjects in the field, is a-man of honour, and I think a clergy-man the fame on account of his office. Pray, what would you call the fon of an officer in the Army or the fon of a dignify’d clergy-man ?” Elder: “1 fuppofe you kno’ what they are call’d abroad, brother. To call a man the fon of a prieft is to call him the fon of a whore.” / Younger: “ That’s quite another cafe; that’s béecaufe of the celibacy of the Romith clergy; but we muft dif- tinguish between Proteftant and Popifh.” Elder: “Yes, yes; and you muft diftinguifh between a prieft and a gentleman.” Younger: “ Notatall; unlefs it be to the minifter’s great advantage, viz. that he may be a gentleman by birth and by office, too.” Elder ; “ That's no diftincion at all.” Younger: “But I diftinguish again; I fay there are gentlemen by birth and gentlemen by cducation, and ° The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. and I infift that the laft is the better of the two; for he is the beft and trueft originall of a gentleman, and has been fo, of all the familyes of gentlemen in England ;. or elfe they have no originalls at all.” Elder: “1 thought we fhould have fome of your fchool logic ; it’s much you had not given us fome old fcraps of Latin to make out this new diftinccion. Englifh-men, they fay, allways talk other people’s Latin and none of their own.” Younger brother: “Well, I neither talkt other people’s Latin or my own. I was not willing -to affront my elder brother.” Elder: “What d’ye mean by that? pray explain yourfelf.” [Speaks angrily] : Younger: “Why, I would not fpeak a language my brother did not underftand. If I muft explain myfelf, | muft.” Elder: “1 don’t defire to underftand; it, I hate all your pedantry ; but what’s that to ypur learned diftinccion of a gentleman by birth and 4 gentleman by educacion ?” ee bes Younger: “No, no, it’s nothing to my diftincion ; it was onely a return to my brother's witt ; you was fo fharp upon me.” Elder: “YT wit? I have enough to ferv me. I have wit enough for. a gentleman. I hate your wits. 1 would. not be a-kin to a wit if I could help it.” ' Younger: “Nor I to a fool.” Elder: “1 hope you mean my father. I with he was prefent to hear you.” Younger: “You can’t suppofe I meant my father, becaufe he is known to have more wit and more learning than all of us, and if he was here he would not fee room to think I meant him.” 'Elder: “Then you mean your brother: which if D I 49 50 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. I thought you did, I fhould let you kno’ I refent tt as I ought to do.” Younger: “I mean nothing but what I fay; and I am neither afraid of what I faid| or what I meant or of any body’s refentment.” [Now ‘they grew very hot. Euder : “Then I defire you to explain your felf again.” Younger: “You ought to explain firft; you made the firft refleccion.”. Elder : “ What fhould I explain?” Younger: “ Why, what you meant by being a-kin to a witt. I fay that is a full refleccion upon my father.” Elder: “1 thought you would have taken it to yourfelf.” Younger: “No; no; tho’ I am no witt, yet I have more wit than that, too, If you mcant me you will be agreeably diffapointed, I affure you, tho’ I am none the lefs obliged to you for your good will.” Elder: “So 1 muft mean my father, muft I? that's as wife as the reft.” Younger: “1 kno’ ne’re another wit in,the family, You muft mean my father or have no meaning.” Elder: “ Then it may be I had no meaning.” Younger : “No, no, that’s too polite for an elder brother, too.” Elder: “ Ay, ay, you younger brothers anve all the witt, that makes ‘em have fo little manners.” Younger: “That's all upon my father again. I don’t think my father wants manners any more than he does witt or learning.” Elder: “ But his younger fon may for all that.” Younger: “1 have heard my father thank God many a time that he was a younger brother.” Elder: “ And what for, pray ?” Younger: “ Becaufe if he had not, he faid, he er have L | The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. have been a blockhead, an untaught lump of ignorance and pride, as his elder brother was and as moft of the eldeft fons of his acquaintance were.” Elder: “ And as his own eldeft fon is, you fhould fay.” Younger : “ Nay, that’s your own. I fay nothing : but my father’s words: if you have a mind to come in for a fhare of it, you may make your beft of it, I fha'n’t meddle with that.” Elder: “You are fo farr from good manners that ‘you are impudent. I don’t believ you ever heard the words, or that ever my father faid fo.” Younger : “Why, had you not given me the lye in -your abundant manners? You need not boaft fo much of being a gentleman.” Elder: “It is none of your place to tell me a fats thing any more than ’tis to tell me of my manners.” Younger : “Look you, Sir, giving me the lye is a kind of ufage that takes away all relation.. I kno’ what's my place as well-as—yoy do; but I affure you I'll no more take the lye from my elder brother than I will from a porter. I don’t think that’s my place at all.” Elder; “1 think you have forgot being a gentle-_ man. I wifh my father was not cheated. I think — you was nurft abroad, wa’nt you?” The gentlemen began now to be fo hot ‘twas time to part ‘em, efpecially feeing it was in public too; for the younger brother layd his hand upon his ae fword, However, the clergymen pacify’d them with en- treaties, and two or three of the townfmen put in to help reconcile ’em; fo they fat downe again and were good friends for a little while; but they had better have parted them at firft and let them have gone home affunder as they came out. For falling into 51 §2 “fig. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN, into other difcourfe, one thing brought forward another, and in a little time, they fell to it again upon the. fame fubject. _ The younger brother happens to read a paragraph from Edinburgh, where there was an account of a man that was tryed and fentenc’t to death for a robbery and a very barbarous cold-blood murthcer. But that when the Lords of the Jufticiary, thofe arc the judges in the criminal cafes in that country, came to pafs fentence, that fentenc’d i to be beheaded, becaufe he was a gentleman, being it feems the third fon of a laird (or country efquire) in that country. The young gentleman Jaugh’d, but faid nothing, and gave the print to one of the clergy-men to read, and he fmil’d, but lay’d down the paper wifely declining to: take any notice of it, becaufe he fear’d it might embroil the two brothers again. i But the elder brothier perceiv’d there was fomething extraordinary by their fmiling, and afk’d his brother what he laught at. He endeavour’d to put it off, and fo did the minifter but he would not be anfwer’d fo. However, not being able to get any anfwer from them that was fatiffactory, he takes up the paper himfelf. When he comes to the ftory, too, he laught as they did and fhows it-the chaplain. “ Here,” fayes he, “ fee how civil they are to young brothers in Scotland.” The clergyman reply’d : “No, Sir, it was not a civillity as he was a younger brother, but ashe was a gentleman.” “I don’t kno’,” fayes he, “I think ftritly {peaking younger brothers fhould not be call’d gentlemen.” “Your fervant, Mr. Elder Brother,” fayes the young gentleman, “ Pray how, then, come you to call yourfelf a gentleman? I think your father was a younger brother.” “And 1 ' The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. “ And your fervant, Mr. *Cadet,” fayes the elder. “ He was the eldeft when he came to the eftate ; or elce how did he claim the inheritarice.” (N.B. *Cadet is the French word for the younger fon of a gentleman's family.) ; Younger ; “So that according to you a man may be a gentleman and no gentleman, both in a quarter of an hour.” Elder: “Yes, yes; if [ were hang’d you would be a gentleman ; there's no queftion of that.” Younger: “If you pleafe to walk into Scotland, you fee you may fecure yourfelf from being hang’d; be as wicked as you will.” “But, Sir,” fayes one of the clergymen, “I have heard that in Scotland, if a gentleman is executed for murther, the blood is attainted and his heirs are, ipfo faéto, deprived not of the éftate onely, but of the title of a gentleman as ’tis here in cafes of treafon.” Younger : “So then, that facred thing call’d a gentle- . man is forfeited by crime.” Elder: “TY don’t think that very juft; ’tis punifhing the children for the father.” Younger : “ But it ferves to my point exactly : if crime may unmake a gentleman, why fhould not vertue and education conftitute a gentleman?” Elder : “ You talk like a younger brother, indced.” Younger: “Well, then I don’t talk like a fool.” Elder: “No, no; the younger brothers have all the witt; it fhould be fo becaufe they are younger fons.” ; Younger: “I fuppofe that's the reafon you would have no younger fons be call’d gentlemen.” Elder: “TY underftand you as I fuppofe you under- ftand yourfelf. Your elder brothers are all fools; you would have them be fo.” Younger: “No, I would not have all the elder brothers | 53 54 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. brothers be fools, but I would haye all the fools be among the eldeft fons, and I think a good fhare of- them are fo,” , Elder: “Well! well! I the eftate and you the wit. I won't change with you.” Younger : “Nor I with you for your eftate, if it were more than it is.” Elder : “But if I were hang'd you'd be the eldeft fon, and then you'd be a fool too, of courfe, wouldn’t } you?” Younger: “ Afk my father that queftion, T tell you he was a younger brother.” fw Elder: “The younger fons fhould have all the wit; fometimes they have nothing elfe to liv on.” Younger: “I'd run the venture of the laft if I were fure of the firft.” ' Elder: “The heir you kno’ has no need of the wit, if he has but the eftate.” Younger: “If you think fo, you are happy.” Elder: “ Ay, ay. I am very well fatiffy’d; the eftate’s enough for me.” Younger : “Moft eldeft fons are of your mind, and ~ that makes us fee fo many heirs that can’t write their own names.” Elder: “No matter; if they can but read their own names in the deeds of their inheritance.” Younger: “'Tis a bleffed charaéter of the Englifh gentry; there’s fcarfe one in five of them can fpcak good Englifh.” Elder: “1 have heard you talk of fuch and fuch familyes and gentlemen, that fuch a one was a good {chollar and fuch an one was a man of fence: and yet they had good eftates.” , Younger: “Yes, I do remember four that I ufd to name, but three of them ware bred up younger fons or | elce they had been Elder: The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. Elder: “ Blockheads like the reft of the gentry.” Younger: “You {peak more truth than your fharc, brother.” _ Elder: “ And you fomething lefs.” _ Younger: “I {peak nothing but what I believ to be true ; and if it was to be enquir’d into, I believ it would appear ‘that, thro’-out England, take thofe few _of our gentry and nobillity who are men of learning and wit, men fit for minifters-of State, honours and employment, and you may find two thirds of them | were younger fons and fo had their parts cultivated by liberall educacion, as it were by accident.” Elder: “I hope the eldeft fons may be born with as much wit and fence as the youngeft. The gifts of © nature are not learnt at fchool.” ; Younger: “ They are improv’d at fchool : thofe rough diamonds are polifhed by thé fchools and by the help i of books and inftruccion,” Elder: “And fometimes as well without: a good genius will improv itfelf.” ‘ Younger : “ Why ifn’t it fo thén? Where is there an cldeft fon in 20 bred to Letters? How many co we fee at the Univerfities ?” Elder: “A great many.” | Younger: “Not a great many compar’d to. the: number: of thirty thoufand familys of noblemen and gentlemen of cftate which may be reckon’d up in this kingdom, I venture to fay there is not 200 of their eldeft fons at a time to be found in both our Univer- | fitys. At the fame time you fhall find ten times that number of their younger fons.” | Elder: “ And what's done with the eldeft fons then? What, are they taught nothing ?” } 55 ~ Younger: “Very little truly. They are bred at / 2. home.” Elder: “They are bred like gentlemen.” Younger : © 56 ‘ fay.” The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. | Younger: “Yes, yes, they are bred like gentlemen and taught like gentlemen, that is, taught nothing.” Elder: “They have tutors and preceptors kept to wait on them.” : Younger: “Kept to play with them you fhould Elder: “ Ay, and to teach them too.” : Younger: “Yes, to teach them to be wicked, inftill the love of their pleafures into them very early, teach them to waft their firft houres in which the mind is moft capable of improvment till at laft ’tis too late and they pufh into the world juft as they happen to be form'd by nature, rough and unpolifhed and either -coarfe or fine, knowing or ignorant, juft as it happens. And this is the generall cafe with moft of our gentle- men.” Elder: “And yet they are the compleateft gentle- . men in the world,” Younger: “1 don't grant that, I affure you.” Elder: “\ hope you grant they are the richeft.” Younger: “Perhaps, take them one with another, they may-be the richeft ; but what does that argue in their favour ?” Elder: “Well then, they will allwaycs be the beft ; I fee nothing in it; if we have but the eftates, Ict all the reft of your fine jingle fall as it will ; for my part I don’t value it a ftraw. I have the better of you there, brother.” Younger: “I don't envy you. I tell you I would not change with you.” Elder : “ Change? prethee what hav you to change ?’ Giv me the cftate; what have you to offer in exchange? Your fcraps of Latin, your fhreds of wit, your pretences to fobriety. If you could part with them, carry them to market and fee if they would yeild you moncy to buy a horfe to ride on.” Younger . The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. Younger: “You talk like yourfelf ftill, If I had all thofe things you defpife, as learning, witt, fence, and vertue ; as they are not to be fold, fo remember they are not to be bought; all your eftate won't purchafe them.” Elder : “Y wouldn't giv you my fox-hounds for all your vaft colleccion of books, tho’ my father was to’ give you his library to joyn with ’em.” | Younger : “ And I won't giv my books for you and your fox-hounds put together.” Elder : “You couple us well ; that’s fomething like a younger brother, I confefs,” Younger : T have yourfelf for my author ; it was but yefterday when you were fwearing at your huntfman for going out a little before you; did not you damn him for not taking all the pack together ? and when he very innocently told you he had all the pack, but your Worfhip zs vot ready, did not you very wittily damn him for not joyning his words better together ?” 57 Thus far the two brothers went on between jeft and + 22. carneft, and the. two clergymen fat by very uneafic for fear of mifchief between them ; for they afterwards fell to words again about fome of their family broils, which do not relate to our prefent bufinefs, nor is it fit to be made public ; at length, hdweves, they parted ’em ; and the efquire.called his man to bring him the French horn, and began to make a blufter and a noife in the -houfe ; which being very difagreeable to his brother and the two minifters, they dropt out one by one and left him. After they were gone, he fends for two or three townfmen, mean, forry fellows, but fuch as the place afforded and fuch as ufually hung about him, flattering and praifing him and withall ufually fpung’d upon him for what they could get; with thefe he goes to the next houfe, which was an inn and tavern, as ‘zs ufuall , The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. nfuall in the country, and there he gets fomething to cat, fitts after dinner with his fots till he got very drunk, and then fends his horfes home and orders .the coach to fetch him: and fo ended the day like a gentleman. I might giv you i examples of this kind to illuftrate the character of this born gentleman ; but we fee it fo frequent in every place, in all company, and allmof{t on all occafions, that it would bé necdlefs. I fhall however have occafion to fpeak to feverall other parts of it as I go on. ‘CAP. CAP; IIe F the introduccion of gentlemen were in all nacions and in all ages,:the fame, and we had nothing fingular to our felves ¥ in it; if our gentlemen were brought up and introduc’d into focyety in the fame manner as it is in other nacions; or, which is the loweft and Anno genet ftep we can take in thei favour, if the gentle- men of other nacions were-manag’d juft after the model / of ours, I had little or nothing to fay, at Icaft we \ fhould have nothing left us but to complain of the gencrall calamity of humane nature, and that the ace was entirely given up to pride and ignorance, that the / gentry were levell’d with the commonalty, the great and v (the noble with the mean and the bafe, and, in a word, there was now no difference between the lord and his footman, the landlord and his tennant. Tor as the ' body i is without the head, fo is the head without the ,_. brains ; as the fhip is without a helm, and the helm ' without the fteers-man and the fteers-man without a pilot 1 The foilowing heading has been struck out :— Of the great miflakes in the firft mannaging the children of gentlemen, and of the horrible corrupcton of blood from thefuckling them by thofe (three words thickly scratched out]. That the ignorance and the bad educacton of gentlemen of quallity and fortune is no where in Chriftendome fo entirely negledled as in this nacton, and fome thing of the confequences of tt. 60 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. pilot, fo is the man that has brains, without his books,. or with his brains and his books, without a teacher to inftruct. Of what ufe ig it to a man that he has a tongue to fpeak, that he has books to read, if he has no ear? if he cannot hear he can never fpeak, at leaft 1.23. can not be faid to have the ufe of fpeech; he can not judge of founds, nor can he form the common ideas of what he fees for want of knowing the namcs of things and the ufes to which they are applyed. What is all the mufick in thé world, all the harmony of founds to a deaf man? all‘is loft while the organ is clofed up, and the veffells which form the ear can not difcharge the funétions of their office. To me an untaught, unpolifh’d gentleman is one of we the.moft deplorable objects in the world. Tis a noble, ftately and beautifull organ without the bellows to fill the harmonious pipes and form the found. The foul of fuch a perfon feems to be like a lyon in a cage, which, tho’ it has all the ftrencth, the beauty, the courage of a lyon, is yet furrounded with unpaffable | -barrs and a checquer-work of reftraints, and can neither exert its ftrength or its’ fwiftnefs, or fhow its terrors among the four footed world as, if he were at liberty, nature would dictate to him to do. What fecret unaccounted for pofeffion can it be, then, that has thus feiz’d upon the fences of our gentry, more than upon others? ’Tis no compliment upon our nativ . country to fay of it that we have as illuftrious a| nobillity and as numerous a body of gentry as any\/ nation in Europe. To this we may add, and all * Europe will acknowledge it, that our nobillity and gentry, cven in fpite of immoderate profufion, which for fome yeares was a kind of an epidemick diftemper upon them, are ftill at this time the richeft, and have the greateft and beft eftates, and hoid them upon the beft tenure, of any nation in the world. It The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. It may be true that there are fome few perfonal excepcions in the world as to wealth, that is to fay, that in fome nations there are certain particular perfon- ages who have greater cftates than any fingle or par- ticular perfon or family in England ; the excepcions are very few, and therefore I may venture to name them. 1. In Spain and Italy, and perhaps in moft VPopifh countryes, the clergy are richer, that. is to fay the archbifhops and bifhops and fome abbots have greater © revenues than any of our proteftant clergy of lik rank, as efpecially in Spain, where feverall of their arch- bifhops and bifhops have from 410,000 to £50,000 fterling per annum revenue, and a bifhop of 20,000 peices' of cight is reckon’d but an indiffrent thing. Such as thefe are the Archbifhop of Toledo, of Seville; of Mexico, of Naples and others, and the Bifhops of Granada, of Malaga, and of Los Angelos. The firft of thefe is faid to be worth above £80,000 a year fterling, and the laft about £25,000 a year, and fo in their degree of others ; and they reckon in gencrall in Spain ten Bifhops whofe revenue is from £10,000 a year. upwards. As to the revenue of the cardinals’ which — ‘are gencrally made up by plurallityes of livings, fuch as abbyes and bifhopricks, there are few of them who do not enjoy from 10 to £20,000 a year revenue, and fome of them 30 to £40,000 fterling. y 2. Likewife fome of the nobillity in Spain, efpecially fuch as have been Viceroys of Mexico, Peru, formerly of Naples or Sicily ; fuch alfo as have been governors of the Manillas, of Chartagena, S' Jago in Chili, and fuch places as are eminent for wealth. Moft of thefe i234 are indecd immenfly rich. It is the like among the princes of the Blood in France, fome of whom have from 50,000 to 150,000 piftols revenue, likewife fome ; who IMS. ps., as often, 7 MS. ‘Ca. ‘61 62 , The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. who have acquired great eftates by public fervices, as fome of the Marefchalls of France, particularly the Marefchall Duke of Luxemberg, Villeroy, Villars, Vendofme, Berwick, the old Duke de Nemours, Count de Tholoufe, Duke of Noailles, and fome others. But thefe eftates are all either raif’d.in the fervice and by infinite advantages of the war, of which our Marlbro’, Cadogan, and others may be called examples at home, or fuch as depend upon the abfolute will and pleafure of the king, which they call His Majefty’s' bounty and confifts of penfions, which they call in the princes of the Blood appennage, and governments which are places of honour with the profits annex’d. But to go back, take the eftates of the Englifh no- billity and gentry, as ftated before, and except onely, as I have faid, a few forreigners, and I infift, as above, that our nobillity and gentry out-do the nobillity and gentry of any nacion in the world. flow many private gentlemen might be nam’d in England who enjoy eftates of from'5 to 15000 pound fterling value per annum, and all in, or as good as, freehold land! How many eftates which do not rate at abov £41000 per annum rent, have 40 to 50 to *60,000 pounds in timber upon them, which may be valued upon them, and do the woods no hurt. to have it fell’d ; and other eftates have mines, minerall quar- ryes, geal pits, ctc., in propo: :cion| Add to this that which is the glory of the Englith gentry abov all the nacions in the world, (viz.) that their property in thefe eftates is in themfelves ; that | RR they are neither fabject-to the frowns or the caprices — of the foveraign on any diflike or diffatiffaccions ; that they inherit their lands zz capite, abfolutely and by entail, which even treafon it felf can not forfeit or cut off any farther than for the life of the delinquent ; that \ they * Af in MS. ye The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. 1 ‘ \ they are not fubjected to any homages or fervices by their’ tenures. All the knight’s fervice and vaffallage is abolifh'd, they are as abfolutely pofeff'd of their mannours and freehold as a prince is of his crown. — ‘Nor can they be oppreff'd with taxes, arbitrary im- pofitions, quartring of foldicrs, or any of the ordinary © oppreffions of fubjeéts in ufe under arbitrary govern- ments ; nothing can be levyed on them but by confent _ in Parliament, where choofing their .own members every man_ma aid to giv his ov t before he can be tax’d, that is, in fhort_ to Hav iving of © his.own money ; all which particulars°being confidred, a gentleman’s eftate in England is worth 5 times the income in’ penfions or governments which are at the will of the granter, or than lands, however fettled or entail’d, that are fubje¢t to the taxes, impofitions, quartring of foldiers and other ravages of the Sove- raign, I fhould have faid, the tyrants, which is the con- dicion of allmoft all the inheritances in Europe. The conclufion of all this revolvs upon us with great sane in the cafe before me, becaufe all this felicity is attended with the unhappinefs of a voluntary dnd affected ftupidity and ignorance; Which, being the cafe of a fet of gentlemen who by all their other cir- cumftances? are quallifyed to be the moft compleatly happy of any people in the world, and to be made, nay to make themfelves, the envy, the admiration, and the example of all the gentry in Chriftendome,” are yet made defpicable by their own choice, miferable in the midft of the higheft humane felicity, and are become 63. the fcoff and contempt of their inferiours even in the / 24. fame: country, as well as of their equalls in all the , neighbouring countryes that know them; and to add _ to the abfurdity of this, like the Mufcovites they fupport the practife with an obftinacy not to be defcrib'd 7 Abbreviation in MS. 7 Ydome. ! 64 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. defcrib’d but by the example of that ftupid people who, fond of their old follys, would rather dye than be made wifer, who thought it was a difshonour to learn any thing from other nacions; however jutt, humane, prudent, or agreeable to their reafon. With what obftinacy will fome of our ignorant gentlemen argue againft learning ; with what contempt do they treat the bookifh part of the world, infift upon: it that their dogs and their horfes, their fport, and their bottle are the proper buffinefs of a gentleman ; that his’. pleafures are appointed to him for his full employment ; that Heaven gave them eftates to enjoy them, as they call this way of living, to fatiate their fouls with good, : and to remove them from all the dull unpleafant part of life called buffinefs and applicacion. They tell us that they do not feem to underftand the bleffing defign’d for them if they don’t Kno’ what ftacion they are plac’d in; that the world is given them to taft the {weet of it, and to fill themfelves with its _ delights, and that they are, to underftand it as Provi- dencc' underftood it when he gave it them. They fubjoyn to this that the language of Heaven to them is, “ Eat, drink and be merry! Have not I given thee that which anfwers all things ?”—that honours are for the ambitious ; their {phere is like the glorious fun to mov in their own circle, that they may indeed fhinc upon others and warm others by charity and doing beneficent things among their neighbours and tennants, but that to go out of their OsPIE of happy- nefs is below them. As for wars, let beggars and mercenaryes be knock’t on the head for wages: they have money to pay foldiers. What buffinefs have they to hazard thcir lives, harrafs and expofe themfelves when they may ftay at home and beeafie? Let the ambitious wretches .° hunt The MS. has a D with a dot in the middle. 7% The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. 65 hunt for fame and to wear feathers in their caps. Their fame is written over their doors,. viz, that there lives an Englifh gentleman of an antient family and a good eftate, and their buffinefs is to hunt the {tag and the fox with their own hounds and among their own woods; that their fame is in. the field of pleafure, not the field of battle. Innocent delights take up their time, ranging the country for their game, not ravaging the country for fpoil, not murthering the people and turning the pleafant world and the fruitfull fields into defolation. As to books and reading, ’tis a good;dull, poreing .. work for the parfons and the pedants. /They don’t fee that all the learning in the world ne: men better, but they generally learn more knavery than honefty: gthe ftatef-men ftudy bribery and corrupcion to carry ion faccion and parties; the phyfitians learn to pick pockets one way, and the lawyers another ; fcience and arts, what do they aim at, and where do they end? All iffues in the art to get money: and what has a gentleman to do with all this? Heaven has given him money, and he has enough; ’tis below him to get money, his bufinefs is to fpend it. He has enough, and he that has enough can be no richer, if-he had twice as Much— If he at laft thould grow-covetous. and pretend to encreafe his wealth, why, rr retrenching a little, and his eftate will encreafe it A gentleman of 2000 a year may be as rich as he will ; let him but lay up one thoufand pound a year, and . in twenty year his eftate will double, and in twenty more it will double again, and fo on from father to fon, till / 2-. in two generacions the family fhall have twenty thou- fand pound a year, or as much. morc as he pleafes. “And what am I the better” (faid the fame warm gentleman I mencioned juft now) “for all this faving and fcraping? Da...m all ‘your good hufbandry. E It 4 r 66 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. It-is given me to fpend, and I'll fpend it. I'll not {pend beyond it. No! No! I abhorr to be dun’d., T'll ne’re run in debt neither. I'll leav my fon as well as my father Ieft his fon. I'll warrant I won't leffen it; but for the reft, let the uferer lay up his money, , ’tis my proper buffinefs to fpend it; ’tis my calling; Heaven has given it me that I fhould enjoy it, and it would be a fin in me to lay it up. Let the moncy circulate, and Iet the poor be the better for it. I have heard my old grandfather fay that they that hoarded money injur’d the Common Wealth, that money was made round that it might whecl about the world, roll from hand to hand, and make the world glad: and yet my grandfather, tho’ he was a merry old knight, left the eftate better than he found it, and planted a thou- fand acres of woods, that are now full of good timber, and I may cut them down when I will.” This is a kind of merry rhetorick, and is fo un-| happily calculated to pleafe and humour our gentle- men, that it is next to impoffible to anfwer it, I mean to anfwer it fo as to convince them that they are in the wrong. / ’Tis in vain to quote the examples of the wife and the Great ; they defpife it all. They defire to be no wifer or greater than they are. Mothcr-wit they tell you is enough to keep them out of harm’s way, that is, from bites and fharpers ; and as for other Icarning, they fee nothing in it. Thus admirably. did Solomon draw the picture of this kind of a gentleman in a few words, when he tells “us, The fool has no delight in underfianding. Thefe " people have no taft of things, no relifh for improvements)\/ either of their underftandings or eftates. When the late Czar of Mufcovy was upon his travells and often times lookt into the Univerfityes, the libraryes, the labratories of the men of learning and art, he ufed , to The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. 67... to turn himfelf about to Monfieur’ Le Fort, his great ; favourite, and fmiling would fay, “When fhall I bring my ftupid people to underftand thefe things a It was very remarkable that in all his vaft and, | populous city of Mofcow they had not a printing ; and when he fet one up among them, the Boyars faid, “And what fygnifyed reading books to us?) What is it to us how the reft of the world live ? we kno’ how to liv at home.” Their beft furgeons knew nothing. of anatomy ; their beft aftronomers knew nothing of ecclypfes; they had not a fkelcton in the whole empire, except what might be natural in their graves ; their geographers had not a globe ; their feamen not a compafs (by the way they had no fhips), even their phyfitians had no books. Experiments were the hight .of their knowlege, and fo we may fuppofe when a prac- tifer had killed 4 or 500 he might pafs foradoctor. , Even. their handicrafts had no tools ; there was not, a Ruffian clock-maker or watch-maker to be found in the whole empire: if there were fome Germans at Mofcow who had fome tolerable fkill, the Ruffes, tho’ they might buy a clock of them, would never learn to make one, or put any of their fons to the trade ; to travell abroad, to fee the world and encreafe their knowlege by the experience and example of other nacions, was reckon'd fcandalous, was below the dignity and quallity of the gentleman; and when the Czar himfelf did it the learned clergy (with pardon for the flander) reproach’t him with it as a fin; and when he return’d and endeavour'd to conform his people to the beft cuftoms of other nations, .and efpecially when he fet up fchooles to inftruét the children in languages and in arts and fciences, and oblig’d the Boyars, that is, the country gentlemen, to fend their children to them and teach them to write and read, they protefted againft all 1 Monf". / 68 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. all thofe innovations, ay, and at laft raif'd a rebellion for the liberty of being ignorant. fs It may be true that this is an example of brutallity and meer obftinacy, and the worfe, as their cuftomes were inconfiftent with common fence: and it is true it is fo. But I can not but think ’tis very appofite, to the cafe before me, notwithftanding' that for the obftinate rejcct- ing fo glorious an improvement as that of giving learning to a gentleman of fortune, is in my notion of it as diffagreeable with common fence as the groffett peice of brutallity infifted on by the poor Mufcovites, and that with fome aggravacions to the diffadvantage of the paralell on our fide, and which makes our practife be the greater fcandal of the two. 1.. That our gentlemen have, inumcrable examples at their very door of the advantages of learning, of the difference between a liberall education and the mecr old woman litterature of a nurfe and a tutor: they may fee the demonftracion of it even in their own familyes, where the bright and the dull, the blind and- the clear, the man of fence and learning and the block- head, is as often to be diffcern'd as the heir and the cadet are feen togcther, where one is untaught and good for nothing becaufe he is to have the eftate,; and the other is polifh’d and educated becaufe he is to make f his fortune; the laft is to be prepar’d to liv by his ~yS witts, and the other is to have no wits or, at befl, no ae learning, becaufe he can liv without them, as if educa- tion like an apprentice-fhip was for no body but they ae were to trade with it and make‘a trade* of it. Another thing in which we are more to be re- eee than the Mufeovite j is, that ignorance in Mufcovy is generall and _nationall, and they laws? no endings moet for learning, nay, it may be Taid they have no ufe V for Abbreviated. 2MS. 7. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. 69 for it; they ncither fee the benefit or the beauty of it : where-as here the obftanacy is continued in {pight of conviccion, nay, in fpite of its being fcandalous to themfelves, and even to the meancft of the people about them. While this was fo, ’tis not to be wondred at that the / 26. gentry, the nobillity, and the beft and- wealthyeft of the people in thofe countries, were in lov with the fordid ignorance they were bred inj and fond of going on in .. the fame grofs cuftomes which their darke: guides led them in by their cxample.: and this is the reafon of my , giving the Mufcovites for a paralell. Tor what we find “ here among our gentlemen is I think more inexcufable and more fcandalous than the worft of it. For here our gentlemen are brought up in the moft obftinate ignorance and folly, and fill’d carly with the moft riveted averfions to learning and improvement in the very face of an improving and knowing age, in {pite of the encouragement every-were given to polite learning ; where arts and fcience flourifh before their faces, and when the age they live in and the country they liv in is particularly fam’d over the whole Chriftian’. world for the higheft improvements in the fublimeft ftudyes, and where our mafters of fcience are juftly allow'd to have out-gone all that ever went before them in the world, fuch as Sir Ifaac Newton, Mr. Lock, the great and truly honorable Mr. Boyl, who was not a gentleman oncly, not a man of birth and blood/as to . antiquity onely, but in degree alfo, being of noble blood and of one of the familyes that has the most enobl'd branches of any in England and Ireland. I could name many more who by illuftrious birth and. their more illuftrious »merit one would think have fhown the world fuch examples, and trac'd' out fuch paths of virtue, of learning and fuperiativ underftanding, that * 1 MS..X. | 14 7o The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. that it were enough to have brought Icarning and good fence itito fafhion among us, and to have fham’d the ignorance and illiterate blindnefs of the age out of the practife of the gentry. But I am told, even while I am writeing thefe fheets, that if I expeét to make any impreffion upon the age in this way of arguing | muft change my method ; that to talk to the gentlemen of learning and improvement after they have tafted the fweets of idlenefs and plea- fure is to talk gofpell to a kettle-drum ; that after they have follow’d the dogs and the hawks, and caf’d their fateagues of the chafe with the bottle, there is no room for inftruccion ; but they go on, then, by the impetu- .ofity of their own guft, following one game with another till the habit is rooted, till the blockhead and the heir are blended together and become infeperable ; that then the ignorance is feated in the blood as well as in the, brain, and the brute becomes naturall to the man, fo, “that there’s no good to be expedcied that way; but’ — that, if I expect to attack this fhamefull peice of negli- gence, I muft run it up to its original, and turn my pen 7-27. from the gentlemen, who are now paft inftruccion, and . talk to the ladyes, who are the firft inftruments of in- ftruccion, and who have the particular power as Well as opportunity of printing the moft early ideas in the minds of their children, who are able to make the firft impreffions upon their imagination and perhaps the ftrongeft and moft durable; for ‘the moft carly and timely hints given in a fuitable manner to the under- ‘ftanding of a child, have gencrally a vaft advantage, take the deepeft root in the minds, and are hardly ever forgotten: Here, they tell me, I fhould applye ; that the ladyes alone are the agents who have the fate of thcir fons in their power and can write them fools and fops or men of brains and fence as they pleafe ; that thefe have them in their arms and upon their knecs at the. very } The: COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. very moments when the moft early hints are to be given to the mind, when thefgenius, like a peice of foft wax, may. be moulded up to what form, and to recicv what impreffions, they pleafe, and when, a few obftinacyes and meer incapacityes of nature excepted, a child may be form’d to be a man of fence ora brute which they pleafe. gen f I acknowlege this to be a juft obfervacion in many and indeed in moft cafes, efpecially where the lady- mother has the heir in her own tutclage ; and while fhe has him fo, tis not to be queftioned but fhe has an immoderate fhare of his fate in her difpofe, and that it is very much, I had allmoft faid too much, in her power to make him a wife man or a fool, a good man or a good-for-nothing’ man, as fhe thinks fit; and it would be happy for the next age, tho’ the prefent race is paft ’ this remedy, if the ladyes would fhow a little concern about it; that they would have fome pity upon their pofterity, and not give ’em up ‘fo very carly, and, at leaft, not fo entirely to the negligence of thofe mur- therers of a child's moralls, cail'd //ov's. It is indeed too true that this wealthy age is fo entirely given up to pleafure, and it prevails fo much among the ladyes as well as among the men, that it grows a little unfafhionable for the mothers to give them felves any trouble with their children, after they have ’em, but to order their drefs and make them fine and to make a fhow of them upon occafion. Tis below a lady of quallity to trouble her felf in the nurfery, as ‘tis below the gentleman of quallity to trouble himfelf with a library. To talk to a lady at this time of day of medling with her children’s educacion, forming their young minds by the moft early inftruccions, and infufing infant ideas of religion and morall virtue into thcir fouls, ridiculous ftuff! You may as well talk of fuckling them, 7t 72 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. them, a thing as unnatural now as if God and Nature had never intended it, or that Heaven had given the ladyes breafts and milk for fome other ufe. I do not lov digreffions at all, efpecially long ones, and fhall let you fee it by making this, that ought to be and would bear a chapter by it felf, the fubjcct of fo few words. , I have been told that Quecn Anne (the Firft I might call her), I mean Queen Anne, wife or confort to King James the Firft, and daughter of the King of Denmarke, fuckled all her own children ; that, when it was objected to her that it was troublefome to her and below her dignity, Her Majefty anfwered with a kind of an admiration, Troublefome! No, it was fo far from troublefome that fhe thought it a pleafure beyond all pleafurcs, becaufe they were her own. “ Befides (fayd Her Majeftie) will I let my child, the child of a king, fuck the milk of a fubjcét, and_mingle the royal blood | with the blood of a fervant. No! Nol t the fon of a. “king fhould fuck none but the milk of a queen ; and if it is not below me to bear children, ’tis not below me to fecd them.” This is the fentence for which I quote the cafe, and make what I call a digreffion. Here was a true quecn-mother, and it is left on record that fhe was a moft excellent princefs. Now are our ladyes fo nice in their diftinccions of familyes ?-de- they fcorn fo much to mix as they call it, the blood of a € the race of a ick, and think it below their quallity to match with any thing but a gentleman ?_and yet, when they have children wil they fuffer them to fuck in the milk, which is no other than the half digefted blood of a mechannick, nay, and that (as is generally the cafe) of the meancft of the mechannicks, \ for they generally feck for nurfes among the farmers’ ‘and plowmen’s wives on pretence of ftrong, healthy, and wholefome women. Nay, they often choofe the pooreft of ae The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. of them, too, whofe food is courfe “andl their drink hog wath and belch, not gencrous wines as the lady her felf drinks. Nor are they aware, befides the abfurdity of the thing, I fay they are not aware of the juft reproach they tacitly throw upon their own familye and even upon themfelves ; J mean the mother, as if, when, fhe had brought forth a child, perhaps in the prime and vigor of her youth and ftrength, her own milk was not as wholefome, as nourifhing, and efpecially as natural to her child as the milk of a ftranger, or that the plow- man’s wife gave better milk than my Lady. , Some of the fuggeftions which would naturally follow this practife are too courfe for me to throw upon the ladyes, and I would fay nothing that is fhocking to them upon fuch anoccafion. I wave that part there-- fore that refpeéts health and conftitution, and ftick to thofe juft arguments which Nature dictates from the ladyes’ own mouths, particularly that of mixtures of blood. That the milk in a woman’s breafts is a moft noble fluid, of the fineft digefture, ftrain’d thro’ its proper veffells by the admirable operation of. nature ; that it is nothing but the beft concock’d aliment, and confti- tuted in the fame manner from the fame principles as the blood it felf, and fo is a part of the blood. Its difference of colour is nothing, fecing we fee the limbecks of nature in the ftomach and other veffells gives colour and takes away colour in all the digefting operations, and when in the milk dy:ct we drink nothing but white, the blood is neverthelefs of the fame crimfon, and fo of the reft. And not to entcr into anatomicall defcripcions, which to the ladyes may on many accounts be indecent, it may be granted that, as the milk is ina true fence the blood of the nurfe, fo. when taken in, it is mixt with the blood of, the child much more 73° effectually than any other of the mixtures of generation, / 28. and 74 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. and this deferves their reflection who are fo chary about mixing the blood of familyes, as they call it, by matching with inferiors. In a word, ’tis evedent they very little confider, or very little underftand, what they talk of, when they {ct fuch a value upon the preferving the race, as they call it, and taking care that their pofterity fhouid have none but the blood of a.gentleman in the family ; when, to gratifye their own pride or pleafures, they cxpofe the heir to drink in the blood of a flave or a drudge, the blood of a clown and a boor, the worft of mechanics ; fcorn to marry ’em among citizens and tradf-men however perfonally accomplith’d, however furnifh’t with beauty, wit, modefty, breeding, and fortune, but let them fuck in the life blood of a dary wench or a wooll comber, nay of a cook maid of the family marry'd per- haps to a carter or other flave, people but a few degrees abov beggars: if the woman looks but wholefome and has a good full breaft, a pair of dugs like a cow and a tollerable fkin, ’tis all well ; the’s deem’d wholefome, and all other fcruples give way to the lady’s niccty. ' Nor do thefe ladyés trouble themfelves to enquire into the temper of the woman, little knowing perhaps, and lefs confidering, that her fon fhall drink in the paffions, the temper, nay indeed the very foul of the woman whofe milk he fucks in, not to fpeak of her bodily infirmitys, which after all their enquiry and fearch may be lurking in her blood, hidden too, far out of their reach to difcern, nay, fomctimes are hereditary, and the poor woman her felf does not kno’ them. Here the young gentleman is ruin’d at once if the woman be a fiery, hot fpirited, little paffionate devil ; for the poor have their difference of tempers as well as the rich, the dary woman as well as the dutches. What ' follows? The gentleman carryes it away in his blood, and he’s a fury by blood, by the blood of his nurfe, as certainly The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. 75 certainly as he is a gentleman by the blood of his father ; and not to carry you too far into Nature's ~ arcana and amufe you with fpeculations, ’tis’ certain, | and phyfitians will tell you fo and explain it, too, that a child’s. temper is more influenc’d by the milk he fucks in than by all the other conveyances of nature. _ We. draw life from our progenitors by the order of nature, ‘and ‘tis true, too, that we inherit infirmity too much that way: but we draw tempers and _paffions x more from the milk we fuck than from all the gene-. ' . rating powers cither in father or mother. And this is a certain and unanfwerable evcdence. that the fuckling a child is abfolutely) making a mixture of the blood of the nurfe with the blood of | the child: nay, the fincft, the beft of the animall fpirits _ and juices are deriv'’d and reciev their nourifhmcht — from this aliment, the milk; and that is the reafon that the temper, the difpofitions, the paffions, the affeccions, nay the crimes of the nurfe are often con- vey'd this way. I might fwell this work to an un- reafonable bulk by giving you the feverall little hiftorys of this kind, even within the reach of memory, but ’tis necdlefs: Nature tells it. .1f the nurfe has been of a leud and loofe difpofition, the heir is ruin’d in his virtue, and' over-runs the country with his vices : if the is drunken, he inherits her unquenchable apctite ; if fhe is a termagant, he is a bully;. if a fcold, he becomes tallativ and a rattle ; if a lyar, he feldome Proves a man of fincerity; if fhe's a hypocrite, he’s very rarely a faint ; and what is ftill worfe, he draws in all thefe in a iittle and narrow mechanick degree, like the contracted foul he deriv’d them from. ¢ If there is fuch a thing as the bleod of a gentleman - (that diftinguifhes men one from another; that a true greatnefs of foul, a broad heart, noble ‘and gencrous principles ? Instead of and, the MS. has the deheation for the. Crary bortlnnirets dedind 4 tireaphad 76 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. principles, all flow in the veins from the pure fountain of an unmix’d race: what then are thle ladyes doing 29: who decline affifting nature when fo well furnifh’d on the father’s fide? Why fhould they not add to the noble ftream from their own well defcended fountain, that the father’s blood and the mothér’s milk may joyn to compleat the true born gentleman ? Whence is it that fo many gentlemen defceended from anticnt families, that can boaft of a race of worthyes in their line, men of gallant principles, brave in the field, able in the council, here an emihent. lawycr, there a judge, here a ftatef-man, there a gencrall, here a patriot, | there a divine: and the degenerate hcir of all, this fame an empty, weak, rattling fop, or a raving, outrageous, bully, a fwearing, drunken, debauch’t wretch, and, in a word, all that’s weak and wicked ? either the boaft of birth and blood is all a cheat, | and there is nothing at t all in it, “nothing convey'd from the noble fpring by the channells of nature, which I , cannot grant neither, tho’ I do not fo much, tye down vertue to race and defcent as fome sould havessdo:.\) aw but I fay, if there is any thing in the veins of a gentle- man influenc'd from the blood of his anceftors, then there muft have been fome accidentall interrupcion in _ the conveyance, fome hetrogenious mixture, fome oat alloy in the birth or in the nutriment of the fons of fuch heroes in this age. Whence elce does that degeneracy proceed? and how is it that we fee the offfpring of the fober, the. grave, the learned, the good, anceftor degencrated into rakes, cowards, bullies, and mad men? How comes the race of the ftatcf-men and politicians, the ‘brighteft men of genius and politcft parts to deviate and dwindle away into empty blockheads and worthlefs fools, fluttering fops or empty headed beaus, who have nothing valuable about them, referv nothing of their anceftors The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. | anceftors but the name, to make us believ they are of the race? Where are the remains of the famous familyes of the Vvres, the Ceciles, the Ruff7ls, the WVhartous ? Into what are they tranfform’d, and except the fame of their great anceftors, what have we left to boaft of in them? Their forefathers were the glory of the Englith nacion, and what their pofterity may be we kno’ not ; but how low is the noble channel! ebb'd out! Sure, fome of the prefentgentry we might name, never fuck't in the milk of the race, never were brought up with the breaft of thofe that bare them, but Romulus .. like, if that ftory be not a fibb, fecm to have been fuckl’'d by the wolf or fome other untam’d furious creature (beaft). How celce is it poffible, if birth and blood are concern’d in thefe things, and if any good quallityes defcend in the line: I fay, how is it poffible’ fuch fons fhould be any way akin to fuch ancettors ? What a promifing line did the laft age fve rifing up for glory and great things from the antient blood of | two familyes' in the north, known by their inheritances - for ages beyond the reach of hiftory, nam’d from the lands they were born to, or the lands nam’d from the well approv'd pofeffors, not before the Conqucit onely, but even before the Romans, if we may belicv the moft antient records! And where are the degenerated ifue ? How funk even below fatyr into pity and contempt, and that not by the chance and changes of fortune and the world, but by meer degencracy of the race, into all that was foolith, wild, and wicked, and how are the anticnt patrimonys, the inheritances of fo many ages fold and felling, divided and parcell’d out, as fate and purchafers prefent, paffing into new pofteffors, and the name of familycs no more to be remembr'd by the names of the lands, except it be to lament the fall of their fortunes and write an exit upon their ‘graves! Did “SMS. fants.’ fe 78 f. 296. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. Did thefe men fuck the milk of their mothers? or do they owe the degeneracy of their principles, the narrownefs of their fouls, their vitiated blood, and their naturall attachment to crime, to fome vile coagulated nutriment drawn in with the milk of fome tainted ftrumpet unhappily recommended to the lady for a nurfe? I cannot but think it worth the confideration of the ladyes, if they have any regard to the familyes they are joyn’d to, and are at all concern’d with Solomon's wife woman, who builds up her houfe while the ‘foolith woman pulls it down with her hands; I fay, ’tis well worth their confidering how they debauch the noble blood of a gentleman and corrupt their own race by mingling the blood of a flav and a fcoundrel (as above) with the nourifhment and life of their own progeny.. The ladyes had much better, if they find it incon- venient to fuckle their own children, for fome can not _ do it, I fay, they had much better have them fed. by the fpoon, or, as ’tis call’d, brought up by hand; then they are fure they have no corrupt, tainted particles mixt with their nourifhment and convey’d from thence, and difperft thro’ the veffclls appointed for the purpofe, . into the nobler parts, mingl’d by the animal .fecrecion with the vitals, and affecting not the temperament of the body onely, but the very paffions of the foul. I have nothing to do here with the reafons given by the ladyes why they do not, or can not, or care not, to. fuckle their own children. This work is not defign’d for a fatyr. upon the fex, what ever room there is for it. But here is an alternativ offred; which they can never come off if Queen jae faying may be a maxim for them. The fon of a king fhould fuck none but a queen, the fon of a gentleman fhould fuck none but a lady ; and if they will not come in to that part, then the alternativ I propofe is in two parts thus: (1.) Let them bring up their fons by hand, as abov. Let The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. _Let them take drye nurfes into the houfe to tend and feed and bring up the young, offfpring, and let them be nourifh’d by the. fpoon, as it is very cafie to do, and experience, proves it to be fufficient, and confequently is the next beft to the mother's breaft ; or (2.) If they will put them out to nurfes, let them lay down the fcruple about difhonouring their familys and mixing the blood of a gentleman with a mechanick ; for if they value not the mixture in the child, there's no room to fcruple it in the man; for he may call him- felf a gentleman as much as he will: while he has the blood of a paifant in his veins, 'tis all a cheat ; he is but : a mongrell' breed begat by a gentleman, fuckl'd by a mechanick, a fcrub, a what you pleafe ; for ‘tis juft what , they pick up among the poor. And turn this a little upon the fex, too, another way : the ladies are fuppof'd to be as nice this way as the gentlemen, and in fome cafes they are nicer too; they {corn to difhonour their family and to marry below them- felves, and efpecially not to marry a tradefman, who they call a mechanick, Ict his employment be what it will. But if they will be fure to marry a gentleman, they ought to enquire where he was nurft, and whofe milk he fuck’t ; for fuppofe his father was a gentleman, if he fuck’t a fow he will be of the hog kind as‘certainly as if he was one of the litter. 79 It will be an eternal fatyr upon the pride of our / 3» gentry that at the fame time that they boaft of their blood, their antient defcent, and that they abhorr dif- Honcie their blood to match with the cannaille as they call it, yet at the fame time they will let their children be nurft by the meaneft of the labouring poor, and fuck in the blood of the wretched and the miferable. The inconfiftency is not to be reconcil’d to their fences ; if ine blood is once mix’d, ’tis mix’d for ever, and "MS, mongell, 80. he COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. and efpecially if mix'd in the childhood ; in the early nourifhment it is difperft into every branch of the man ; the contaminacion is grown up with him, and, as above, it is more effectually mix’t fo than in the birth it felf. To fay a man has good blood in his veins, noble blood, and antient blood, and inherits gencrous principles from his anceftors, that he is a gentleman by blood; and fuch,' as is the common jargon of the times, and yet own he was fuckl’d by a fhe-bear upon a mountain, as Jov they fay was nurft upon the top of Mount Ida in the Ifle of Crete or Candia: we muft firft call the poor milk woman that nurft him a gentlewoman, you mult dub the gardner’s wife or the coachman’s wife, or the farmer's wife a lady, and c&ll her a perfon of a good family, and then indeed it may be made out; but elce , I would recommend it to our gentry to throw open the fence, take dowr the pale, and feperate no more from the mobb, for they are but all of a brecd, or at Icaft all of a blood, and the good honeft tradefman, whofe virtuous, diligente wife takes due care of her family, and fuckles and inftructs her own children, and takes a perfonall care of their learning afterwards, preferves the breed and brings up better gentlemen than the beit lady in the land (as I fhall fhow at large in.its place) that puts out her children among flaves and beggars. Nor will all the fine things that are or can be done for the young efquire or the young baronct afterwards, attone for this capitall miftake in the firft part of their bringing up; for,as the phyfitians fay, an error in the firft concoction is not reétifyed in the fecond. The degeneracy of the blood is found in the very firft pro- greffion, the child fucks in the poifon, if it be fuch, with allmoft its firft breath, and the mechanick is blended with the gentleman in its firft aliment; and as they take root together, they grow up together. A plant or MS. fick {uf but /uf is struck out. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. or flower taken out of a rich foil and remov’d into a poor foil, will be weak and dégencrate and run fingle, influenced and ftinted by the poverty of the fecond foil, partaking little of that which it was raif’d in; fo take a plant raif’d in a poor or barren ground, and tranfplant it into a better and richer foil, it flourifhes, fhoots up, doubles and fpreads to a wonder, influenc’d - and nourifht by the ftrength of the ground without regarding the barren cold foil it came out of. ' Tis the fame thing with the child. Take it from the mother, a gay, vigrous, fprightly, beautifull young lady, and put. it to facks to a weak, decaying, or -dif- temper’'d woman; for thofe things call’d confumtiv malladyes are not always difernable in young marryed women; and what's the confequence of this? The child, however healthy, however prepar'd by Nature and the firft. foil for a ftrong, noble conftitution, tranf- planted to the meaner poor nourifhment of the weak foil, takes root in proporcion to the nourifhment it recieves, and becomes languid and confumtiv in the meer confequence of the diftemper'’d creature of whofe blood it partakes. It is the fame thing in the cafe of the quallity of the perfon, if the woman is a mechanick, fuppofe a fs farmer’s wife or a plowman’s wife, for fuch we are fond of, forfooth, becaufe they arc what they call wholefome and found. But what’s that to the point in debate? She's not a gentlewoman, but a forry, poor, unbred wretch, the blood of a cobler or a tinker, no matter © a what, a branch of the noble mobbe of the true levell with the ftreet, the meaneft of the rabble. This woman mutt give nourifhment to the gentleman.’ This gentleman when grown up muft fcorn' to debafe this woman’s blood forfooth, which being ming!'d with his own is become noble and gencrous, and what not. They : 1 MS. fcon. F 82 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. They have but one plea to foften this and remov the fcandal ; and ’'tis a very poor one, and will confound all the reft of the argument; and this is that they tell us the blood of the-poor mechanick woman receives a new tincture, and is enobl’d and made generous by the ‘blood of the gentleman which it is mix’d with 5 that, as the tide from the fea flowing up a fine frefh water river, tho’ at firft pufh’d on by the wind or by the- hight of the fea, it rufhes in with violence and carrys its falt and brackifh waters a good way, tainting the purer ftreams of the river for a while, yet it is at laft conquer'd, its waters fweetn’d and made frefh, the falin particles being. repulfd and driven back by the frefh ftream that comes down upon it: fo the bafe blood of the mean woman, tho’ it may mix at firft its courfer alloy with the more pure and refin'd principle of life in the veins of the child, yet that it weares out with time, the vigour of his fpirits overcomes it, and in a few yeares the child is reftor'd to its firft conftitu- cion, and is all gentle’ again, as compleatly as he was the firft hour he was born. This is a fine fpeculation indeed, but has no foun- dacion cither in the fact or philofophy; and the reafon and nature of the thing is. againft it: for, firft, tis beg- ing the queftion in the moft egregious manner _poffible ; the fact is not capable of evedence, much lefs of demonftration by any means whatfoever ; on the con- . trary, it is not fo much as probable ; for, as I faid before, the mixture being made in the beginning of the child’s progreffion, the conftitution is form’d upon that mixture, as the root and the natures grow up together ; nay, as in a graft the fcyon and the ftock grow together, and the fcyon being fixt upon the ftock, tho’ the ftock is the. firtt in nature, the: fruit is allways after the fcyon which is‘*grafted in, fo here, tho’ MS. G. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. tho’ the gentleman is in the ftock, yet, the mixture being in. the blood, the engraftment takes place, and | the fruit pertakes of both, but is denominated from ‘the lat. But there is a mi(ffortune in nature, too, which attends us‘all and which is ftronger againft this plea. than all the reft, (viz.) that the evill part allwaycs makes deeper impreffion than the good, and if the mixture of blood has any thing in it, the bad is. rather moft likely to prevail. All this. while I do not grant that there is really any degeneracy of blood in either the marriage or the fuck- ling, except in cafe of diftemper ; and then I am flre, and infift upon it, that the danger is chiefly in the fuck-. . ling part; but I take the argument as the gentlemen and_as the ladyes lay it down for us, and as they pre- tend it fhould be taken, whether it is fo in fact or no, - viz. that the blobd of a gentleman is a mighty: article in the family, and that to marry with a mechanick is a corrupcion of the blood, which difhonours the line and caufes a degeneracy in the race; that the next genera- cion or the iffue of the marriage is not truly gentle! or truly noble, but a mixt breed, half gentle,’ half - fcoundrel, like the mule among the horfes, and ought not to rank with the gentry ; as in the Old Inftitution, when God refolv'd to keep his people pure and unmix’d ‘in blood, he forbid the children? of Moab or of Ammon the entring or being recieved into the con- gregation to the third generation. 83 Thus it is apparent there is a mixture ; and to fay the f 314 mixture is worn out by time is faying what can not be prov’d ; and befides the affirmativ being unprov'd, I fay the rational part is againft it, becaufe the plant took its root in the time of the firft mixture, and every grain, every ounce of flifh that is grown up fince, is grown up | from MMS. G. 2 Abbreviation. My 84 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. from the fame mixt nutriment, which the root muft yield? and no root can giv any nutriment but what it felf con- | tains, fo that once mixt and ever mixt, once corrupted and ever corupted ; and there is no. man in Nature can be call’d a gentleman born, in the true acceptacion of the word, as thofe people would have it be taken, but fuch as never fuckt in the milk of a mechanick. That this is abfolutely and litterally true I believ will be granted ; if not, I would be very glad to fee upon what folid foundacion it can be contradicted ; how to remedyc it, I mean for the future, for what is pafft can not be cur’d, but how for the future.it may be remedyed, is for the ladyes to confider of. In the mean time, were it pufh'd home at our gentle- men, who value themfelves fo much upon their blood, the line of the families, and at the unmarry’d ladyes, .who rate themfelves above the higheft fortunes, who want the advantage of birth: I fay, were it pufh’ d home at either fex, they would be oblig’d to procure.as good proof of who nurft them as who bore them, whofe milk they fuck'd, as whofe race they came of, and to prove the quallity, the blood, the high birth, of the lady nurfe, the poor woman that fuckl’d them, as of the father that begot them. I think I need fay no more to the ladyes upon this fubje&t. But I can not quit it, till Ihave put the gentle- men a little upon the tenters about it, too ; for they are the principal parties concern’d. That the gentlemen of England are at this time under a wretched f{candal is moft certain ; and the re- proach lyes indced not onely, or not fo much, upon their moralls as upon their underftandings ; even their genius and capafcities are queftioned. They are not fo much told of their want of being learned, for that may be their inftructor's fault, but of their being un- capable of learning, of a rugged, untractable, undocible _ difpofition, The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. difpofition, when, young, dull and impenetrable and not to be taught. Now this,is to my purpofe, for it allmoft naturally puts us upon enquiring into the reallity of the extraccion ; not whether they are really true born, and are the fons of gentlemen; that would be rude to the ladyes, their mothers ; but whether the blood of a gentleman has not been degenerated in their veins: by vile mixtures fince'their birth ; and how - ‘can that be but in the manner I have alleag’d, viz., by drinking in the grofs, heavy, four particles of the plebcian blood in their firft alyment, nourifhing the plant with courfe, inflam’d, or corrupted juices, by which the very kind may be altred, the fprightly, aery, refin’d animal fpirits, which naturally flow’d in the in- fant veins be loaded and oppreft with thick, crude, clumfey, and heavy particles, which change the very motion as well as the conftitution of the child, and make him a blockhead by the meer confequence of Nature. ~ It, would be a happy difcovery, could we come to be lea in the point, and would go a great way to! convince me that the notion we have of a gentleman - being ftrictly oblig’d to preferv the dignity of his birth. ‘and blood has fomething of reallity in it, even in the | higheft and ftriéteft fence ; if it could be made .appear that all the unmixt race, the pure true born familyes of gentlemen among us, who had preferv’d the blood entire, were men of honour, of fence, of learning and virtue, and that all the degenerate, vitious, debaucht | lines, and all the empty, untaught, ignorant, good-for- nothing gentlemen were fuch whofe blood was at firft tainted with the impure mixtures of the rabble by fucking in the milk of thofe fcoundrell, mean, defpicable things, call’d nurfes. It would be an unanfwerable plea for all the diftin- cion and difference not onely that we do, but that we could, make, and it would be the care of all the good families 85 F° » 6 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. families in England to take the bringing up of their fons into their own hands, to prevent their going to the D in the meer confequence of their being nurfd abroad. On the other hand, all the gencrous minds, the vigorous fpirits, the bright exaltcd fouls, all the men of genius and wit, of bravery and of great thoughts, that have drunk in learning, as a fifh drinks water, and have treafur'd up knowleg and princeples of virtue, as-mifers do gold; who are born fhining and have improv'd a polite genius by a polite education: thefe to the honour of their anceftors would carry their teftimonials in their very faces, that they were thcir genuine poftcrity, true gentlemen of unmix’d race, of an untainted blood, heroic fons of hero anceftors, and that, what ever thcir fathers excell’d in that was good and comendable, they were prepar'd to imitate and would ftriv to excell. But this is not to' be expected ; and as it is not fo, it leaves us prepar’d to enquire from what purer fpring ‘this glorious ftream call'd the blood of a gentleman derives, and I doubt not but by a duc ,fearch we fhall foon find it out; but of that by itfelf. , In the mean time, as the phyfitian muft firft fearch into the difeas before he can prefcribe the remedy, fo we muft go a little farther in laying open’ this wound and making due enquiry into the fact; we. fhall elce be told I have drefft up a man of ftraw to fight with, have form’d an imaginary figure to talk of, for the fake of the fatyr, expofd a thing of nothing that is not to be found; and, in a word, the fact is not true any more than the reafon of it is rational. I muft therefore, as above, eftablith the premifes, or I can never expect to fupport the conclufion. The charge lyes, in a few words, thus :— 1. That our Englifh gentlemen, generally fpeaking, are 1 #9 omitted in MS. a % The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. 87 are not men of learning, men of heads, of genius .and wit, whether natural! or acquir’d. 2. That the great defect lyes not in their families or in their blood, not in their intellect or capafcities, but in the error of their educacion. 3. That, tho’ wit and genius are the gifts of nature, / 33. yet that for want of a liberal cducacion even thofe he fhining parts may fuffer a total cclypfe. 4. That a love of pleafure being fubftituted early in the minds of children born to fortunes and eftates extinguifhes the love of learning, which might otherwife by carly inftruccion have been kindled in the mind. 5--That an early lov of pleafure is an invincible -obftacle to a love of vertue as well as to a love of learning ; and that’as one makes them fimple, fo the ‘other makes ’em wicked. 6. That folly as well as learning may be acquir’d, and men become fools by the help of educacion juft as others learn to be wife. 7. That taking tutors to teach young gentlemen is not onely the ruine.of their heads, but of their moralls alfo; and that as tutors are generally mannag’d or rather mannage themfelves, they are rather playfellows ‘to the children than inftructors. 8. That tutors, as the youth grow up, rather prompt their pleafures than their learning, and that they muft do fo or lofe their places. ; 9. That all the mifcheifs of a young gentleman's | education are occafion’d by a negleét of the moft early inftruccions: The principles of vertuc, religion, and fubjeccion to government are to be planted in the minds of children from the very firft moments that they can be made capable of recieving them, that they may be fure to have the firft pofeffion of their minds, and may have fome time to take root, before the taft of 88 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. of pleafures and a loofe to levity and folly can have accefs to fupplant them., Upon the foot of thefe principles both the grievance will be explain’d, the caufes of it found out, the fcandal of it cxpof’d, and the remedy for it be applyed. | The’ gentlemen of England will have no room to be offended at this work; it is neither written to expofe.them or infult them, much lefs to wrong and abufe them. Either.the thing is true, or it is not. If it is not, I fhould- indeed be greatly injurious, and fhould merit the refentment not of the gentlemen onely, but of all mankind; as having. raif’d a reproach upon my nativ country, and miffreprefented the ‘higheft rank of the beft men in it, wrote a fatyr upon virtue, and made a complaint without-a crime: in a word, I fhould be call’d a falfe accufer, and fhould merit the name, tho’ it be one of the titles fingular to the D ' But I am not affraid of the cenfure, nor do I believ the gentlemen of England will be in the Icaft difpleaf'd with either the defign, or with the method. «As to the cafe being true in fact, I am content to appeal to the gentlemen themfelves; they are too much gentlemen, to withftand it; and if the faét is true, the fatyr is juft ; and the remedyes propof’d'I am fure are kind, fo that I have truth, juftice, and kindnefs in every part of the work. Nor is there any occafion for me to make an ex- cepcion for the great number of bright, accomplifh't, polite gentlemen that are among us; who are the glory 433% of their country, and indeed keep up the very name of gentlemen among us; who are at this time the orna- , ments ‘ Here the MS. has the note, Here a new Cap. The COMPLEAT. GENTLEMAN. ments of their country for learning, wit, fcience, and virtue, patterns of good breeding and of good manners. Thofe gentlemen do not want to be told that they are excepted here; they except themfelves, as they diftinguifh themfelves by their conduct, and as at this time they are diftinguifht by all the world for the moft accomplifht people in the Univerfe. This ftill returns with an irrefiftible force of argument upon the reft, upon the untaught, unpolithed, unim- ‘ prov'd part which remain, and who being the mafs or bulk of the gentry have the mifffortune to be left behind, groveling in the dirt of ignorance, and learning no thing but to glut themfelves in plenty, wallowing in wealth and in the groffeft part of what they call pleafures, not capable of enjoying the fublime and exalted delight of an improv'd foul; I fay not capable, that is, they have no taft of them, becaufe they do not underftand them, no guft to books to read the accions of great men or to’ tread in the fteps of glory and‘ vertue. The improv'd part of mankind have nothing left but to pity thofe unhappy gentlemen, who fit content and felicitate them felves in that which is the worft of mifery, ignorance ; and who, could they look without themfelves a little, would be furprif’d to think how unnaturally they were treated by ‘their anceftors, who gave them money without riches, cftates without treafurc, and titles without heads, and who have no happynefs left ‘em with all their fortunes but the meer ftupidity of being eafie in the lofs, willing to be fools, and, as we may fay, not defiring to be otherwife, becaufe they kno” no better. The world recognizes the wifer part of our gentry, they who by the felicity of their educacion have been. early introduc’d into a lov of vertuc, learning, and all gentlemanly 1 {no is omitted in MS. 89 go S34 ) The C OMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. gentlemanly improvement. How i is our nation at this time made illuftrious thro’ all Europe for fome of the greate{t men that ever the world produced, exquifite in ‘ {cience, compleat in the politeft learning, bright in witts, wife in the Cabinet, brave in!the field; no fcience, no comendable ftudy, no experimentall knowlege, no humane attainment, but ey leneel in and in fome go beyond all man kind, and are, I fay, the glory not of England onely, but of the world! I fhould be ignorant, as the men I talk of, if I fhould think thefe gentlemen ought to have been mencioned by way of exception; there’s no need of it. Thefe: are the paterns for the other to be fham'd by; thefe are the ftandards that young gentlemen fhould be form’d' by and who they fhould ftriv to imitate. Thefe are the proofs given to the abuf'd gentlemen I fpeak of, to prove that they might have* been like ‘em, if it had not been for the fondnefs of mothers, the ignorance of fathers, the negligence of nurfes, and the treachery of tutors. Thefe are the eee examples which fhould, barring’ rcligious prohibicions, fhould make our gentlemen curfe their no-educacion, reproach their unkind anceftors, and hang. themfelves, to be out of the fcandal of it. Their onely proteccion is their ftupidity, as I have faid above. They neither look in, or look out, or look up; if they look’d in, they would fee what empty, what weak, what unform’d things they are; if they look’d out, that is, look’d round them, they would fee how bright, how beautifull learning rendred other men, and what they might have been, if they had had juftice done them in their educacion ; as to the laft, their looking up, they that cannot look 7 can feldome look* #p: They that can not contemplate themfelves can very ill contemplate their Maker; and as for ae loolzing 1MS. form. 7 MS. Aa,as often. * MS: look look. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. looking round them, this they do indeed in there own confin’d manner; they look into their parks and gar- dens, their lands and revenues, and fee with joy+the fund they have, to carry on their life of pleafure and foth ; but they feldome or indeed never! can look round them enough to fee how near a life they liv to that of a brute, in how different a manner fuch and fuch gentle- ‘men live, how much more fuitable tc the life of a gentleman, as he is a man and a rational creature as well as a Chriftian, and that perhaps with a fmaller eftate ; nay, which is ftill worfe, they do not looke upon the man of fence and wit, the man of learning and of parts, to imitate him, but to defpife and contemn him, becaufe forfooth he is no gentleman, and in this: fence they may be properly faid not to look round them at all. , 1 yever not in MS. CAP. gt | “CAP. IIL Of the generall ignorance of the Englifh gentry and the true cafes of it in the manner of their tntroduccion: tuto life. ASSFTER what has been faid of the weaknefs K& and, what is worfe, the ignorance that es fpreads, at this time, among our gentry, i tis time to examine the fact and enquire into the truth of things; for it would be a terrible reproach upon this work, and would take off the edge and force of all the wholefam truths that are ftill behind, if, when all thefe refieccions are made, the thing fhould not be fo. But I am far from being affraid of fuch a charge. I have too many vouchers at hand, too many witneffes to produce. What town, what county in England can we come into where thefe unfledg’d animals are not to be feen ? Ete 7 After the heading are the following lines, which are, however, accompanied by the remark, 72/5 for another place,and by a delea- tur :— \ ; What decp concerne the anxious mothers flow, - For fear the generous heir /rould learn to kno’, Indule'd in eafe, in ignorance, and pride, And many a forry, filly thing de/de, Brought up to nothing al a vdft expenfe, Aud while they feed his honour Narv his fence :- Thus for the park and manfion he’s made fil, And bred a fool in fpite of mother-wit. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. Ecce Platonis homo! Who bear the figure of the man are not to be dif- tinguifh’t by their perfons, their fhapes or faces, except that fome times they are apt to go with their mouth open, an' unhappy fignature placed by filent ature to direct our guefs, whence we have an old fignificant proverb. gaping fool, of which again in his order; for I am not now upon the varicty of the forts of fools but their number, and indeed 'tis a little frightfull to engage, when a man is allmoft forrounded before the 93 battle. But courage! it muft be donc, we mutt fight / 35. ° our way thro’; the danger may indeed be fomething, but the difficulty is nothing. “Tt was a faying father’d upon King Charles IT, tho’ it was a little too harfh for him, wha had a world of witt and not one grain of ill nature, that if there were not both fools and knaws returi'd, (1 fappofe there might be an election in hand at the time) tle nation could not be truly reprefented. ) As to the knavery among our gentlemen in Iengland, I will not flatter them there may be fome long heads among them too; but I'll do them the juftice at the fame time as to: fay I believ the fhort heads have infinitely the majority, efpecially among the elder brothers. I have heard of holding eftatcs in England by antient tenures, old antiquated cuftomes, and “fervices ; fome arc held by the fword, fuch as fervice in the field, knight's fervice, and cfquire: but I never found a mannor held in England by the weight of the brain. We are told that in fome of the iflands of the Archi- pelague they had fome very odd cuftomes, as at Zia or Zea, that if any man prefum’d to cumber’ the place abov So year he fhould be voted an invader of his heirs 1 MS. an an. * MS. cuumder, corrected from another word. 94 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. heirs, and they fhould bury him, whether he was pleafed -to dye or no, becaufe, as there was but juft provifions _enough in the ifland for the ordinary inhabitants, it was unreafonable that they fhould devour it who were of no manner of ufe to the public. : In another ifland ..... , namelefs for divers good reafons, they tell us it was a cuftome that, when any man of fortune dyed, his eftates were to be divided among his children not according to the primogeniture, but according to the quallity or-degree of their learning and underftanding, of which the Senate of the country were judges, and they had infallible rules to determine it by. Some hold lands indeed by ftrength of ‘hand, and fome by ftrength of face ; but ’tis the knaves onely that hold by ftrength of wit. I ‘doubt indeed ’twould be a mellancholly article among us heirs, if want of brains fhould be made a want of title to our eftates, and men were to fhare the land in proporcion to their underftanding. But as things now ftand, it feems to be the reverfe in our country, efpecially if, as a certain author pretends, Nature has made the divifion with equity and upon weighty confideracions. Elder and younger fhare the goods of fate, This all the brains inherits, that th’ cfiate, Happy Conftitution! glorious England ! where the in- heritance defcends in tayl, and-the head has no fhare in the claim; where fools enjoy their juft privileges and an eldeft fon enjoys the land by birthright, be the heir a baronctte, the juftice of peace, the member OR om ie Gos , ay, and any thing elce that Nature has furnifh’t him with a title to, or with moncy to purchafe. Nor can his want of fence be pleaded in bar: of his fucceffion, provided he is but one degree above being beg’d, etc. As The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. As fools, then, are not out of rank, fo neither are they out of fafhion, and there is fome convenience in that, too, efpecially where the number is fo confiderable ; for now a man, Ict his head be as weak as you will, may come into company, fit upon the bench and at the board, take a commiffion, be chofen mayor, alder- man, common council man, as well as feverall other reprefenting advances, and not be oblig’d to blufh and hold his tongue. -e Nay, if nature has been deficient in other cafes, and his tongue fhould be a little too big for his mauth, fo that he fhould be addiéted to fpeech-making fome times, and that in public, too, he may yet come off | tollerably well, becaufe the men of more wit have gencrally good nature enough to bear it and fay nothing, and ‘tis ten to one but the majority may underftand it as little as himfelf. There are, doubtlefs, fome advantages to the empty gentlemen from their numbers, and. theyr being fo much in fafhion is none of the leaft of them. ITow often when they tell nofes do the fools out-poll their neigh- bours! how often fall in with partyes and run down all by their numbers! Thofe arc the gentlemen who in former dayes were call’d the DEAD WEIGIIT in a certain Houfe. The reafon was plain when the party kings' were equally divided. Who ever got the f....s on their fide were fure to carry the queftion ; and this made the miniftry in thofe days (for I fpeak now of things 40 year ago) get a roll of thefe folks under pay, , and thence we deriv’d the name and perhaps the ufe, too; of a Penfion Parliament? But thofe things are out of doores now; and tho’ the fools, I-doubt, are not lefien’d in number now, yet they may be honefter, perhaps, than - 95 they were then, or, what is ftill better, thefe are honefter s. -6 times ; and tho’ bribery may be out of fafhion tho’ the fesenais 1 Party XK in MS. * Pin MS. 96 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. f....s' are not: Heavens grant that may be the true ftate of the cafe. AMEN, But to eome back to the thing in difpute as it lyes before us, the propoficion is plain that our Lenglifle gentlemen are not men of learning. 1 had fome thoughts ofsentring upon the proof of it, but I am happily: prevented by the generallity*? of the thing, and the honefty of the partys; for really the gentlemen con fefs it themfelves. Sonhe indeed are afham’d, and would fain conceal it; etl they are the fmalleft number. Some again ingenuoufly own it, and tell you honeftly they don’t pretend to learning ; they were not bred to books they fay, and have no notion of them: fo they don’t mind them. They liv as they are, that is to fay, not like men of learning, but like gentlemen. They enjoy their eftates and their pleafures, and envy no-' body. If they had been well taught, they. fhould have been glad of it now; and ’twas none of their fault ; but that's paft and it can’t be help’d; they muft be con- tent, they have a good eftate and no great need, of it; and fo ’tis well enough, Thofe are indeed the beft of the race, and are a teftimony that the ignorance of the gentlemen lyes indeed in their education, not in naturall defficiencys; and that they are fools, not for want of capafcity of being taught, but for want of teaching. But we have another fort or two to fpeak of, and they indeed are among the incorrigibles of nature. Nothing is to be done with them. Thefe are either (1) thofe that in fpite of ignorance and unfufferable dullnefs are opinion wife. It would take up a little volume to giv a full defcripcion of this kind; it muft be confefft they feem to be a fpecies by them- felyes ; that their intelle€tualls are form’d in a differing mould 1-Fin MS, * Or it might be generallityes. Uy e > . The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. mould from the reft of mankind. They fpeak and act upon a feperate foot,-and walk in a feperate track ; they neither do well or fay well, and yet will have it that all they either do or fay is beft ; they are a modern fort of Ifhmaelites, for they laugh at all the world and: all the world laughs at them ; they think all the world fools to them, and all the w tld thinks them fools of the groffeft kind. As to their knowlege;-whether ‘natural or. acquir’d, ’tis in their own opinion fo every way com- pleat, and their heads fo well furnith’d, that they cannot believ a word of their want of better inftruccion, but. _ think they kno’ every thing and kno’ it, too, better than their neighbours. Nor are they ever fatiffied,' if you’ don’t chime in with them and acknowlege all they fay ; and to compleat their impertinence they are noify “with their nonfence, maintain the groffeft abfurdi- tyes, oppofe the plaincft evedence, difpute principles, and argue even againft demonftracion. Generally fpeaking, they carry a ftock of ill nature about them and a want of temper, if not a want of good manners. Nothing pleafes them ; they contradict every body, rail at every body, giv characters of every body, and, in a word, tyre every body. Nothing i4 more frequent with them then to pafs their judgement upon the learning as well as wit of others, tho’ they have fo very little of their own ; nay, tho’ they read no books, but perhaps | the title page and the finis of fome few, yet borrowing {craps from other men they pafs their cenfure in the grofs, and damn the worke, as we fay, unfight unfeen. Indeed, as they pafs their cenfure in the grofs, fo, if you . will pardon me a pun, ’tis gencrally a grofs cenfure, ignorant, weak, courfe, and perhaps rude, too; for fuch men very feldom abound in manners. Or, (2) we have another fort, and thefe come home to you with argu- ment. They don’t (like the other people) deny the. charge 1 Abbreviation. G oF gk The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. charge and believ themfelves to be men of learning, reading, and travell, and the like, and put theirsnonfence upon you for wit; but, on the contrary, they own the fact, but denye the deficiency: they grant they have no learning, but they fay it ought to be fo; they ought to be bred up juft as they were; that ‘tis a mif- take; ‘tis not ignorance in them not to underftand languages any more than ’tis that ee can't make a watch or a clock or a pair of fhoes ; that fchollars and men of books are handicrafts and mecchannicks made to work for gentlemen, as joyners and carpenters are, and books are to them nothing .but ‘their tools, their compaffes and hammers, their planes and augurs to exercife their art with; that thefe things are below a: gentleman ; that he has no buffinefs with them: that if any man afkt his fon what fchool he went to, what books he was in, and how he went on in his ftudyes, he fhall anfwer:_“ School, Sir? I don’t go to fchool. . My father {corns to put me to fchool. Sure I an't to be a trades-man ; I am to be a gentleman: I an’t to. go to f{chool.” Then he runs on with a common place of rallery againft learning and learned men after: the manner of the elder brother méncion’d before; how ufelefs and how ridiculous it is to trouble a gentleman with {cience and books; that Nature had form’d them for other things ; that they were born for enjoyment, fingl’d out to form a degree of men above the ordinary rank ; that learning and improvements were for the inferior world, to recomend them to employment and_ buffinefs that they might get their bread; that gentlemen were above all thefe things and above the people that were mafters of them ; that men of books are the drudges and fervants of the gentry, and when ever they had occafion for them, they could have them for their money, as princes entertain interpreters and thercfore: never The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. never learn languages themfelves ; that ‘thofe were made to ferv for wages, and the gentlemen’ arc thofe that hire them and pay them ; that ’tis ridiculous to put the gentlemen upon reading and learning languages « they have other employment and are born to better things. Befides, they tell you it would be injurious _to the Common Wealth and take the bread out of the ' mouths of the younger brothers ; that learning and languages were manufactures* and employ'd the poor (fchollars), and it would be very hard to take the employment from’ them which they get their bread by ; that fchollars like fiddlers are to be hir’d to make | 99 mufic to the gentry ; that thefe are to pipe, and the ¢° other are to dance, becaufe they pay the piper; that gentlemen are no more to trouble them felves with books than with the bag pipes ; that would be to ftarv the poor fchollars and bring them as a charge upon the parith. Thofe two claffes of gentlemen are, indeed, the exalted heroes of ‘ignorance and floth, who this dif- cours is chiefly pointed at ; ang thofe are the gentlemen I mean alfo when I fay their number is fo great that, — if they came to tell nofes, they would out-pol their neighbours. I confefs the laft out-do the former, too, becaufe they have a kind of a harden’d eloquence in their way of talking, which confirms them in their folly the more they talk of it, and fhows that, like men bred up in any particular error or opinion of religion, who afterwards maturely cleav to thofe errors, they are not onely hereticks by the prejudice of edu- cacion, but have formally recogniz'd that educacion’ by a mature, deliberate profeffion, making that which was before their neceffity® be their choice. This way of talking in the matter of education, like atheifms in religion, is not to be fupported without a vatt , ' 'MS.G. 7 Af with a stroke over it » Abliev ation 100 )6— The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. vaft ftock of affurance ; I had almoft given it.a harder word, but that, as I am talking of gentlemen, I would treat them as fuch. This is certain, it. can not be carry’d on without fome face, as men talk firft athe- iftically, then, working up their paffions. to a hight, run it on to down-right blafphemy. I do not doubt but that fometimes they are fencible of, and feel with regrett, the defficiency of their own educacion; but learning gradually to be contented with it, and to accept of the eafe and pleafure of their fortunes as diverfions inftead of it, come at laft to approv as by choice what they are plung’d into ‘by neceffity, having learn’d by habit and by length of time to applaud | what was the crime and neglect of their parents, as a wife part acted in their introduccion into the world:. infifting upon it as what was beft for them; decrying all improvements and blafpheming fcience as athcifts do religion; declaring themfelves ignorant by. meer open fuffrage and confent; defpifing knowlege like Solomon’s fool, of whom among many other charccters to kno’ him by I think this is the moft pointed and ' elegant, as well as concife, that they hate knowlege, by which I can not doubt but that the wife man meant that zone but fools .do fo. A I can not reprefent the unhappynefs of thefe unedu- cated gentlemen more to their diffadvantage than in the confequence we fee it has in their own ‘families, ' among their fervants and tennants, and even among their children. . ‘I had occafion’ but a very few yeares ago to be prety much in the family of a gentleman who I had long had an intimacy with ; he was himfelf a man that knew the world, had beer bred much abroad in Germany, France, and Italy, and had a great ftock of converfacion-knowlege, tho’ no learning. He was the firft rank, as I may call it, for eftate and antient blood t «= * The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. blood, and, tho’ not enobl'd, might claim an undifputed title to that of gentleman. He had but one fon, the heir and hopes of his family ; and his being ‘the onely fon was one of his reafons, why he would not part with him abroad when he came to grow up; but his other reafon, which he kept much to himfelf, and which was the true reafon, indeed, was that he thought his fon by his mother’s tendernefs had been bred too foft and eafie, too much fwallow’d up in-his pleafures, fo that he was not to be fo much trufted with himfelf, and that, as he faid afterwards, he was fencible it would be his.entire ruine to fend him abroad. Alfg his having been bred ‘up without learning he lay’d to the charge of his mother, as above. It was true, he did not feem to think that any great’ lofs to his fon, and would often fay he would have no need of it ; that a little learning was tnough’ for a gentleman that had an eftate above the need of raifing himfelf higher, and that reading and book knowlege did but ferv to form vaft defigns politicks, embroil them with partyes, and by placeing “them at the head of factions in the State, involv them in frequent _mifchicls, and tome timcs briae them to ruine = diftruccion ; that, he faid, he had rather follow © the grave early, and build an hofpitall with his ee than break his heart for him 20 or 30 years later, when he fhould hear of ‘his coming to a fcaffold ; that without—ambicien_he would—be a fafe man, ail might_be_ as ha as this world could make any body ; that all the learning in the world could not add to it, but that no man was too high to fall, and the higher the more dangerous ; that he had 12000 pound a year clear eftate to leav him, and fome money,:and_ . his three fifters provided for, fo that he had neither mother’s joynture or fifters’ portions to pay out of it ; that if he had a mind to liv gay and fpend the whole income, ¢ IOI , in men’s heads, fend them up to Court, embark them in / 3°. -. 102 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. income, yet if he did not fell nor mortgage, he thought it was cnough, and that he had no occafion to enereafe; but that if he fhould prove a good mannager, and hada mind to grow over-rich, he might live in a figure equall, to a nobleman, and yet lay up 5000 pound a year, with which he might encreafe his eftate to allmoft what degree he pleaf'd ; but if he had ten times as much he might be no richer than before and, perhaps, not half fo happy. I confefs the argument about his way of living was juft and well enough: A gentleman of fuch 4n eftate can't propofe much to himfelf in this world which fuch an eftate could not help him to, and nothing can be fuppof'd to fpend more than fuch an income without a crime, I mean without a criminal profufion ; but of that by itfelf. Nor is there any great difference in the article of humane felicity, between his fpending half of it or all of it: "Tis very certain that, barring ambition, fuch an eftate was enough to bound any modrate man’s defires, | and whatfoever prompted his ambition muft be danger- ous to him, as his father well obferv’d. The late ever glorious King William uf’d frequently to fay that, if he was not a king, and Providence’ had mercifully plac’d his ftacion of life in his choice, he would be an Englith gentleman of two thoufand pounds a year. His Majefty gave many very good - reafons for the narrow compafs of his defircs, and one which I thought was very fignificant was this: that it was the ftacion of life that gave. the leaft room for difquiet and uneafynefs in the world, and the greateft opportunity of calm and content ; that there were’ very few comforts among man-kind which fuch an cftate could not giv, and that to have more rather encumbr'd a gentleman with fervants and 1 Dwithadotinthemiddle. — * were is omitted in MS. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. and buffinefs to look after them, than gave any addi- tion to his enjoyment, unlefs a man could fit ftill and fec himfelf cheated by his tewards and upper fervants, and fuffer all manner of diforders in his under fervants with-out any concern at one or diflike of the other ; which he thought no man of fence could be capable of. As the thoughts His Majefty had upon that fubject were very nice, fo, no doubt, they were grounded upon the beft principles and were fuitable to the truett nocioris of humane: delight, I mean virtuous pleafures, enjoyment without criminal excirfions; and fo the King often expreff’t himfelf, adding there was no pleafure at all in ftoring up mellancholly reproaches: and refleccions for old age. It will be hard for any man to chalk out a way, how and in what particular figure of life a gentleman could live up-to fuch an eftate and fpend £12000 a year without being guilty of fome criminal excurfions, that is, exceffes in himfe!f, or allowing, and conniving at, them in his family and among his retinue, unlefs he will employ his whole time in fetting up'a mean. - -and unfafhionable difcipline in his houfehold, and, like a Vice Chancellor in the Univerfity, eftablifh his regula- cions for their manners and houres, and even then, as 103 he has no legal authority to punifh, he can do no/. 29 more than diffmifs the refractory, ungovernable fellows and take others as bad in their room. In a word, as His Majefty faid in the cafe before: mencion’d, a gentleman of fuch an eftate has a weight of buffincfs upon him equall to a tradefman in his fhop or a merchant in his compting houfe. ’'Tis a - full employment to him to audit his accompts, to be checqing his fteward’s books, bargaining with his ten- nants, holding his courts, granting leafes, and hearing caufes between tennant and tennant and between fervant and fervant, fo that it was a drudgery too much ix FOR The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. much for a gentleman, would make him allways un- eafye, and, in his opinion, overballanc’t the benefit of the eftate it felf. As I have quoted fo extraordinary a perfon for this opinion, fo I muft add that the King made this judg- ment not from-ignorance of the world or want of knowing how to liv in a fuperior figure, but juft the contrary; for as he was born a prince fully quallify-ed for the government of nacions, fo he was perfectly accomplifh’d in all the needfull parts of governing his houfehold, which was allwayes great, and he fpoke this not from an empty fpeculacion, but from a_ long experience in the manner of living publick and the ftate and pomp of a great houfchold. He {aw that with a little compact eftate of ae a year he had his time unengroff't, his head unencumbr'd ;° he needed no fteward, no reciever ; he could look over it all himfelf with pleafure, and had onely to defire it might be let out in large farms to as few tennants as poffible, five or fix was enough, fuch farmers being generally men of fubftance, that pay their rents with- out any trouble ; whereas with a larger eftate a gentle- man is allways engag’d with the wrangling of tennants, their complaints of .the ftewards, or by their knavery or poverty is oblig’d to be allways ruining and tearing them to peices for his rent, fo that he is neither well uf'd by thern or belov’d by them. Now, tho’ the living criminally profufe was a thing not unworthy the confideration of a King, yet I do not fee it makes any impreffion among our gentlemen, e{pecially fince ’tis of late fo much the fafhion. Every gentleman feems to be willing to liv as gay as he can, and we fee the fad confequence of it among them at this time, namely that moft of our gentry in England with their; ignorance and their other defects of head arc. alfo in but very indifferent condicion as to family cir- cumftances The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. 105 é cumftances,' and many even of the greateft eftates are overwhelm’d in debt, which it muft be confeff’t feems to be fome reproach upon their underftanding, as well as upon their prudence, ‘and intimates that their purfes lare empty becaufe their heads are fo; for it would hardly be thought poffible that men’s pockets fhould be light, if their brains were not light alfo, when they have perhaps from £500 to two, nay to four, ten, and even to £20,000 a year reall eftate. But of this I. fhall find occafion to talk farther by it felf, when I come to the extraordinary mannagement of our gentry in the economy of their familys and fortunes, which, as reafon requires, muft fupply us with a chapter by it felf. But I come back to the gentleman as defcrib’d above. He is fuppof’d to be heir to a great eftate, no lefs than £10 to £12000 aycar, and this is given for a_ -reafon why he fhould not be well taught ; he muft not ~ go to fchool; no, his father fcorns to put him to fchool, becaufe he is, or rather is to be, a gentleman. Pre- pofterous reafoning! as if the man were really better ignorant and unpolifh'd, than beautify’d and fet off with the embellifhments and improvements of learning and knowlege ; as if the diamond was more valuable while it was rough and unpolifh'd, as it came out of the mine, than after the diamond cutter had by his art brought it to a. good fhape, a true brilliant, taken out : all its laws and fcarrs, and that you fee a perfect water ; as if the filver of Potofi was better in the oar than in the ingot, and that gold were equall in the river among » the oufe and the fands, than cleanf'd and wafh't out. Let fuch people run a little paralell between the heir and his eftate, and let them learn to fee the abfurdity of this ill form’d notion there. How carefull are the gentlemen of their parks, their woods, their lands, that their wafts be enclof’d, the timber. preferv'd, their 1 Abbreviated. 100 S40 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. their farms well tenanted, the tennants bound up fo rules of hufbandry, to lay the plough’d lands fallow at due times, to preferv the paftures and break them up with the plow, and, in a word, to praétife good hufbandry for improving the eftate, to commit no waft, make no trefpafs, keep up the fences, and clear the ditches and water-courfes, keep the farm-houfes in due repair: how carefull, I fay, are our gentry in all thefe things, In a word, nothing is forgotten to improv the eftate, _. nothing entirely neglected but the heir, as if his eftate was to be improv’d, but not his head, and his land was to be duly cultivated, but not his brains. Did the wit defcend, indeed, with the wealth, and the heir come to * his learning, as he came to his lands, by inheritance, there were then, ’tis true, fome thing to be faid for this folly. Then learning and books would be of no ufe to the eldeit fon till fuch and fuch a time. Then, indeed, inftruccion and education would be out of the queftion, and we fhould have no objeccion againit letting the heir. play away his prime and go a hunting inftead of going to fchool. On the other hand, it would be an abfurdity to do otherwife. But fince it happens to be otherwife, and that the heir muft be taught, or he can not learn ; that knowlege does not grow upon the trees, or wifdome follow and’ attend the inheritance ; fince fcience does not defcend with the honour, and learning like an eftate is not entail’d on the heirs male; ‘tis evedent that young gentlemen muft acquire knowlege, or go without it. It is true, there is fuch a thing as a natural genius, there is a mother wit, a vivacity of fpirit, that in fome particular perfons is born with them; that they are ftored before-hand, made bright at the firft, and, as ’tis faid of fome that they are born poets, fo fome are born with great fouls, vaft capafcityes, and a fund of nature, as it may be call’d, is given them even, by original donation ; The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. donation ; and niuch of hits. is boafted of in Hate ordinary expreffions of being born a gentleman, have- ing good blood in the veins and haveing derivd generous principles from the line, that he came of fuch a family and of fuch a blood, and’ that the young off- fpring muft be all that is great and fine, becaufe he is | of the family of fuch a great man, in a word, becaufe he is a gentleman; as if Rhehoboam was one jot the lefs a fool for being the fon of a Solomon, or the fitter to reign becaufe his father was a king: the contrary was apparent. Ie neither had the prudence of the King, nor the fence of an ordinary man, for nothing. that had had an ounce of braines in his head would have. given fuch an anfwer as he did to the people, who came to pray him to abate their burthens or redrefs their grievances; any thing but a fool would have treated them gently, and given them good words, at’ leaft at firft, till he had been acknowleg’d for king ight have turn’d tyrant or anything, as ‘tis plain his father had done before him. . | ‘ Gentleman: “TY underftand you I believ; but I have 12 126 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN, Gentleman: “Well you go me a fervico} indeed ; for I had given him order to buy a great many more at an auction that is to begin in a very few ,dayes.” 7 Friend: “ But, perhaps, he may do better for you. Pray, don’t let me hinder any body.” : Gentleman: “Not hinder any body cheating me? Say no more of that; I find I. am cheated enough allready. Why he has Tad £5 300 of me, and now may call for as much more ; for I have not ftinted him.” Friend; “ What’s £300 to you!” Gentleman: “ Nay, hold there! tho’ £300 won't hurt me much, yet I hate to be cheated. I had rather giv 4500 away to:an honeft man than be cheated of one.” Friend: “\ confefs I fhould not like to be impof'd upon.” Gentleman: “ A man not onely lofes his moncy, but is taken for a fool, tco, by the very man that cheats him. Now,,1 am fool enough in many things, but I hate to be thought a fool, and loofe my money, too. I'll fend him a letter imediately, if the poit is not ‘gone, to prevent his buying any more.” [f/e calls a fervant: who comes in imediately!| “Were, Watley.” Gentleman: “Go, call the ftewart hither, bid him” come this moment.” Servant: “Yes, Sir.” [His fervant gocs out, and he calls him back.) Gentleman: “Hold, Watley, come hither. Is the poft gon by?” Servant: “I believ not, Sir. ’Tis not his time by an hour, and I think he has not call'd, I did not hear him.” [.Vote: Lhe poft boy going allways by his door bloi'd his horn as he came near, and then call'd at the gate to kno’ if they had any letters.) Gentleman: “Well, call the fteward then.” Servant 1 MS. tmedately. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN, Servant: “Yes, Sir.” [He calls the fleward, cho comes zn immedtiately.] ey Gentleman: “Were M'....., go and write a letter. I 27 to M'W.... immediately, and forbid him buying me — any more pictures till farther orders.” Steward: “Shall 1 write it in my own .name as by your order, or will your worfhip pleafe to fign it?” | Gentleman: “TN fign it. Write it in my name pofitiv, but do it immediately before the poft.is gone.” Steward: “Yes, Sir, Vl bring it prefently.” [Lhe fleiward goes out. friend: “Wad you not better write it your felf? He may perhaps think you are the more in earncft.” Gentleman: “Tf 1 fet my hand to it that’s as well. Befides, / write letters? No, no, you miftake me very much,” friend: “VY beg your. pardon, Sir; indecd, I fhould - have known better. Whatneed you trouble yourfelf.!” Gentleman: “If that were all, I fhould not think fo £4 43 much of the trouble. But you miftake the cafe I tell you. I can’t write; I don’t write a Ictter once a year, nor wou’d not do ‘it once in feaven years, if I sonia help it.” friend: “ How can you live? Why, you can’t cor- . refpond with your friends.” - Gentleman: “That’s true, and I don't correfpond ‘with ’em for that reafon, or but very littlé.” Friend: “Then you lofe the greateft pleafure of life.” Gentleman: “It is fo, indeed ; but I can’t help it.” Friend: “TY wonder fuch an activ, brifk, fpirited gentleman as you are can be fo. Why, ’tis nothing but meer indolence.” Gentleman: “Vfuth! Never mencion it any more. ‘Tam afham’d to hear it, but ’tis no indolence I affure you. I never was a lazy fellow in my life.” Friend: 128 yoyo The COMPLEAT GENTL MAN. Friend; “\Vhat can it be then? : _ You write good| name, and that’s enough for a gentlaman.” fair hand.” Gentleman: “1 write aa y. t can {et, my * Friend: “1 think Ihave feen letters from you.” Gentleman: “1 don’t kno’; if you ane it has been but very {eldome.” friend: “1 kno’ you country ros don’t love any trouble. You kno’ nothing bu pleafure in the world.” i Gentleman: “You fhould fay you kno! that we country gentlemen are good for nothing and bred to nothing but to be meer‘country bl.....s.” Friend: “No, not fo; the gentlemen are not all- ays fchollars, but then they have lefs necd of learn- ng; for fhey shave good eftates, and fo have the tele ‘Ineed of it.” / fo 4 Gentleman: “I differ from you in that part ex- tremely. I think we have the more nced of it, becaufe F we have the greater opportunityes to improv it and — make ufc of it.” ae | i Friend: “You are rich, and the eftate makes up the lofs to a vaft advantage.” | | ip i Gentleman: “Yes, we are rich and f.../. 5 There’s a rare ballance.! Heaven is righteous not to giv his bleffings in unequall fhares, as I read lately an unlucky verfe or two made upon two fool gentle- men in this country, much fuch a one as I am: Wife Providence to poife the town thought jit, it Gave them efiates, but bated tt in wit.” i Friend: “You are too keen upon your felf, ‘Tis none of your character, I am fure, what ever it may be of your neighbours.” Gentleman: “You are very kind to judge the beft ; | but IMS. bul | | | ' | { The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. _ but you don’t remember that my father, according to ‘the laudable praétife of the time, djyided his bounty betwen his two fons, gaye my brother Jack the brains, . and me the eftate.” Friend: “TY don't underftand you.” Gentleman: “You are not fo dull, arele5 you are fo mannerly, you can’t fpeak plain: I tell you he ‘bred a) Jack to be a fchollar and a man of fence, fent him to - 129 Winchefter School and from thence to Oxford, and -now he is as bright a fellow as moft in the country ; he’s fit for the Court or the State or the camp or any thing ; and‘ for me, he left me to be brought up to nothing, that is fay, to be a..... gentleman.” ; Friend: “A sehtleman, well; and can you be - better? Han’t you a vaft eftate? An’t you rich?” Gentleman: “Yes, T am rich! Did you ever read /. 49 the Bible ?” Irtend: “The Bible? Why, what does that fay to. the cafe?” Gentleman: “Why, it tells you that the rich glutton. ~ went to the D——. I wonder where the rich fools muft go.” Friend: “You are pleaf'd to .be merry, but you arc too keen upon your felf.” Gentleman: “Merry with my own diffatters! the more of a fool ftill: but hold, here’s the letter come.” (Lhe fleward brings the letter, and he reads it, but does not like fome part of it, and made him add or alter fomething tn it; then gave him direccions for the fuper-Scripcion, and feting his hand to the letter fent hint out again. friend: “Why, now, Sir, in my opinion you have: had allmoft as much trouble about this little note, for it is not above threer (/ic) or four lines, as if you had # ’ written it yourfelf.” Gentleman: “ So I have, and I would not have put EO og my B® 130 The cloMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. my felf to Mn that trouble, my felf.” \ Friend “\It is all almyttr ftand it.” Gentleman: “WW hy, then Tll explain the might difficulty to you. The plain truth is I ‘can't {pell ; 4 can’t write true Englifh.” Friend: “Vm anfwer'd. Tihat la defod I confefs.” Gentleman: “And fuch a efect as I ae afham'd of, but I can’t help it ; ‘twas no fault of mil if I could have donelit to me. I don't _ Friend: “But, Sir, ‘tis fo generall a Stee too, | that it necd not afflict you; for where is there one | gentleman in ten that can write good! Englith ?” Gentleman :,““ That may be; but not one in ten of | them ‘that w rite bad Englith, write it fo bad as Ido; | but I take care no body fhall know it.” Friend: “ But you muft write fome letters, and one will difcover it as well as one thoufand.” Gentleman: “ But I have a way for that too ; for if I am oblig'd rj a letter I dictate the fubftance, and then make the fleward write it, who, as you fee, writes very fine dind fpells well too ; fo, when he is gone and thinks Bis letter is fent awa ay, 1 go into his room, and coppye it over carefully) and fend it away, as if it were my own, and fo f Icarn to fpell.” _ friend: “ That's| v very troublefome to you.” | Gentleman: “It is fo; but what ¢an I do?” » Friend: “Do? why, I'd write, let it be how it will ; tis what many gentlemen do as avell as you, and 'tis reckon’d no difgrace|to them.” ; \- Gentleman : “No,\I can't do that.| I kno’ fo much of the defect, and how feandalous it is ; I can't do it. ‘I would not write a letter to brother Jack for £500." Friend: “You have mannag’d well, to conceal it from your own brother all this while.” | — ‘ , Gentleman :* 1 In MS. a shorthand abbreviati The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. Gentleman: “1 have taken an effectuall way, for I never write to him at all.” Friend: “TV can not think but with a little praétife, obfervation, reading, and remembring, you would get over that difficulty.” Gentleman: “No, never! Befides, I have no memory for fuch things.” friend: “ Engaging your mind a little would bring the memory. Any body may learn to fpell by frequent - reading and writing, obferving how words are fpelt, and remembring it.” Gentleman: “ Then I fhall never learn to fpell I’m fure ; for I hate reading. But befides if I could write true Englifh, ftill I fhould write no letters.” Friend : “ That mutt be all meer indolence ; it can be nothing elce.” Gentleman: “OQ you are quite miftaken. Still there’s another reafon worfe than all that.” _ friend: “Tt am left to guefs, indeed, but I fee Nothing to guefs from ; it muit be that you would not take the pains: it can not be that you ,would not. converfe with your friends.” Gentleman: “No, indeed, ‘tis neither of them, much Iefs the latter; for I fhould love to converfe with my friends by Ictters extremely.” Friend; “1 think ‘tis one of the great pleafurcs of life.” 1 Gentleman: “1 think fo too, and I envy the ‘pleafure of it to’ others, becaufe I can not enjoy it my felf.” Friend: “1 do not underftand you. I don't ‘doubt your friends write to you fomectimes. You can not but write again.” Gentleman» “They did iwrite to me formerly, but they don’t now. I have tyr'd them out with not anfwering them.” friend ¢ ! P31 3 132 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. Friend: “Tis all owing to the life of pleafure you ( liv ; you are too volatile. aise feverall gentlemen are juft the fame, tho’ they can fpell w otek, too ; but they hate to w write : they can’t fit itill long. , enough.” os Gentleman : “ Well, but that is not my cafe; but ince you will have my dark fide, you muft; and to tell : you the truth, I have another defeét worfe than want " of fpelling : I don’t underftand things: I write no ftile, : I han't words. Iam afham’d to tell you what nonfence _ I write.” ‘ . Lriend : “You may have a meaner opinion of your- felf than you fhould have. You are too‘modeft ; you can not want words when you kno’ the fubftance of what you would fay.” Gentleman: “1 tell you I can’t exprefs things ; I kno’ what I mean ; but is it not poffble to underftand myfelf, tho’ I can’t exprefs it in proper language ?” - Friend : “Yes, I allow that if you were to write to 50. great perfons or upon publick affairs and things of great importance; but in ordinary converfation any thing will do. Familiar friends are wrote to in a familiar ftile.”: - Gentleman; “ Look you, I ought allways to write like my felf, that is, like what I fhould be, not what I am. In fhort, who ever I write to I fhould not write like a fool.” | Friend : “ You can't write like a fool.” Gentleman: “1 muft write like what I am, and .therefore I don't write at all.” Friend: “Tf you write like what you are, you muft write like a gentleman.” Gentleman : “Yes, like 4n untaught, ignorant gentle- man, that, as I told you, has been bred to nothing but idlenefs and pleafure ; is not that to bea f.... 2” Friend : “Well, Sir, you may fay what you pleafe of your ‘ my eftate into two, and gi The COMPLEAT ‘GENTLEMAN. 133 your felf; but the world docs not take you for what you are pleaf’d to call your felf. Every body knows you to be a man of fence.” Gentleman: “That is to fay I am no idiot, not a | drivler ; but I kno’ my weak part, tho’ I conceal it as [.. artfully as I can; but I tell you 1 am an ignorant, 7 untaught, ‘medugated thing ; and that I call a fool in ; a gentleman, tho’ I may not be what you call % meer natural fool.” ‘ Friend: ° Vhe very fence of your defficiency is a token of a vaft capafcity ; how clee should you fec it ? Reall fools always think them felves wife enough.” Gentleman » “You take fome pains to have me thin my felf lefs a fool than Iam: but that docs not reac my cafe. Let me have what genius or what naturdll. capafcitics I will, I have the mifery of fecing myfel You fee I can't fpell my own mother tongue. father: or friend: “1 believ, indeed, it lyes all there. father did not do his part: ‘twas no fault of y: Ile took care to leav his fon a good eftat he thought was enough for a gentleman : the like, fo that we have been a generat} Friend; “Dear Sir, hold! let the dead be as the: dead fhould be, I mean, forgotten ;/they have done noble things for you other wayes. /4£3000 a year! is not that cnough to make up all and to ftop the mouth of all complaint ?” Gentleman : “No, it is not. Vhat is an eftate when the heir is a blockhead? A fill purfe with an empty head ; much money, no braing. I would freely now part half of it to my ‘brother © Jack = 134 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. i Jack to have half his learning and fence and knowlege of things in the room of it.” Friend ; “¥ doubt not but he would come into it, if it were practicable.” i Gentleman: “No, indeed, you wrong him there too. He values his educacion [ affure you, His learning is not fo ill beRtow'd on him; he would not be a fool for all my cftate.” ; Friend: © But, Sir, youl thatThave fuch a fence of the defect of your cducatign and of the want of learn- ing, might in my opinion retriev it very much, at leat fo much as to fupply the more ordinary ufes of it in writing and converfacion; you are not an- old man!” Gentleman: “Which way? > Tfow js it poffible? Tho! Iam not an old man, I am too old to go to {chool.” friend: “There are way'es to recover fome’ part of what has been loft with-out going to fchool, and this puts me in mind of another thing that I thought was y.5t Wanting in your new houfe, and! which, indeed, was what I meant when I faid at firit there was fome thing wanting.” Gentheman: : “What was that, pray? a chappel ? >! 1 kno’ you are fo devout. You would haye_God’s_ houfo. and the manfion houfe be all, but one roof.” _ Friend: “It may be fo; but you miftake me. I /eno” the parifl-church is But.juft at your elbow, 1. ‘think you have a door out of: your garden into the church yard.” Gentleman: “Nay, { have a door out of my very houfe into it. They won't have farr to carry me to my laft lodgcing with my anceftors. But you fay you did not mean a chapell ; pray, what was it then?” friend: “Why, it is a room for your library.” Gentleman: MS, ax. > a & The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. Gentleman: “O dear, my library! now you banter me to fome purpofe.” Friend “ Indeed, I did not defign it fo, and I hope you will not take it that way; but as it is what all gentlemen that ever I converit with have, I did not doubt but you would have the fame.” Gentleman: “Yes, my library deferves a room on purpofe. I think I’ll thow it/you by and by. Why, I have no books. What fhould I do with them?” Friend: * But your father Sir! Anthony had a library, I don’t doubt.” Gentleman 2 6 cS, I'll giv you a catalogue of them. There was a great Bible, the regifler of the houfe, where all the,nativityes and the burials of the family were recorded for about a hundred years paift, with é three mafs books; for my grandfather was a Roman’ Catholic ; and irot to Ieay out the moft valuable things: there was the old ballad of Chevy Chace fet to very good mufic, with Robin Hood and fome more of the antient heroes of that ‘kind; an- old -bafe viol, two ‘fiddles,.and a mufic book ; ; there was alfo four or fiv folio Common Prayer ‘Book’; which. ufed to-lye in our -great feat in the church, which I. took away and put new ones in their room, and the vid Book ‘of Martyrs lyes in the church ftel].” ; : Friend: “ But I nie you have one to the flock fince.” Gentleman : “Not I What thoutd Ido with books ? ; never read any. There's a heap of old journals and news letters, a bufhell or tivo, I believ ; thofe we have every week for the parfon and I: to talk“over a little, while the doctor fmokes his’ pipe.” Friend: “O but, Sir, no gentleman is without a library. ‘Tis more in fafhion now than ever it was.” Gentleman: “1 hate any thing that looks like a cheat = upon - ‘MS. fa S*. 7 air MS. 135 se Se ‘ 136 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. upon the world. Whatever I am, I can’t be a hypocrite. What fhould I do with books that never read half an hour in a year I tell you?” friend: “ But, Sir, if a gentleman or any relation comes to your houfe to ftay any time with you, 'tis an entertainment for them, and a gentleman fhould not be without it, indced ; befides ’tis a handfome ornament.” Gentleman: “Why, if any of my friends come to fee me, I entertain them with a good table and a bottle of good champaign ; and for their diverfion J fhow them fome fport. We have allwaycs fome thing or other in feafon in the field, cither hunting or fhooting, or fetting or fihing. We never want game of one fort or other, and if they are men of books and talk learnedly, that's out of my way ; and I fay to ‘em, ‘Come let’s go vifit the vicar ;’ fo away we go to the parfonage, and the Doctor has a good library, and, what is better than all his books, keeps a cup of good liquor, as he calls it, for fecond rate drinking, and if we think of wine I fend home for the butler, and he fupplyes, fo that the parfon has the credit of it.” Friend: “That's very kind to the Doctor, indeed.” Gentleman: “1 fhould not be a true patron if I ftarv’d the incumbent.” Friend : “This is a good way I confefs to divert your friends, but yct a gentleman of your figure fhould not be without a library. Befides you may have fons to bring up. I fancy you will not be for bringing them up without learning, you have fo much fence of the want of it yourfelf” Gentleman: “No, indeed, I have but one boy. yct tho’ I may have more: but if I have twenty I'll make them all fchollars if I can.” lriend: “You are very much in the right of it. The eftate will not become them the lefs.” Gentleman: “Yam refoly'd in that. I'll be the laft ‘dunce The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. dunce of the race. We have had ignorant heires enough allready.” friend ¢ “Well, Sir, than ‘tis but buying a parcell of books a few yeares before-hand ; for your fon will underftand them, and delight in them too, perhaps, tho’ you don’t ; and he may never kno’, it may be, that his father did not neither.” Gentleman: “You are in the right there, indeed ; well I. am refolv'd to get fume books when I go up to London, I think I'll lay out the money in books, that I interided to lay out in pictures; for tho’ T° underftand neither of them, 1 can’t be cheated fo’ much in the books as [ have been in the other.” Iricad: “No, no. ‘Vhe price of books is generally: prety well known. Any bookfeller will direct you in what will foit’ your library.” The gentleman andchis friend had more difcourfe of this kind and of other things remote from my purpofe, which I therefore omit; but the jett of all this is {till behind. Some time after this vifit the gentleman being in | London and going thro’ S‘ Paul Church Yard, he was put in mind of his former defign for a library by the feverall bookfellers’ {hops which he faw there; fo he walks gravely quite thro’, looking carneftly into every’ thop, but went into none of them. Pafiing into Ludgate Street he remembr'd that he had feen feverall of the fame trade \aater Nofter Row ; fo he turns up ave Maria Lane, and comes to Pater Nofter Row. The firft fhop on his teft hand was the famous Mr. Bateman’s; a fhop well known for old and fcarfe books of learning and antiquity and in moft languages ; but looking into the fhop and finding the books were generally old and dufty and lay in heaps on the counters and on the floorc, out of all order, he did not Le, fart. bse 138 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN, not like them by any means ; fo walks on and thro’ the Row, and comes into the Church Yard again at the cast end of it, next to Cheap-fide. At length fecing a large fhop and well -ftor’d with books, he ftopp’d and look’d carneftly: at them: and i gravepfober-look'd, gentleman-like bookfeller being in the fhop, he invited him in with the ufuall compliment, “Will you pleafe to walk in, Sir, and fee if I have any thing you have occafion for?" The gentleman goes and fitts down, takes up a book or two, and look’d on them ; but, as he faid himfelf, he look’d more at the out- fide than at the infide, but lay’d them down again, and all this while faid nothing. After fome time and looking pretty much round him, he gets up, and takeing a turn or two in the thop he calls to the mafter of the fhop. “ Pray, Sir,” fayes he, “ what fhall I giv you for all the books upon that fide of your fhop.” It feems the books look’d all fair and new,.and were moft of them or many of them guilded and letter’d on the back. ‘ The book-feller was perfectly furprifd at fir, and could not tell what to make of it. = He faw he look'’d . like a gentleman, had two foot-men with him and a fword, and he was loth to afk him if they were for fale. He did not look like a bookfeller, fo that the man was at a lofs what to anfwer and ftood mute for fome time. Upon this the gentleman afks him again, and point- ing out the fhelves with his cane fhow’d him in particular what books he defign'd. “Sir,” fayes the bookfeller, “ there are duplicates of many of them, and I fuppofe you would not have them unforted fo as they lye there.” It was an unhappy anfwer in the cafe, the gentle- man not underftanding what he meant by the word duplicate ; but to put off! CuECurn of that or any thing 'ofin MS, A The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. thing ‘clce that might difcover his ignorance, but obferving the quantity, and that they would make a handfome fhow in a library, he turns fhort, and, as if _ he had been a little angry, he fayes to the book-feller : “Look ye, Sir, it’s no matter what they are or what Iam to do with them ; my queftion is what you will take for them all together juft as they ftand.” The bookfeller replyes with the uttmolt civillity, being you may be fure mighty willing to take his money, that he afk’d his pardon for what he had faid ; ifhe pleaf'd to giv him leav jufl to run them over and caft them up, he would tell him the value of them, but that he could not well: make an citimate of them at a lump. “Well,” fayes the gentleman, “then Ul come again to-morrow morning.” = & “No, Sir,” fayes the bookfeller, “you need not giv your felf that trouble; if you pleafe to fit down and read any thing you like, I'll look them over enough for me in a quarter of an hour.” N.B. The bookfeller was loth to part with fuch a -cuftomer, leaft he fhould not come again ; etherwife he would have been glad to have had him gone and come again, that he might have thifted fome other books into the place that he was very willing to put off with the reft. But, in a word, the: gentleman fits down very paciently, made as if he read a book, but chiefly eyed the book-feller to fee how he mannag'd the taking account, which he, knowing mott of the books by their out-fides, was not long about, but came to his place behind the counter, and ‘eating up the value, “Sir,” fayes he, “the books will come to a great deal of money.” “Well,” fayes the gentleman, “if you are for fright- ing me away, I can go to another fhop. Pray, how many thoufand pounds do they come to?” a No, 39 140 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. “No, Sir,” fayes he, “ not to thoufands neither; but they are the better half of my fhop.” “Well, well,” fayes the gentleman. “I am no book- feller, and fo-you may fuppofe I don’t underftand them. But I have’ feen a bookfeller’s fhop before now.” N.B. This he faid to amufe the book-feller, as he afterwards expreff’t it, that he might not fuppofe him fo ignorant as he really was, and that he might fuppofe he knew what he was doing, tho’ in reallity he did not. After fome preamble and! his preffing the bookfeller to let him kno’ what he demanded, the man very gravely anfwer'd him that they came to 346 pound. “Come, come,” fayes the gentleman, “lay your hand upon your heart, and tell-me the laft price you will make and of which you will abate nothing.” “Sir,” fayes the bookfeller, “upon a fuppofition of ready: money which at this time is a fcarfe thing with tradefmen, I'll abate you the odd fixpounds.” “Look you, Sir,” fayes the gentleman, fol he was willing to make ftill a thow of underftanding things, “let me fee your catalogue of them.” : * Alas! Sir,” fayes the bookfeller, “ you can’t read it, tis onely made up in our fhop marks, which will be all Arabick to you. No man aliv can read them but our felves.” “Come then,” fayes the gentleman, “I'll make fhort work with you. As for credit and trufting, you fhall not truft me very long : I fhall giv you fatiffaccion*® upon that head quickly ; -but tell me upon your honefty and the word of an honeft bookfeller, Have you rated the books at a fair price, fuch as they arc’ ordinarily fold at.” “Yes, indeed, Sir, ] have, and I will appeal to any one’s knowlege of the trade.” “Why 1 Rave is omitted in MS. * Abbreviated, * In MS. are is omitted. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. “Why then, Sir,” fayes the gentleman, “ there's £330 ‘for you,” so he gave him bank notes £300 of the money and the reft-in gold, and abated him no more than fixteen pounds of what he afk’d The bookfeller hum’d and haw’d a little by way of grimace at abatcing the ten pound, but after a very few words took his money. The books were taken down, pack’d up in cafes, and went down by fea to South- ampton,' and from thence by land to the gentleman's fine houfe; where a room haveing been appointed _ before hand for that purpofe, they were all in a very few dayes fet up in their order in preffes made on purpofe with glafs doores before them, that they might appear in all the extraordinary: forms of a library. How the honeft, well meaning gentleman was con- vinc't of the weaknefs of his mannagement, how afham’d he was when it was difcovr'd to him, and above all, with what modefty and caution, to prevent any’ public refleccion, the difcovery was made to him by his honeft, ingcnuous fricnd, the fame who had_ prevented his being abufed in the buying his pictures: all thefe for brevity fake I omit as ‘being not fo directly to my prefent purpofe, tho’ otherwife they would make it very agreeable and diverting part in the ftory. I might fill up this whole work in examples of this kind, and make the undertaking be a meer fatyr upon the Englifh gentry, expofing the miftakes in their educacion by the confequences in their behaviour and illuftrating the propofition which I am. upon, namcly, 14t that our gentry, I mean our born gentry;; as they call ° themfelves, are really fcandaloufly ignorant and un- ©. taught, weak in parts, becaufe unafifted by early and prudent inftruccion, and weak in conduét, becaufe’ not early warn’d and caution’d by the counfel of their guides to avoid the follys and errors of life, and weak ¥ in TMS. S F/urhlon, aA dai Ae 142 ' 4 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. in morals for want of being eftablifh'd early in good principles and brought to a regular life by the difcipline and authority of their inftructors, But it is not the defign to expofe even thefe miftakes,' however fcandalous and. offenfiv, any farther than is abfolutely neceffary to reform them and to bring the unhappy practice out of ule among us ; that the gentlemen of -ngland may not have that alloy to their felicity to be the onely men in the world that are compleatly happy and compleatly miferable at the fame time, bleft and unbieft, empty and full, the glory and pride of their familyes, and yet the fhame and reproach of their country and of themfelves too. It is true, ’tis an evill that can not be remedy'd for the prefent gcneracion, I mean, for the heires in pofeffion ; the mifchicf has taken root there too deep to be remov’d; there's no fending the gentlemen to fchool after they are marry’d, or giving them ‘nfors when they have gott su/oreffes ; that would be a kind of begging them, as ’tis call’d, for ideotifme, and bringing them! back to a ftate of infancy aid pupillage, which will hardly be found praéticable. Befides, a profeff'd contempt of knowlege and learning has fo far engroff’d the minds of the people, I fpeak of them as after their being, as it were, brought up in an indulg’d indolence ‘from the cradle, that ‘tis not to be attempted; it would be abfurd but to mencion it; you muft firft convince them that tis a defect, before you can hope to prevail on them to fupplye it; arid you will find that as hard to do as to perfwade a negro that a white woman can be a. beauty, In-bred vice will never relifh exotic virtue ; if the gentleman can not firft believ his ignorance is an infelicity, he will be very hardly brought to defire a change and far lefs to endeavour it. But IMS, miflake. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. But one would think it might mot be fo hard to perfwade the prcefent age to reform this evil for their pofterity, and to prevail with them that their children may not curfe the memory of their -fathers for not furnifhing their heads as well as their pockets, as too many of the gentlemen ‘of this age have allready done by thofe that went before them; and this may be part of the fubject of the next chapter, CAP. CAPA IY. 6 3 Of what may be the unhappy confequences of this general defect tn the cducacion of our entry, and a rational propofall for preventing thofe confequences. vexgso 1 faid in the conclufion of the laft cB chapter, the evill is too far fpread ‘to be Ww corrected in the prefent generation, fo that, SORON in fhort, I doubt'we mutt giv up this age (as the officers of Bedlam do in the cafe of obftinate lunacy) for incurable. Hence I fhould have laid afide all the fatyr upon their conduct ; for to what purpofc fhould we talk to. people of what: is paff't remedy, what is too far gone to’be cur'd, and what is out of their power to help? 36 But there isa particular reafon in this cafe, which comes in the way of our good nature and makes it neceffary to expofe thefe things, how ever hard it may feem to run upon the perfons and whoever the cenfure may light upon; and this is the reall danger of the fpreading of this contagion. Nothing is more naturall than that it fhould go on from father to ‘fon, if fome remedy be not applyed; and what. remedy can be apply’d, if the pacients difpife the phyfick ? In a word, the prattife, however fcandalous, will never be cur'd, if the naked part of it be not expof’d, fo that we are bound to fhow the fcandal of what is paft, to prevent ! the rs The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. 145 the mifchief of what is to come. Thcir cyes, there- fore, muft be open’d to the abfurdity of the fathers’ conduct that it may be reétifyed by the children. How fhall we perfwade thofe gentlemen not to bring / ss. their fons up in the fame ignorance, which they think is fo far from being a fcandal, that ‘tis the ornament of | a gentleman? How fhall we prevail with them to giv | their eldeft fons any learning, while they think ‘tis below their quallity? In fhort, while they jinfift that it is a degrading and difhonour to their elder children to go to fchool, to fubmit to difcipline and government, to be tyed up to the College orders and the regular living at the Univerfitics ; that books arc the work- men’s tools, and that the profiettors of the fublimeit fei- ence are but the mechannicks and workmen that make ufe of them: I fay, while this madnefs reigns, whan fart can we pretend to do with them, and what hope can we entertain of the next age? except it be this, that the modern gentry, of whom I am yet to fpeak, will in time {hame them out of it and bring learning and good educacion. fo much in fafhion, that they mull come into it at laft or be voted infamous, be hiff't off of the ftage of life, be diffown'd for meer ignorance, and be no more rank’t among the gentry: a happy time, which I have good reafon to think is not very farr off. It is true, the obftinacy of the prefent age jis a terrible obftacle, and intimates that they will make a very great refiftance in defence of antient ignorance. The party is ftrong, and the error, however grofs, is deep rooted, They ‘feem not onely willing to liv and ee f...s, but to encorporate the privelege of continu- ing fo among the Englith liberties, which they fay they aré bound to hand down to their pofterity facred and untouch’t, as they reciev’d' them from their renowned, “untaught, rough hewen anceftors. This 1 MS. ved, as often, K 146 The COMPLEAT. GENTLEMAN. This riveted averfion, then, to inftruccion and to all forts of improvment being fuch, and we feeming fo tenacious of it that we will take up arms for it and to defend it even againft common fence and in fpite of the importunityes of our reafon: it feems neceffary to combat the mifchief in its prefent ftate of obftinacy ; if poffible, to weaken its defences, and take fome of it, caftles and fortificacions, that it may be the better dealt with in the open field and in a generall battle. Nor will anything clee do it. How fhall it be poffible to make the next age wife men if their fathers refolv they fhould be fools? IJIfow fhall the pofterity learn if the anceftry won't fend them to fchool? ’Tis a neceffity thefefore that we fhould begin here firft. If . the begining is wrong, how can we hope to be right in the conclufion? In a word, while we can not cure the prefent age of this madnefs, is it likely, or indeed poffible, we fhould prevent the contagion fpreading to the ages to come? Jools encreafe folly, as dwarfs beget pigmies. The grievance I complain of is a kind of national lunacy ; it fpreads in the climate, and feems to be as peculiar to our ifland as the wool is to our fheep. It grows up with us from father to fon, has defcended to us from our anceftors from the Conquett ; ‘tis an hereditary ftream of folly, and we are wedded to it juft as the Ruffes were to their beards and long petticoates, which when the late Czar oblig’d them to cut off, and drefs and fhave like all the other Chriftian nacions, they call’d it an odious tyranny and begg’d the officers to fhoot them rather than make them change the cuftomes of their forefathers ; or like the Irifh that took arms againft, the Englifh government (tyranny they call’d it alfo), becaufe they might not draw their horfes by the tay's till they murther'd the poor beafts, but oblig’d them to ufe harnefs, in which the creatures could draw fiv times as much and with pleafure, whereas ‘The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. whereas the other was putting them to work in pain and torture. It is in vain to complain that we injure the gentle- men of Iingland, when we call it.an obftinacy equally abfurd with thefe. The event will beft fhow their: reluctance at the change,; and as for the abfurdity it ‘felf, I think ‘tis evident theirs) is infinitely worfé: to cfpoufe ignorance on pretence of quallity, what can be like it in the world? No Ruffian tlupidity was ever more grofs in its nature or half fo bad in its con- fequence. Befides, it is entailing an cternal fotifm upon their race by the meer right of pofefhon without giving their children leay to choofe, as men that purchafe 147 eftates fettle them as they think fit. We complain of ¢ 534 tyranny and arbitrary government, if we find our felves oppref('d by the foveraign, and prefently we talk of the naturall rights. of fubject ; that our libertyes .are our birth-right and that no government has a power to diffinherit us; that we are fubject to the Government we live under, where they covern accord- ing to law; butthat the laws of God and Nature are “Tuperior to all regal authority ; that we aré certainly ie entitul yan indefeizible tz the grants of original power and can not be divefted of them with- out the greateft injuftice: and this is all very right, and all this argues much ftronger in the cafe before us. ’Tis very hard that it fhould be in the nal monarchy SEAS aa eee tee the patriarchal authourity, which—by—the-way, has been fome thoufands of yeares abolifl’d, fhould place an abfolute power in the head wf the houfe to doom his fubjects, that is his children, to be fools or wife men by his meer arbitrary will, and, what adds to the in- juftice, fhould among the line of his pofterity determine arbitrarily, this fhall be a fchollar and this a .bluck- head, 48 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN, head, or, to fpeak it in groffer terms, this fhall be the wife man, and thisa..... gentleman. Befides, here are two acts of violence comitted, which I muft infilt are really not unjuit onely, but an infult upon Ifecaven it felf; and that cannot be found in the patriarchall power, which was an_ inftitution imediately from Tfeaven and,.therefore, could not be attended with fuch a commifiion, 1. Ifere’s a Violence upon the free will of the perfon ; for the child has certainly a right of option, and the father has no juft authourity to deprive him of it. 2. Iere’s a violence upon Nature, which I call an infult on I[eaven, and think it very well merits to be calld fo. Here is a kind of rape committed upon the senius of the child, impofine a negativ upon him, dooming him to ignorance in fpite of a capafcity given for knowlege. 1, A perfonal violence and injuftice to the child. Jf we put a boy out apprentice, nay, tho’ it be a charity child, ’tis generally left to the lad to choofe his trade ; ‘tis thought a peice! of juflice due to him that his genius and inclination may be confulted, becaufe ’tis fuppofed he will allwayes improv beft in fuch buffincfs as fuites with his capafcities, and that Nature is all- wayes the beft judge for it felf. Is the poor mechanick, who is born to be a drudge and by the imcdiate fubjeccion to its benefactors might be thought bound to fubmit to what they direct; I fay, is this flave allowed the freedome of choice in his introduccion into the world, and not the gentleman? Should Ae choofe whether he will be a cobler or a barber, a weaver or a butcher, and fhould the heir of an. eftate, the young gentleman who is by entail to inherit thoufands, and perhaps thoufands by the year, fhall MS. Ar as often. | The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. fhall he onely be tyed up, and that in’ the mot effential part of life ? Shall he that may be fuppof'd to fhare the govern- ment with his foveraign, to reprefent his country in Parliament, to be cloth’d with commiffions of the peacc . and, perhaps, of war, he that is by birthright a magif= trate and a man of quallity, fhould he alone not be allow’d to choofe whether he fhall be a man of fence or a fool? , 2. 'Tis a violence upon Nature, and indecd that way the hardfhip is in its kind unfufferable, as‘it is in its praétice unjutl. If the child has a genius, if Nature has furnifh’d him with a fund of fence, with large capafcityes, clear thought, a flrong memory, jutt images ; if his foul is adapted to inftruccion, receptible- of due impreffions, and, as it were, prepard: for know- lege of the highett and beft things: fhall fuch a head” be deny’d teachine ? fhall all the parts and capafcities of fuch a foul be like a blank book feal'd up that it cannot be written upon, or like hard wax, that not being brought to the fire can reciey no impreffion? I fay the hardfhip is unfufferable ; and if ever fuch. a child comes, by any kind turn of life, to attain to fuch other improvments as may be attain’d without the help of fchools, and after the feafon of fchool learning is, by the parents’ neglcét, paff't over, the windows of, the foul come to be open’d, and the perfon fees its own defect: how difmall are the confequences, how unhappy isthe life! Unhappy did T call it? I fhould rather have faid, how compleatly miferable is fuch a gentleman in the middle of all his hight of fortune ! How does he look back for the caufe, and with paffion enquire, How came I to bethus 2? What, every body taught but I?) My brother made a fchollar, fuch a mean perfon’s fon well taught, well furnifh’d with learning, and I onely abandon’d! Nay, there’s fuch a poor 149 59 ‘ The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. poor farmer has bred his fon at the Univerfity, and he is now to be a clergy-man, is allready a man of worth, and kecps company with the beft gentlemen; and ] am juft now going to giv-him fuch or fuch a living that is in my gift, becaufe he is a man of extraordinary merit and of a vreat character for his learing and fobricty. None bred up fools but I! I that have the inheritance! I have the eftate, indeed, but what elcc have I?) How unfinifh’d, how unfurnifh't! How do I look among Gentleman! How ignorant, how empty, when other men much my inferiours come into my company! !low handfomely do they: difeourfe! Tow do they reafon and argue upon the niceft things, and how acceptable in company cf the men of learning ; and how do I fit and fay nothing, becaufe I can fay nothing to the purpofe, and becaufe knowing my infirmity 1 am loth to expofe my felf, and have juft fence enough to avoid faying any thing, that I may not talk like a fool! ag And was my father the occafion of all this ? and that willfully, too, on pretence that I was the gentleman and muft be the heir! What!:did my father think learning below my quallity? Can that {be below a gentleman that is an ornament to.a prince ? Is it poMible my: father could be fo Mupid 2? Why, then, . my father was a -, was not fit to bring up a family, not fit to be truited with the cducation of his own children, and fhould have been begg’d fora Here he falls out in a rage, rails at the memory of all his anceftors, and at even the mother that bore him, and like Job in the agony: of his affliccion, curfes the day in which he was born, and 'tis not feldome that he curfes father and mother, too, as I have many times feen when the paffons, being raif’d by the reproach of it, have! carry’d him beyond bounds. I MS. dary. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. 151 I cou'd giv. abundance of examples of this very particular part which in the compafs of my own know- lege and converfation I have met with; but I'll fumm 4 s54, them up all in the long debate which I my felf had with a perfon of diftinccion and of a very antient and noble family, whofe cafe really was very moving and " was the firft and great occafion of this whole work. I had the honour frequently to converfe with him on other occafions relatcing to fome of his family affaires, wherein he was attack’d by a parcell of thofe worft of thieves call’d projectors, who found abundance of chymerick fehemes for the improvement, as_ they rcall’d it, of his cftate, dreyning fome lands, ereét- ing manufactories' in fome towns where his eftate lay, on pretence of doing good to the country, employ- ing the poor, and the like ; but which upon cxamina- cion all appear’d*to be meer projecis to pick his pocket and draw him into things which he did not underftand and which really had nothing in them and were onely calculated to draw him in and abufe him. Thefe proje€ts I unravell'd for him, convinc't him, firtt, of their being impracticable in their nature, and ~ then, put him in a method how to get rid of their importunityes by giving them in return fuch a propofall as they were not able to anfwer, and which, if comply'd with, deftroy’d their whole defign. The fum of the matter was this :— | They propofed (1) erecting manufactories' in fuch a part of the country where his Lordihipp's eftate lay, and employing the people in fuch a manner that fhould not onely relicv them, but be a valt profit to his Lord- thipp for-the advance of his money. 2. They propof'd dreining a large peice of land of near 1000 acres, which by reafon of its flat, low fitu- acion was generally under water fix or feaven months of J MS. az, 152 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN, of the year, and, being by that means rendr'd cold and wet, was of little ufe and Iefs valuc; but they propof'd to make it worth £500 a year. To carry on this profitable undertaking they propofd to his Lordfhipp advancing £5000 onely,, and that the profits fhould be all his own, allowing a very modeft fhare to the undertakers. The propofall was very fpecious, and if it was probable, very well deferv'd the rifque! of 45000; but as I forefaw that the rifque of its being perform'd Jay all upon my Lord, that their profit was certain and no certainty of its being practicable, I drew up the follow- ing propofall to be made to them in return to their offer, and which I mencion here as a pattern for all honeft gentlemen to get rid of projectors by, and on that account onely.it is to my purpofe in this work ; viz. That his Lordfhipp took very well their offer of improving his eftate and doing good to the poor, both “which were things very agreeable to him ; that he wa. very ready to clofe with their propofall, onely with fome {mall variation, and that, as he conciev'd, greatly to their advantage ; us follows: 1. That he was ready to advance the 45000 demanded, with this difference onely, (viz.) that his Lordfhipp thought it too fmall a fum for fo great an undertaking, and therefore was willing to advance £10,000 with-out intereft, that it might be carry'd on with the more credit and certainty of fuccefs, 2. That as his Lordfhipp defir'd none of the profitts, which they affur'd him would be fo exceeding great, contenting himfelf with the having ferv'd the country and helped the poor, fo he was very willing they fhould reciev the whole profits of the undertaking, and that they fhould alfo have the lands when fecur’'d upon a long leafe at 4250 per annum rent, being 2 NS. 17573. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. being énely half of what they propof'd, onely defiring that he fhould be fecur'd the repayment of the 10,000 at the end of fo many yeares (I think it was 5 year). This was fo fair they could make no objection to it, and yet fo clenching upon them that they whofe defigne was oncly to get the money into their hands, that they were wholly diffappointed and had no more to fay ; and fo his Lordthipp got rid of them. As this is a digreffion from our fubject, I had not mencion’d it but, as 7 fay adore, that [ think it may be of ufe for a ttanding direccion to men of quallity and eftates, how to mannage themfelves when they are befeig’d by projectors with their pickpocket fchemes, as this noble perfon was and as gentlemen of eftates often are. It perfectly delivr’d this noble perfon from the fnare of the propofall it felf. which, tho’ fpecious in its pretence, was really no other than a fraud ; and it delivr’d him alfo from the importunity of the people : and if gentle- men, who I fay are generally furrounded with fuch people, would take the fame method, (viz.) giv up the main of the imaginary profits to the propofers, oncly infifting to have fecurity for the money to be advanc'd, and for fo much of the advantage as is reafonable to be referv'd, they would foon fee the projectors wou'td forfake them. But I return to the cafe in hand. This noble perfon I have mencion’d was born of an antient Englifh family, and if it may be call’d fo, hada noble eftate alfo. Ife had likewife a good genius, fine thoughts, a bright, clear head, a great memory, and, in a word, was capable of anything ; but, as he faid, in fpite of the nobillity of his birth, the greatnefs of his fortune and family, had the miffortune by a totall neglect ¢ HS. 4” of his educacion to be robb’d in his youth-of all the , jewells and ornaments of his birth, as he juftly calld them. There “2 154 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. There happen'd-one day to be two very polite and well educated gentlemen at his Lordthipp’s table (for the difcourfe begun while they were at dinner). They had talk’d with his Lordthipp, while they were eating, in the ufuall family chat, and of indifferent things. But after the cloth was taken away, or they remov'd into another room, being both very good fchollars, they fell into difcourfes of more weight, and particularly upon fome nice aftronomical difputes much in debate at that time in the world, about the appearing of comets, and upon the occafion of Dr. Halley's having difcovred a comet in our hemifphere. The debate was, whether their mocions were in certain and fix'd orbits, or whether in the wait of infinite fpace they rang’d about as~ehance directed, till they were burn't out and exhautted like a torch, which being wafted expires and is feen no more ; or, laftly, and which they both inclin'd to think, whether they are like the fun conttant and continued, and fo may be expected to be vifible juft in the fame manner as they were before at the fixt periods of their ordinary revolutions, which they concluded might not, in fome of them, be till feverall hundred yeares. 3 _ They had many fine obfervations of thefe and of other different kinds, as well’ upon this as. other fub- jects, all finely interfperf'd with their difcourfe ; and it! was exceeding pleafant and diverting to his Lordfhipp ‘and the reft of the company to hear them. But in the middle of all the difcourfe his Lordfhipp turn’d to me heving the honour to fit next him: “Now, what would I giv,” fayes he (afide), and fetch'd a deep figh, “to have but one thoufandth part of the fence, the knowlege, the wit, and learning of cither of thofe gentlemen!” “My Lord,” fayes I, “as for the fence and wit, your Lordfhipp, without any flattry, can not complain ; but as The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. as to the Tearning and the improv’d knowlege which they have, 'tis true, they are very ingenious men, and they talk well, admirably well: but your Lordfhipp is plac'd abov all thefe things. You have no need of them.” With that he pull’d me by the fleev: “Come hither to me,” fayes he; fo making a fhort excufe to the two gentlemen we walk’d into another room, “What,” fayes my Lord with fome warmth, “are you, Mr....,”—-and call'd me by my name—* one of thofe people that think gentlemen of quallity are above being taught? that learning is a difhoneur to their dignity and their birth, and that they are to be brought up fools, onely becaufe they are rich and have eftates or perhaps honours and dignityes ? “What the devil,” added he, and began to be . very hot, “muft we be curf'd with ignorance becaufe we are advane'd’ in rank, be made fools becaufe we have mony? Muft none be left untaught and uninftruéted but we that have eftates? Are lords made for fport to the world?” There he added fome hot words, and a hearty curte or two upon the horrid practife, as he call'd it, all which I leave out, “No, my Lord,” faid I, "you cant apply it to your felf in fuch a fence as that; fome men of honour may have the mifffortune of weak capafcities in common with other people, but your Lordthipp can not be plac’d among that number.” “What!” fayes his Lordfhipp, continuing {till very warm, “you mean I am not a naturall fool; perhaps not! and when you have faid that, you have faid all. But I fuppofe my father tooke me for fuch, or elce he would certainly have taught me better ; he concluded to be fure that I was born a blockhead, and that in- ftruccion would make no impreffion upon me, that I had no naturall powers and was not capable pf learn- ing ESS 156 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. ing any thing ; or elce, furely, he would have had me bred up to fomce thing.” “Your Lordthipp is too fevere upon your father,” faid T, “he cou’d not think fo of you.”—" What could it be then?” faid her “Be, my Lord?” faid I, “ why, your Lordthipp knows what is the common notion of men of quallity to this- hour; and I make no queftion ‘but his Lordfhipp your father and, perhaps, your grandfather alfo, were of the - opinion as others were and are ftill; that learning i- of no ufe to a gentleman, that a noble man or a gentleman of a great fortune is born for enjoyment, born for his pleafures ; that they are plac above all thefe things, that the world is given them to range in with a full ftream of all poffible fatiffaction': that they have nothing to do but ‘cat the fat and drink the fwect, to enjoy the fullnefs of al! things, gratifying and in- dulging themfelves with the abundance? of delights ; that all other things are fubfervient to them; that nature itfelf is directed to flow in upon them with a full ftream of felicity ;—and they can want no more.” “You have made a fine brute of a Jord, indeed,” fayes his Lordfhipp; “[ think you have been drawing my picture to the life.” , “ How can your Lordthipp entertain fuch a thought,” faid I; “there's no manner br fimillitude, I. hope, in the cafe.” “I don't fay you intended it fo,” fayes my Lord ; “but, indeed, I think there is too much fimillitude in the circumftances*; the thing is extremely appofite. You defcribe my condicion mott exaétl. I am’ one of thofe very happy, wretched things; you have painted me out to the life. I am happy, indeed, juft in fuch a manner ; wondrous happy, indced !" “My Lord,” faid I, “I think you are very happy.” . “ Happy !" ! Abbreviated. “MS absnva’, * Abbreviation. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. “Happy?” faid my Lord. “ What, happy in being ignorant? a happy fool? I kno’ no fuch animal in all God Allmizhty’s! family.” | “But, my Lord,” faid I, “you can not be call'd ignorant, much lefs a fool; that’s none of your char- acter.” “Well, fuppofe for once you thould diftinguith of fools,” faid his Lordihipp, ° and that my father was miftaken, that is, that I am not a natural, not an ideot, as I fuppofe he tooke me to be: yet Tam an ignorant, an untaught, an uninformed creature. I call fuch a man a fool, you may call him a lord, or whit you will; the thing is the fame.” “Tthink quite otherwife,” faid IT." Your Lordthip is fo? far from being a naturall, that you can’t call your felf unhappy on that account; you have a fuperiour genius, a clear thoucht, a good judgment: you kno’ the world, have a noble fortune, and may call your felf happy on a thoufand occafions that I care not to repeat becaufe I would not feem to flatter you,” “And yet am with all an illiterate, uneducated thing, call me what you pleafe. There's two ventle- men a talking within in the parlour like two angels: why I can’t put in a word among them. It is all above my underitanding. What was T, or what devil pofeff’t my father, that I {hould forfeit all inflruccion ? why was I forgot when thefe men were taught? Did my father think the dogs and the huntfmen were to teach me? or was I to be inform'd by revelacion and: infpiration becaufe I was a lord? 1 have reafon to curfe the memory of thefe things, and the ill fate of having a lord to my father. Tflcaven! that T had been the fon of a private man, fo he had been but a man of fence; then I had been taught like ‘thefe gentlemen ; but now I mutt be an ignorant creature, becaufe 1 was MS, a'mtoady's. typo te terek ong in MS, at 158 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. was the fon of an ignorant creature. I hate the fon of a fool. I had rather have been the fon of a whore.” “My Lord,” faid I, “you are in a paffion.” “It makes me mad,” faid he; “to fee the happynefs of other men, and the mifery I am condemn‘d to. They are men of fence, and I am damn’d to non-fence and ignorance.” ‘ “You may not have fo much learning, my Lord," faid I. “as they: but you have your happynefs of another kind ; and ’tis abundantly made up to you.” “Yes,” fayes my Lord, “I am a very happy fool. Why, a ftagg in my' park is juft fuch a noble, happy creature as I am. He lyes all the heat of the day ftretch’t out in the cover, as I do upon my couch; enjoys his full eafe and the uttmoft fatif- faccion®; he has grafs in abundance up to his eyes, there's wealth. He knows no fuperior, there's honour and dignity. Ile is never difturb’d cither with dog,, or guns, or huntfmen, or horn. He is above all fear and knows no want; he difpifes all the creatures’ about him, even the keeper himfelf fears ‘him and fhuns the danger of his terrible creft; he is proud, haughty”, fierce, tyrannicall, and to fum up all moft compleatly ignorant, and therefore wonderfull happy ; for if he knew his ftation in life, the end of his prcfent felicity, namely that he is fed up for my’ table and to grace my entertainment, and, a@dov al/, the fate that attends him would be an end of all his pleafure at. once; if he knew that after all his eafe, his floth, his pleafure, when the feafon comes about when he is fatt. and, as we fay, in good order, his fate will be that he is to be run down, and worry'd with dogs; that his death is to be the fport of the family, and even of my huntfmen and fervants; that we fhall all found the French horn at his fall and tryumph in his deftruccion ; and } Over tu my, Red Deer is written. ” Abbreviation. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN, and that his fine fpread horns are to grace my hall; and that, however innocent he may be, his head will be fet up like a traytor’s to be ftar'd at by the world: did he know all this, what would become of all his enjoyment, his eafe and pleafure, his pride and haughtynefs? On the contrary, he would pine him- felf to death. What would become of his happynefs ? —Ignorance is, indeed, his uttmotl felicity, and fo you feem to defcribe myne too.” “All things in this world,” faid I, ‘are happy or unhappy, great or little, of fhort or long continuance, as they are taken in perfpective and feen in a diftant or comparativ light. Your Lordfhipp is now made uneafie by comparing yourfelf with thefe two gentle- men in refpect to accquir'd advantages, learning, phylo- _fophy, and the benefit of education, and in that you find they excell. Now you think yourfelf unhappy, but you do not bring all your other felicitys into the ballance and weigh them together; but, like the generall ufage of the world, you flight the fuperior happynefs which you enjoy, onely on account of fome fmaller thing which you imay think you want.” “A pretty extenuating way you have got.” faid my Lord. “What is all accquir’d knowlege, the ftudy of the fublimeft wifdomce, the improvement and brightning the foul of aman? Are thefe your fmaller things, and is the fence of my own emptynefs, which I {ce is reall and feel the deficiency of, is this onely thinking I want them? Come, come, my friend,” faycs his Lord- fhipp, “talk fence, and be plain ‘and honett. You fee thofe gentlemen are men of learning ; they have a vail fund of fublime knowlege, fine thoughts, beautifull’ expreffion ; their heads are fill’d with fence; they have, in fhort, all the accomplifhments both of nature and “MS. beatifull, ae 160 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. and education; and what do I look like among them >?” “They are men of learning,” faid I, « that is plain, ~my Lord; but you have a degree of knowlege, too, and that fufficient, tho’ not equall to fome.” “ Sufficient ?” fayes my Lord, and made a kihd of ftop. “What do you mean by fufficient? No man has fufficient knowlege while there is any thing left to kno’. You mean, perhaps, I have knowlege fufficient for a lord?” And with that his Lordshipp fmil'd a iittle. ee. “No, my Lord, “k.cou'd not mean fo. I beg your Lordihipp,” faid I, “n6dt-to think me rude; but you are pleaf’d to fix the happynefs of man in certain degrec of knowlege; and if fo, there is no man com- pleatly happy, unlefs he knows every thing that is to be known, or, at leaft, if any man knows more than he.” “And fo I do,” fayes my Lord, “with fome few ex- cepcions. .\ man ought never to fit fill in the uttmoft fearch after perfect wifdome any more than in the uttmoft; fearch after perfeccion of vertue. Can any man bd happy while he fees another man be mafter of fome thing in knowlege which he wants and ought to know ?? ’ “Thbn no man on earth can be happy,” faid I, “and fo your Lordfhipp has brought it to a point that onely they are moft happy that have the moft compleat knowlege, and fo all are unhappy in wanting fome- thing.” “Well, and in fome fence it is fo,” faid he. “But then your Lordfhipp would do well,’ faid I, “to caft up your enjoyment and fee whether you have not cnough to denominate your felf happy. There are few men on earth that want fo little of any thing.” “You are gone from the point,” fayes my Lord; “I have The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. have fome things ‘you call enjoyments, and you may call them by as great names as you will. Make up the account with all the fine words you can, but words -will never ake up things: one is imaginary, the other reall. I tell you I want that one thing that is worth them all, and that I would now give them all up in exchange for ; and that is learning and knowlege: thefe I want.” “Your' Lordfhipp,” fayes I, “values learning and knowlege very juftly in faying they are equall to all worldly enjoyments, and fo they are in their ftacion ; but then you under-rate the equivalents you have, and which have plac'd you out of the reach of other men and out of the want of any thing the world can give you; and to talk of an exchange is out of the way, becaufe, tho’ learning joyn’d with honour and fortune would be a great ornament to it, yet feperated from it the rate of it would fink in proporcion.” “You muft giv them their due feperate value for all that, and I tell you that learning infinitely over-rates the honour. Learning will allways comand honour, but titles and eftate can never accquir wifdom. The rich fool may dye a fool and {till be rich and great, but the learned, poor, wife man may dye a lord, and many have done fo; nay, more men in the world have rifen from low beginings to the hight of glory by the merit of virtue, learning, and great accquircments, than have rifen from meer, cer qumllity and hereditary honour without them.” “T am far, my Lord,” faid I, “ from endeavouring to under-rate the accomplifhments of the mind brightn'd by polite educacion ; but, my Lord, I would not have your Lordfhipp depreciate the accomplithments you have, becaufe you -have not the uttmoft attainment of learning, ' This and the next paragraph are marked for deletion, but are not struck out. L 161 162 ‘The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. learning, or of all that is or can be attain’d ; you have more than many, and many ways enough for your ftacion and dignity. They are gentlemen of learning good fchollars, and men of parts, and you are——” “Tam,” faid my Lord haftily and interrupting me, “I kno’ very well what I am and what they are. They are men of fence and learning, glorious .parts, and wit, and nobly educated; and I am an animal with gay titles and high birth, a good eftate, and taught nothing ; . no learning, no acquir’d knowlege, brought up among fools and flatterers, taught to take the moft carly pleafures inftead of drinking in carly wifdome, taught to talk to dogs and horfes inftead of men, and the brutal languages inftead of Greck and Latin.” “You run too hard upon your felf,” faid I,“ your Lordfhipp has been taught well enough.” “Well enough for a lord,” fayes he, “1 fuppofe you mean fo. I tell you I have been taught nothing, and I kno’ nothing compar’d to thofe gentlemen. What a noble ftudy is that of aftronomy, the motions and revo- lucions of the heavenly bodyes, the great order of the fuperior world! What is it all to me but one univerfall blank! . I am left to meer nature, and to the groffett and courfeft concepcions of thofe things in the world, and to make the wildeft gucffes at them, fit for wifer men to laugh at, like the country-man that being alk’t by a learned man what he thought all the glorious face of the heavens which he faw in a clear ftarlight night might be, anfwer'd, it was a great d/ew dlanket all full of dett holes, that it was all fire beyond it, and the fire fhone upon us thro’ thofe holes, in fome places bigger and fome lefs, as the holes were larger and fmaller ; as we might fee by that great hole bigger than all the reft which was fo wide that the fire came thro’ in an extraordinary manner ; and he,knew it to be all fire, he faid, beyond, becaufe he could feel the very heat of it.” “ That The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. “That a country-man,” faid I, “had a very great fhare of thought I warrant him.” “Yes,” faid my Lord, “and juft fuch may I or another be ; but what is it all without learning, without inftruccion? ’Twas all nature.” “ Nature even uninftructed,” faid I, “ will go a great way fome times.” “Yes,” faics my Lord ; “ but nature inftructed is the perfeccion of wifdome.” “Tt is an addition,” faid I; “I never intended to crye down the advantages of learning, but to move your Lordfhipp not to look upon your felf fo defectiv as to be unhappy for want of it, when you have fo many . things about you to make up your felicity.” “An addition do you call it,” fayes my Lord, “an addition ? Yes, ignorance is a deprivation of learning, as darkness is a deprivacion of light.” “But Nature,” faid I, “is the foundacion of knowlege, and there you abound. The foundacion is lay’d, and- your Lordfhipp may build.” “Nature a foundacion? Yes, but if it is not dug ’tis no foundation ; ’tis what we may call a found bottom to lay a foundacion on; but ’tis no foundacion, till it is dug and the bottom found and levell’d and lay’d out ; in a word, Nature is darknefs and Learning is light ; Nature is a deep, Learning is the lead and line to found ‘and fearch out the depth by, Nature is the virgin bride, Learning is the bridegroom. Nature produces nothing till fhe is marryed to Learning and got with child of Science. In a word, Nature is ignorance, and Learning is knowlege ; and that's the ftate of the cafe between thefe gentlemen and me.” “Your Lordfhipp,” fayes J, “ does not talk like what you call yourfelf.” “ Prethee,” fayes my' Lord, “ hear them talk, and here me 1 MS. may. 163 164 fo Geb The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. me talk ; and then judge. They kno’ every thing, and I onely kno’ that I kno’ nothing ; and I think you kno’ as little as I; elce you wouldn’t call birth and quallity an equivalent for wifdome and learning, when at the fame time, one is filver and the other is gold; one is the cafe and the other the jewell, or, if you will, one is _body, the other foul.” “Well, my Lord ; then ftill you allow,” faid I, “that tho’ they have the gold, your Lordfhipp has the filver.” “Yes, yes, I have the, filver, but the text fayes of Wifdome, Her merchandise is better than filver, Prov. In a word, you may fee it plain enough: they have the brains, I have the fcul; they the fullnefs, I the. emptynefs ; they are the learned gentlemen, and I am the fool lord: and that is the whole of the account; and I think I have reafon enough to think my felf miferable with all the equivalents. {I am furpriz’d at your talk. Is there any equivalent for being a fool? When Nature has taken away the underftanding, can fhe giv an equivalent ?” “ But, my Lord,” faid I, “thank God, you are not in that clafs. You want no brains.” “T think otherwife,” faies my Lord. “ But fuppofe it was not fo, and remove the cafe from a charge upon parent Nature to the jufter charge upon an unnaturall parent. Suppofe Nature like 2 good parent had given the capafcity, how unnatural are our reall parents when they withold or denye educacion and erudicion! Can they giv an equivalent? What is an eftate to the entail of wifdome and knowlege? Is that your equivalent you talk’d off?” “Thoufands of ftarving fchollars, my Lord, and hungry phylofophers would think it fo,” faid I, “and be very glad of the exchange.” “ As to being a hungry phylofopher and a ftarving {chollar, I do not underftand it. If I was the fchollar or The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. or the phylofopher, I think I could never ftarv or want,” “But we find many men, my Lord,” faid I, “in ex- treme want that are men of learning.” “Then,” faies my Lord, “* they muft have very great defeéts fome other way. I never giv any thing to a ftarving {chollar. Sometimes I meet with a poor, fhabby, ragged fellow without a pair of fhoes begging in Latine; and the other day one came to my door that con- founded us all, tho’ I had my chaplain and two phyfitians in the houfe, for he beg’d in Greek. I never like them.” “IT hope your Lordfhipp reliev'd him, for he mutt be fomething extraordinary.” “It was a long time before we could make any thing. of him or kno’ what language he fpoke ; we were fain to fend for M'...., the Mafter of our Free .School,. and he underftood him prefently, and told us he fpoke very good Greek and as good Latin.” “ What could be the meaning of his poverty ?” faid I. “Why, the meaning,” faid my Lord, “juft the fame as I allwayes take fuch to be. We found him out prefently; and as the fchool-mafter faid at firft that he belev’d he was fome. worthlefs, indolent, idle fellow, fo we foon found that his darling vice was that he was an incorrigible drunkard and withall an intollerable lyar.” “I hope, my Lord,” faid I, “you help'd ‘the poor fellow however.” “Yes,” faies my Lord, “I did fomething for him ; and had he been good for anything, I would have took him in and maintain’d him handfomely. It came into my head immediately that I might learn fomething of him.” “It was pity fo much learning fhould be fo ill beftow’d,” faid I. “T never reliev’d any of thofe fellows but I repented it: ’tis all thrown away; they would not be poor if they 16 ‘ny 166 /. 6. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. they were not incorrigibly idle or incorrigibly wicked; and the more learning they have, the worfe. But what's all this to the cafe?” faid my Lord. “It was brought in,” faid I, “to make it out that many would giv their learning up for an eftate, becaufe your Lordfhipp objected againft its being an equivalent for an eftate, honour, titles, and the goods of Fortune.” “That is,” faid my Lord, “ becaufe, tho’ they may have a ftock of fchool learning, they have not made a right judgement of the value of it, and what is more, have not a juft fence of the advantages. of it. Thofe are a fort of good-for-nothing people, who you call meer fchollars.” I added, “ And perhaps are pinch’d with their prefent diftrefies, poverty, and even to want of bread.” “Yes,” faics my Lord very readily, “ fo Efau fold his birthright, being, as the text fayes, perifhing for hunger.” “No body knows the diftreffes of fuch,” added I, “but thofe that feel it, as ‘in the cafe your Lordfhipp named juft now ; for as Efau faid, What good fhall this primogeniture do me if I am ftarv'd ? what is all their Latin and Greek. to them if they perifh for want of bread ?” My Lord reply’d prefently: “ It was allways charg'd as a crime upon Efau, and he was call’d a prophane perfon for it; I kno’ not what to fay, indeed,” added his Lordfhipp, “as to ftarving ; but elce I would never fell my learning; if I had the knowlege of letters and languages, books and antiquity, I would never {fell them whatever I wanted; but, in fhort, if I had learning I would never want, I could not.” “But your learning,” faid I, “could not giv you the dignity, my Lord, and the honours you now enjoy; it could not giv you the primogeniture of a noble houfe, and make you be the eldeft and chief of your family.” “T don’t kno’ that,” fayes my Lord ; “ learning and true The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. d truc merit has raif’d many a family from nothing, that is, from an obfcure birth, to the hight of mente and even to nobillity itfelf.” “ But what is become of birth and blood then, " faid I, “and the antiquity of a family which fome people lay fo great a ftrefs upon, that they think there is nothing great or honourable in the world without it?” “Thofe people,” fayes my Lord very gravely, “value them felves upon what they do not underftand. Nobillity is founded in virtue. [I fhould in fuch a cafe, perhaps, be the firf€ of my race, the beginner of an antient family; for time would make it antient, and all families began fome where, Better be the firft of - a great young family, and found it in vertue and on a {tock of true merit, than the laft of a great old family and fink it by my own vice and degeneracy. Pray, which is the moft to be valued ? “ Don't we reckon up fuch or fuch an antient worthy recorded for a man of merit? 1 fay, don’t we honour the memory of him as the father of fuch or fuch a race, the founder of the family, the firft of the blood ? Such, then, I would be in the front of a new race, and think my felf as much honour'd as in humane affairs it was poffible for any man to be.” “My Lord,” faid I, “you have a different opinion of thefe things from moft of the gentlemen that I converfe with ; they lay the main f{trefs of their familics upon the antiquity of them, their antient race, the blood of the Talbots, the Veres, the Howards, the Darcyes, the Haftings, and the like.” “Well,” faid’ my Lord, “and I like it very well, provided I am fomething that is equall to my anceftors, and that by my merit I can maintain the honour of the houfe ; that I fhow my felf worthy of my birth, and that I do not difhonour my titles ; am not a fcandal to an antient family: but if I am a degenerate branch of an 167 168 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. an antient ftem, a difgrace to the root of the family, what then ?” “But,” faid I, “that is an uncertain way of ftating the point; for, my Lord, what fhall we call honouring or difhonouring our family?” “Tl tell you what I call it,” fays my Lord, “ Dif- honouring them is when I behave in fuch a manner as that my great anceftor 100 or perhaps 500 year ago, being himfelf a man of honour and virtue, would be afham’d to own me for one of his name, not think me worthy of calling me a kinfman of his blood. On the other hand honouring it is when by;my own proper merit and by fome confpicuous virtue I add to the luftre of my family and to the roll of honrable anceftors, raifing a juft fame and acquiring a character, fhining in acts of vertue and goodnefs, fuch as good men will value and all wife men approve, and in which I ftrive to excell. This I call being worthy of my birth.” “T grant all dtu my Lord,” faid I, “ but at this rate no man can rightly value himfelf upon his family and birth but he that by fome honourable accion does fomething to add to the illuftrious race, fomething that out-does all of his line and out-fhines thofe that have gone before him. This may be hard for a man to do.” “Well,” faid my Lord, “and that is the cafe in fome degree: for as every age adds to the roll of the family, fo every branch ought to add fome thing to the hiftory of the race, fome thing that may do it honour, fome thing that may enlarge its hiftory, fome thing that may read well in the annalls of the family and may fland for an example worth the imitacion of pofterity. | do not fay it muft be critically more in degree than all that went before: for tho’ ’tis certain that every truly great foul ftrives to excell, yet every man has not equall The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. equall opportunity: but there ought to be fomething bright in every character.” “But who then diffhonour' their anceftors ?” {aid I, “and how muft we diftinguifh here? for the merit will lye one way or other.” “T anfwer'd that part,” faid my Lord, “at the firft appearance of the queftion ; but I’ll explain it a little, as my own cafe ferves to explain it; and it is thus, when the heir—as I may be now—the head of the race, or the chief, is uneducated, an uncultivated brain, a thoughtlefs, indolent, uncapable wretch, taught nething and bred to nothing, and confequently knows nothing.” I return’d warmly as if offended a little: “ You run too hard upon your felf, my Lord; you can not raife fuch a blaft upon your charaéter without: injuftice to your felf and to your whole family. You are not an ignorant perfon, a fool, one that knows nothing, and all thofe things. © You would be very angry if another man fhould call you fo.” My Lord replyed merrily, “ Don't be angry with me and for me both together. I underftand very well what you mean. Perhaps I fhould not like it if another man told me fo, becaufe he has not the fame right to fay it of me as I have to fay it of my felf ; but I hardly kno’ how I could reafonably refent it neither, when | could not denye the fact. I could not tell him he ly’d ; fur my confcience would tell me ‘twas every word true. I might tell him he was a faucy,? rude, and unmannerly fellow and corect him for his ill language, but could not call him a lying fellow, becaufe the fact is all true.” I anfwer'd, “ No, my Lord, with your pardon, it is not all true neither; it is not litterally fact. You may be ignorant comparitively, and kno’ nothing compari- tivly, » Diffhonours in MS. 27 MS. fucy. 169 170 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN, tivly, and who is not fo? Where is the man that no body goes beyond ?” “ Come, com replyes me Lord, “don't make me any thing but what I am. The cafe is plain, I am nothing that I bught to have been. I have had no education fuitable to what I was to be or to what I might have been. My father did me no juftice ; my mother brought me up among the peticoates and in the nurfery, till, if | had been fent to fchool, I fhould have been thro’ my grammar. My tutor cheated me; and they cheated my father that propof'd him for a tutor. The man had learning, but he was a man of pleafure himfelf and gratifyed himfelf and me, too, in all the little excurfions of a youth, when he fhould have kept me ftrictly to books and languages ; and thus the moft valuable houres of life were loft, and, inftead of being finifh’d for the college and for travell, I came out into the world a finifh’d blockhead, fit for nothing ; and when I came to the eftate, which was too foon too, that entirely ruin’d me; I ought indeed to have been fent to fchoul then, to be made fit to enjoy it.” I found by this difcourfe we fhould run back into the fame exclamacions where his Lordfhipp began, and not being able to denyc the juftice of his reflexions I endeavour'd to turn his thoughts off to fome other fubjeét, and put his Lordfhipp in mind that the two gentlemen in the parlour would think us long. Upon that he ftop't; but before we went in, my Lord faid, “T muft have fome further difcourfe with you upon this fubject ; for I am refolv’d,” added he, “not to liv and dyc a blockhead all my dayes. Is there nothing to be learn’t after a man is 40 year old?” I told him it was a queftion of importance, and I defir'd him to explain himfelf a little upon it that I \ might giv him a fuller anfwer. He anf{wer’d, “I will do fo by and by, but we'll go in The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. 171 in to fee our friends for the prefent, leaft they fhould ¢ 63, take it ill." So this agreeable converfation ended. I return to the title of this chapter, namely, What are the' confequences of this neglect? And without morallizing-im a formall way upon that long and yet undecided queftion whether want of education is not opening the door to a life of vice and extravagance and whcther the learned or the unlearned world are the “ wickedeft ; I fay, without entring upon this, the more evedent and undeny’d confequence of it, and what: is point blank to the fubjeét before me, is this : That as the neglect of the laft age has entail'd ignorance upon the prefent, fo the ignorance of the pre- fent age, if not wifely confidred of, will not fail to bring on the like neglect for the next: and this the ground plat, the ichnography of my whole undertaking. Our fathers, bred up in family pleafure and: here- ditary indolence, plac’d the whole weight of their glory upon the long pedegree of their houfes, the race of great men who bore the name before them, whofe titles, honours and wealth they pofeft, no matter whether their own merit legitimates the claim, or no; upon this imaginary honour they elate their minds to the uttmoft extravagance, value themfelves as exalted, in birth above the reft of the world, and look down upon all mankind as plac'd below them juft within the reach of their foot and born to be fpurn'd at and kick’t by the gentry as: meer foot-balls for ‘their exercife and diverfion. This hereditary pride defcends as naturally from father to fon as the eftate, and as if the entail of it was as certain and unalienable, ’tis infuf’d early into the heads of the young heirs before the beft of their inftruccion, and they learn to kno’ they are gentlemen long before they learn that they are men, learn the leftun 1 the omitted in MS. 172 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. leffon of family pride before their A B C, and to kno’ they are above being corrected at {chool, before they -are big enough to go thither. “Dam it, Madam,” faid a young heir to his mother, “I have £10,000 a year eftate, and I won't be con- tradicted.” The young gentleman was not abov 9 year old or thereabouts, and had been flatter’d by the nurfes and wenches that waited on him, and told what he was to be too foon, as well as with too little difcretion; and this was the produét of it. I know the family very well. This door being open’d and early vice’ thus in- troduc’d with the mother’s milk, no wonder 'tis riveted’ in the mind too faft for education it felf, if that mott probable remedy were apply’d to remove it. But that being likewife neglected and even defpif'd from the fame unhappy principle that ’tis difhonourable and below the quallity of the child, as above : all fubfequent applications are render’d' perfectly ufelefs, and the miferable gentleman, miracle excepted, is damn’d to ignorance and repentance. And what do I fpeak of repentance in a cafe where the opinion of its being no defect, but an ornament, fhuts the door againft all regret at the thing its felf! Men never repent of any thing which they do not think was wrong: if it is no miftake, how can they repent of it? befides, how can they repent of it and glory in it at the fame time? This brings me to the great and moft fatal con- fequence of all, and what, as I have faid above, this work is galculated on purpofe to expofe, viz., this notion of Yes being no error to omit the educacion of their eldeft fons, as it was the reafon of bringing up the prefent generation of gentlemen in ignorance and indolence without learning, without erudition, ea ooks, UMS, rend". t The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. books, empty of all accquir’d knowlege, and without a taft of the bleffing of it. It infallibly preferves the entail, and hands on the obftinate ignorance to the next age, and fo on in aternum. How fhould an uninftruéted generacion inform their pofterity ? By what ftrange infpiration from abov fhould the next age be lovers of learning, applye themfelves to ftudy, read books, drink in knowlege, and learn wifdome, when their inftructors have it not to furnifh them? Ignorance can not deviate into fence, or dull- nefs -into wit; ’tis the lov of knowlege in parents or the fence of their own difficiency’ that moves them to inftruét their children. Now thofe people are fo ys far from believing that their ignorance is a defect, that / 44. they glory in it, value themfelves upon it; and I once heard a gentleman of a good eftate fay that to be above all accquirements was the uttmoft accomplifhment of a man of fortune; that he ought to follow Nature in all the plain roads of her meer inftitucions; that, for a gentleman, to go out of her way was but like a man of wealth amaffing treafure, whereas. he can be no richer, let his additionall thoufands be as many as they will. This wretched phylofophy however efpouf’d ferves, | . in my opinion, for no manner of ufe but to crowd the world with fools of fortune; and indeed it isto this extraordinary logic that we owe the generall . ftupidity of the age, which is the fubject of this prefent complaint. However, were this all, I fhould fay no more than that it is fo, and tell you the occafion of it ; but that it fhould ftill go on, that in this enlightn’d age, when polite learning is fo much in vogue, and fo many, how ‘juftly I will not enquire here, pretend to it; that it fhould go on, I fay, in f{pite of example, and entail that fame ignorance and obftinacy upon the next age : this is unfufferable. One ‘MS. defiency. 174 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. One would think, if it was nothing elce but that learning is a little more in fafhion than it uf'd' to be, education fhould be fo too. But it muft be confeff’t that fact is uncertain, at leaft to me it is fo; there is indeed a kind of a noife about polite wit, and men being mafters of fcience and of learning, and raifing their fortunes by their being fo. That fome gentlemen by their parts and under- ftanding, whether natural or accquir'd, have raif'd their fortunes in this age of craft and corrupcion, may be true; but I denye that this is a teftimoney of the men of fortune and the heads of families being any wiler and farther taught in gencrall than their anceftors, or any better learned. ’Tis rather the contrary; for how fhould the} beggarly and mercenary part of mankind accquire wealth and get eftates by their wit and cunning, if]the men of eftates, the antient families, and great fortunes, were not the dupes who are impof’d upon and mannag’d, as we fee ’tis under the other that this mannagement prevails ? And were the nobility and gentry of this kingdom!’ univerfally men of learning and parts, as they are of fortune, high birth, and honour, they would never be influenced, led, over- rul’d, bought, or fold by any fet of ftates-men or poli- titians in the world. This is but a hint; let them take the coat who fit the meafure of it. ’Tis thus far to my purpofe: if the younger brothers are to liv by their witts, let them do fo honeftly and make the beft of it, but let the elder brothers have the fame fhare of learning and witt given them with their eftates as the other have to raife eftates by. I believ the firft would keep their eftates better than they do, and the laft find it lefs eafie to rife by bribery and corrupcion. The wretched defeccion in fome ages we have gone through 1 MS. A— The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. 175 ! ‘through, the bying and felling their country, their ibertyes’ and privelanes Ta Popith dayee-antparty. | fPraking dayes,, what has it been owing to but_the: mercenary fpirit among the poorer gentry' and the ‘There could be no danger of the polititians breaking in upon the libertyes and eftablifl’d priveleges of this free nation, if the nobillity and gentry of Britain, who are the bulwark of thofe libertycs, were, as they might all be, men of learning and men of wealth. ~~ Want of learning makes them caflie, indolent, man- ayeable, thoughtlefs, and extravagant. \Want of learning makes them incapable, breaks their wconomy, and ex-: pofes_them a_thoughtlefs luxury ; the confequence of which is reduccion of eftates—He is circum- | ftances,’ and even beggary ; and the need confequence of that is being fubject te all manner of currupcion, eafily purchaf'd for parties and faccion, and by penfions and places to betray themfelves and their country, and giv up all to the crafts-men of the Court. : It is the felicity of the prefent age that we liv / 64 under a Government that defires no frauds, that has no corrupt views, no tyrannick defigns to carry on, no deftructiv ends to anfwer; if it were otherwife, the miferable indolence and ignorance which we now fee our nativ country labour under, and fome of our gentlemen of the beft, moft noble and antient familyes abound in, nay, be vain of, and affect a kind -of fatif- faccion* in, would giv us but a mellancholly profpect: for the fafety of our pofterity. From hence I infift that it is of the uttmoft confe- quence, if poffible, to put a ftop to the manner of bringing up our gentry in ftupidity and ignorance, with out the advantages of education. and without polifhing the parts and capafcities Nature may have given them, that 'MS.G....¥. + Abbreviated in MS. 176 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. that the next age, what ever this is, may be furnith'd with fome helps, fome aid and ‘affiftance from their own fence to fee into the depths of thofe fons of Hell who would debauch and corrupt them. To inforce this part of my reafoning, I alfo intit upon the following obfervations as maxims in nature, sii we may tee confirm’d in practife every day, . That want of learning and polite education in he ‘nobillity and gentry of England makes them be neglected and, as it were, lay'd afide in the mannagee ment of public affairs@when knaves and polititians happen to be in truft, mercenaryes and fcrew'd_ up engins being made ule of in their room. 2. It-makes them eafie and blind, and not able to fee themfelves flighted and neglcéted, as they would otherwife do, and confequently to refent it. . , 3. It makes their refentment of lefs value where it is met with, the number of thofe that have the fence to fee and refent being fo fmall, and their intreft confe- quently fmall in proporcion, Let any man look back ‘to the figure the barons of England made in the reigns of King John, Henry III., and other princes of thofe times, and compare them with the; ages of a few reigns paff’t, and let them tell us if the Englith gentry were to be mannag’d by Prime Minifters and polititians then, as they have been fince, and what was the end of fuch favourites who ventur'd to ‘make the attempt. 4. The weaknefs of the parts, the defect of the underftanding, and the want of erudition, which is fo much the fafhion among our gentry has been the true, if not the chief, reafon of their prefent poverty and bad circumftances,' leffening their eftates and ruining their fortunes. 5. Their want of learning being the caufe of their luxury 1 Abbreviated in MS. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. 177 luxury and extravagance, and that luxury reducing them to neceffitous circumftances,’ thofe neceffitics bring* them into a readynefs of being corrupted, brib’d, and drawn in by partyes to efpoufe thofe intrefts for money which at other times they would abhorr, and which are ruinous to their country's liberties and to their pofterity. 6. Ignorance is an enemy to temperance, to fru- gallity, to honefty, and to the practife of all morall vertues, In a word, for want of Icarning a man of quallity, however great, noble, rich, powerfull in his intreft and his eftate, is render'd unquallify’d for the fervice either of himfelf, his family, or his country. 7. Ignorance expofes the gentlemen not onely to Ie ribaldry and jeft of the Courts and of the politi- tians, but makes tools of them, makes them engines and inftruments for the ufe of the mannagers on all occafions, and even in their worft defigns upon the libertyes of their country as above. N.B. Innumerable examples of this might be given / in the times before the Revolution. What has been fince we have no room to fpeak of at this time of day. , It would be endlefs to undertake a generall colleccion of all the confequences of this want of cducation among the gentlemen of England ; and yct if nothing fhould be faid to it, how fhall we bring the gentlemen now labouring under the miffortunce of it to a temper capable of rectifying the error ? I fhall add, therefore, two or three things, which I .think are very material, and which will certainly weigh with the gentry’ even of this age, if they pleafe to confider them, and but meafure themfelves upon the fquare with fuch other men as Heaven has plac’d upon a level with them, I mean other gentlemen of quallity and cn wn ? Abbreviation in MS. IMS. days. NG: M 178 -among them. It is one of the moft honourable parts The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. and fortune as they are, and who differ from them in thefe particulars oncly. 1.' The want of ‘learning. and ceducacion places them below even their inferiours, and renders them defpicable every where, even at home and among their very fervants. 2, If thefe uneducated gentlemen fhould think of comeing up to London, appearing at Court, or looking out for buffinefs (as 'that is called), whether by choic or upon any family diffafter, as the beft may be fubjcé to fuch things: if they have no letters, no learning, they can never recomend themfelves to any thing. 3. If they fhould, by intreft and favour, be able to obtain any thing, of what ufe can it be to them? \ They can execute no office fuitable to their quallity ; they can fill up no poft of honour cither for the Govern- ment or for their private concern. The favourite may giv them a compliment; but how fhall fuch a perfon anfwer it? Can he go thro’ the office of a Seerctary* of State or a Secretary" of War apaymafler of the Navy or Army, a Commiffioner of Trade* and VPlanta-: cions, or the like ; or to come lower, to a Committoner of the Navy, the Excifc, or the Cuftomes? All thefe muft be men of letters and men of figures. They. muft be men of learning and languages ; or what are they fit for? The country gentleman can do nothin of a perfon of quallitye’s character that he is fitted for the fervice of his country, fit to be a Privy Counfellor, a Sceretary* of State, a Lord’* of Trade, or any other place in the adminiftration or the houfehold ; and what figure muft fuch a gentleman make in any of thefe publick pofts that has no educacion, no litteraturc, no . knowlege of languages, of hiftory, or of the world ! It 1 No number in Ms. MS. Secres. 2 MS, Sen 4 MS. 7: 2 MS2L The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. V9 It is true, I am to be anfwer'd, as above, ina way of | a rallery, that the gentlemen we are fpeaking of arc above all thefe things: they fcorn pofts and places, thofe civil badges of human drudgery; the private ftacion is the poft of honour, and an hereditary pofeffion the beft penfion ; that they are kings of their own and governors of themfelves; that we may fee all the Minifters of State and favourites of allmoit every reign making their court to them, inviting them up, and careffing them upon every occafion, defiring to make ufe of their intreft, and if they find it practicable, wheedling with them to fide in with their Party. , If by their fway in the country and their intreft in the towns, of which fometimes they have feverall that are their own, they are, in fpite of bribery and corrup- ' cion, chofen members of Parliament, what tricks, what artifice, are ufed to bring them in-to bufiinefs, as ’tis modeftly call’d! If they happen to be above ’em, out of the reach of art, and that ncither moncy or flattery. or honours and titles will make any impreslion, how are they reckon'd dangerous, and how are they fene’d. againft as men of importance, and how are the courtiers in the uttmoft concern, Ieaft fuch men as thefe fhould make themf{elves known, get a Party in the Houfe, and oppofe the mannagers in their great affaires of wee, &e! But bring all this to the cafe in hand. It/is true that this is often fo where the country gentleman is a leading man, either in the place where he dwells, or in the houfe, and when they find him capable of great things. But then, who are the men, what are the gentry that are thus rendred confiderable? that are /. the terror of Court partyes and the envy of the politi- tians ? what character do they bear, and what foot do they ftand upon in the country where they live ? Giv me leav to fay thefe are not the ignorant, the illiterate ' 180 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. illiterate, the weak headed, uneducated gentlemen we are talking of, but they are, generally fpeaking, men of fence, men of learning, that kno’ the world, that under- ftand the intrefts of their country, and if they appear in public, giv the ftates-men room to take umbrage at their growing capafcities. They arc not the men of pleafurc, bred up to the dogs and the game, that wallow in their wealth and kno’ nothing but to liv at home and enjoy that furfeit every day with their pleafures, and are onely fick for want of varicty; who rolling in a kind of naturall indo- lence are unactiv for meer want of fome thing to do, who rife in the morning to go to bed at night, and whofe whole hiftory is fum’d up in that diftich: They're born, they lv, they laugh, they know not why ; They fleep, cat, drink, get herrs; grow fat, and dye. Thefe are the country gentlemen indéed, but thefe aré not the men I fpeak of; thefe are not the formid- able, dangerous things that, as King Charles! II. faid of the Country Party, were men of importance and very confiderable in the Common Wealth, for they could make kings think and kcep courtiers honeft. Thefe are not the Icading men, that carry a party with them where e’re they go, whofe vote is a noun of multitude, and, as was faid of Sir ..... H., he was call’d No. 50 when ever they mencioned him in cover, that is when thcy talk’d of him, but did not think fit to name him; the meaning was that when ever he voted he had 50 more that follow’d him, let him take which way he wou’'d. No! No! Thofe gentlemen I fpeak of are not as the man call’d No. 50, but as the 50 that blindly voted after him, and as he voted right or wr... g. Fortunate ignorance ! that fo often fall in with honeft leaders ; 1 MS. Cha. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. leaders ; but how unhappy is it for their country, when thefe gentlemen are miffled, as is but too poffible and has been too frequent ! How miferable is that nation that is reprefented by: men who, in a body, are to be Ied by a few, if that ‘few guide wrong! who go up honeft but ignorant, who continue allways the laft (ignorant), but are.oncly the firft (honeft), as they fall into good or bad company ; yet how many fuch have in time paft (now—Heavens be praifd for the change—'tis quite otherwife) been trufted with the fate of their country, and how fad is the fate of that country which Tf yrefented !— ~ but that by the by. Of" thefe gentlemen or fuch as thefe I met with the following paffage from one of their own number. A cer- tain perfon was employ'd to draw up a cafe () for fome merchants, who having fet up a particular manufactory in the country applycd to their maflers, the Houfe of Commons, then fitting, for fome particular priveleges neceflary to them for the carrying on the buffinefs they were engag'd in and which they alleaged was a prodi- ious improvement to trade and an advantage to the vhole country. 181 In order to explaine to the gentry the great fervice / 103. the undertaking would be to the nacion in gencrall, the propofall gave a calculation of numbers that were em- ploy'd by them on feverall occafions,’ as 15000 families * in the copper mines in Cornwall and Devon, 10,000 familyes in digging and carriage of coales in another county, fo many thoufand upon another work in another part (*) So they call the papers drawn up by fuch as have petitions depending in the Houfe of Commons, and which are to make yood the allegacions of their peticion. ' This passage, beginning Of ¢iefe and ending to fhe wehole country, as well as foot-note (“) are struck out in MS. * MS. occasion, * MS. familes. 182 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. part of England, and fo on, till they made it up 150,000 families, then reckoning 8 to a family they multiply'd the number by 8, which made up the foot of the ac-° count be a million and half, which was all caft up in figures very regularly and exactly at the bottom of the propofall. In this form, the fcheme was drawn up, printed, and delivred to the gentlemen to read and confider of it, in order to obtain their favour and vote, when the cafe was to come upon the carpet. But in a day or two, when the printed memorial came to be read, a certain gentleman,a M. .., who was in the intreft of the peticioners and had ftirr'd for them among his fellow reprefentatives,| came to them in a great paffion and with a mouth full of hard words, calling them f..1s for offring fuch a paper as that tu the Houfe. . In a word, not to enter too farr into the particulars for the fake of public fame and of who it was that raif’d the objeccion, I fay, in a word, the paper was not legible, and the poor peticioners were oblig’d to be at the charge of printing it over again in words at length, after having been reprimanded very warmly by their faid friend for their impudence in fo much as fuppofing that gentlemen would giv themfelves the trouble to read their figures into words. Accordingl} the paper was reprinted, and inftead of 10,000 it was faid at large ten thoufand, and in ftead of 150,000 one hundred and fifty thoufand, inftead of 1,500,000 was printed at large one million fiv hundred thoufand, and fo of the reft; this being donc the prefumcion of the firft paper was pardon’d, the gentlemen were good friends again, and the piseohets carryed their point. It is indeed very rude to accoft gentlemen in an illegible "MS. repreprefentatives. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. illegible or unintelligible character and a language they don’t underftand, and therefore to fill a paper -with long rows of unites, tens, hundreds, thoufands, tens of thoufands, hundreds of thoufands, and the like, and prefent it to men who never learnt that way of telling nofes, how prepoftcrous muft it be! The merchants peticioners were therefore very much in the wrong and: had they loft thcir' caufe by it, they might have thank't themfelves ; for that indeed they ought to have known better. CAP. 18 fon CAP. Vs: j.65, That it is not to late to put a flop to this national defect of learning and that the gentlemen of England, generally fpeaking, may ina great meafure retrie the lofs of thetr education bya little voluntary applicacion ; and an account of fome proper and very cafie methods, Sor the doing it T have heard. q * HAVE heard fome nice people obferv that pride was a_neceffary virtue to man- kind and the happyeft man in the world : is the proud man. The ‘nocion may have fome remote truth in it, but then it wants ex- planacion; for it is a fatyr in it felf} and points at the very cafe I am fpeaking of. It grants that the gentlemen are uneducated and ignorant and wretchedly : untaught. The caufe or occafien of this they fay was, at firft, pride, which was fo far a vice as it appear'd in fcorning the fchools, hateing inftruccion, defpifing languages and learning as mean and mcchanick things below their quallity. There I fay pride is acknow- leg’d to be a vice, a child of the meer Devil without any difguife. Now if the man was fencible of the defects of his education, he would be miferable to the laft degree, fay thefe ‘criticall enquirers; would curfe his parents that fhould have been his inftructors, curfe the hour he was The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. was born ; and, fick of his defpicable life, perhaps, would hang himfelf out of it. But here his pride fteps in, and it faves his life, keeps him from the knowlege of his mifery, keeps the fence of it from his heart, perfwades him.he is happy, and makes him like a man in Bedlam dance in his chains; perfwades him to be vain of his ignorance and to waliia himfely upon his being above | all improvment ;. that he is a prince, nay a king in - his manfion houfe or pallace, who has all learning and all knowlege in penfion under him; that fchollars are onely bound to his fervice ‘and ufefull to him on par- ticular occafions, as interpreters are to princes and to ambaffadors, fo that he is ftill great and happy even in— his ignorance ; that his imperfections are no imperfec-- cions to him: and all by the meer confequence of his pride, which is thus far a virtue to him. But to pafs thefe fpeculacions and .to Ieav them as we find them: The want of knowlege and inftruccion, let our pride infinuate what it will to the contrary, is certainly an infelicity in life, efoecially where the de- 18 pravity is rooted and the cafe rendred incurable; but, .. I am of a quite differing opinion as to the circum- ftances' of the thing. I am far from looking upon the defeas as incurable, and there the notion of their pride being a vertue is all funk and loft at once; for the pride is a delufion not a vertue, as lunacy is.a dilirium in the brain, fhowing things in a falfe and borrow'd light and in a differing fituacion from what they really are. The want of learning, the defficiency of education is adifeas. ‘Tis a deprivation of knowleg, a weakning of the underftanding, a diftemper in, or rather an accident upon, nature. But I enter my caveat againft the pacient’s being given over by his phyfitians. A7/ defperandunt: as in other diftempers, while there is life there ' Abbreviated. tas 186 S. 102, The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. there is hope, fo in this difeafe of the underftanding, while there are brains there is hope. Vf the youth to be taught has been indeed an idiot ; if the defect is in nature and he has no genius, no power to reciev in- formacion, that's quite another cafe. Then if he had had all the education the world could giv, he would have come out the fame’ original block-head that! he went in; and it is equally to no purpofe to talk of re- trieving it in fuch a perfon when he is grown up. But what is this to the cafe before us? This is not the condicion of our gentry. Idiotifm is none of the defect. Our gentry are not what we call born fools. There may be fome natural incapafcitys, but that is not the national defect. They have generally natural! powers, but the grand defficiency is want of erudition, want of teaching, want of the helps of art to cultivate the foil and improv the head: and this makes me fay as before, Ni/ defperandum. The cafe is all retricv- able; the difeas is to be cur'd. If there is but a {tock of head it may be all recovr'd, If there is but a {park in Nature the fire may be ftill kindl'd. There are methods of inftruccion to be found out which are neither below the quallity of a gentleman to make ufe of, or unfuitable to his yeares, fuppofe him to be a man grown: for a man is never too old to. be made wife if capable of recieving and retaining the impref- fions of learning ; and yet I am not for fending them’ to {chool in their adult ftate, and putting gentlemen at 30 or 40 yeares of age to learn their accidence. | fhall propofe nothing unbecoming them as men or a> gentlemen, They fhall be their own preceptors, their own tutors, and themfelves fhall inftruct themfelves. What little helps they fhall ftoop to make ufe of fhall neither be below them or irkfome to them, but fuch as fhall make it all a pleafure and the moft delightfull thing in the world. ; The ' ; The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN, The firft thing to be enquir'd into in this cafe is this : is the gentleman fencible of his defficiency? Is he wife enough to kno’ he is ignorant, or is he weak enough to think himfelf wife when he is really other- wife? Ina word, is he a Czar of Mofcovy'? Is he 187 humble enough to be taught and fencible enough of his: . want of learning to defire to learn? Here indeed lyes the whole weight of the cafe! If the - man is bloated up with pride, that worft of folly, that vice of the brain, which fome, as abov, would have call’d a virtue; if he is not fencible of his weaknefs, his being unquallifyed for the company of men of fence, unfit for publick appearance or public employment, or to ferv his country or his family; if he is one of that fort indeed as the Scripture fayes in another cafe, There ts more hope of a fool than of him: such a creature is inflexible and harden’d; ’tis to no purpofe to meddle with him, or fo much as to talk to him of it; as afick perfon that refufes phyfic is, in the confequence of that obftinacy;, to be efteem'd as incurable as he in whom the difeas is too ftrong for the medicine: the very obftinacy is a defeas worfe than the feaver and the man dyes becaufe he will dye. On the other hand, if he is fencible of what other men have that he wants, and aboyv all, that it is not too late to recover the lofs; if he beares the defect of his underftanding as a diftemper and is willing to trye all poffible remedies for a cure: fuch a man, in my opinion, may be cur'd; that is, in a few words, let him not repine at his not being a fchollar and not being well educated. He fhall yet be a man of learning in fpite of all the time loft, and that without the fateague of the fchool, without hammering feaven year at the Latin and the Greck, and without tormenting, loading, and overloading his memory with the meer dead MS. Mifor. 188 J: 105. f 1c4. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. dead weight of words. On the contrary, he hall mafter all the needfull ftudy of fcience without it. He fhall judge of true learning by the ftrength of nature ; reafon fhall be his guide into the ftudy of Nature as nature fhall be in the purfuit of his reafon, and he fhall be a man of knowlege with eafe and delight. I fhall lead you into a more imcdiate underftanding of what I mean, by giving a fhort hiftory of fa&t in a converfation upon this fubjeét with a perfon who is the living exemplificacion of the thing, whofe ftory pleafe to take partly from his own mauth in the following relation. I was talking of this very ferioufly once to a gentle- man who was under the mifsfortune of this hereditary ignorance or defect of learning, and was none of thofe who valued themfelves upon it. On the contrary, it was the very plague of his life, and, as he faid, it tormented the very foul within hint; 1 repeat his own words. He uf’d to fay he was entr'd a block-head from his cradle, and his mother doom'd him to be a coxcomb before fhe knew whether he had wit enough for the character or no. “And refolving,” faid he, “that I fhould be a fool of one fort or another, fhe anticipated my want of brains by my want of education ; that if I would not be a fool by nature I fhould have the happynefs of being fo by art; and if I did not want brains, I fhould want! teaching how to ufe them, which was the fame thing; for,” adds he, “tem eff non cife ct non apperire.” “But harke ye, Sir,” faid I, “if you were never taught, how come you to underftand Latin?” “©,” fayes he, “ as a true penitent abhorrs the ftate of wickednefs he liv'd in before his repentance, and can't be faid to have repented if he does not, fo it was impoffible for me to be, as J tell you, plaagu’d and tormented with the refleccion upon the ruine of my education, and not do fomcthing to recover it.” “ ] The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. “T am very glad to hear you fay fo,” faid I, “ becaufe I kno’ feverall gentlemen in the fame condicion ; but they all fit down and defpair. They fay 'tis too late, they are too old, the prime of youth, which is the time to learn, is paft, and there is no room for it; and fo they fit down with their ignorance and defficiency till it grows habitual.” “Why, then,” faid my friend, * they are habitual fools, and I had been fo to this day if my father had liv'd.” : “Wow, your father ?- Why, was the old gentleman again{ft your Icarning ?” “ He was one of them that,” faid he, “ thought there was no great occafion for it in a gentleman, that it fill’d their heads with great thoughts, wandring ambi- tions, afpiring defires, and fent them abroad from their eftates and from their tennants and neighbours, where they might live mery and fafe, happy and belov'd all their dayes, and made them run into the armys, to . hunt after honour and be knock’d o’ th’ head for a _ feather in their caps call’d fame; or to Court, where they turn’d harpies and blood fuckers upon. their country and learnt all the vile ways of recieving a little for giving a great deal, (elling their country and coming home beggars: and thus the old gentleman was for keeping his fon at home a. fool for fear of his going abroad to be a knave. “Well, Sir,” faid I, “ but you have liv’d at home, and yet kno’ the world as well as thofe that have been abroad. You have been taught nothing, and yet you kno’ every thing. You are illiterate, and yet you talk Latin and French and Italian. You call your felf a fool ; pray, what kind of a fool muft we call you ?” “Why, I'll tell you my cafe,” fayes he. “ My father dyed. young, and I came to the eftate at two and twenty, a young untaught, half educated thing. I might My 189 190. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN, might indeed be faid to read and write, and that's all; for I did both very ignorantly and forrily, and farther than that I did nothing and knew nothing, and what was ftill worfe, I was as well pleaf'd with my ignorance: as my father was; and haveing often heard his dif. courfes upon that fubject I began to talk the fame language, till I fcorn’d learning, defpif'd books, thought - my felf above teaching ; in a word, I’ was compleatly come up to Solomon's ftandard of a fool :—/ had no delight in underflanding. “It happen’d one day that being at the wedding of a neighbouring Jady, a near relation of mine, who was marry'd to a truly complete young gentleman and of a good eftate, I obferv'd there was a great deal of good company and a great deal of mirth, and I was as gay as my neighbours. The wedding was kept at the ladye’s mother’s houfe, who was the widdow of a barronet, and her’ fon (the heir) being under age, the family remain’d in the manfion houfe, which was very large and fine. As there was mirth enough among the young |people, fo there was chat and difcourfe among the graver gentry, fome of one kind, fome of another; but i in all their little companies as they feperated into fmall committees in the feverall parlours and gardens and walks of the houfe, as ufuall, I obfervd allmoft all the difcourfe, as well among the relations of the lady as others, was taken up in the extraordinary character of the bridegroom, what a fine gentleman he was. “The young ladys admir’d him: he was fo hand- fome, fo genteel, danc’d fo fine, fo charming a fhape, talk’d fo finely, and the like; the older ladyes lik'd him : he was fo modeft, fo corteous, had fuch a character for being fo obliging to the pooreft and meaneft of his neighbours, fo good to his tennants, fo univerfally belov’'d. They all concluded the lady would be com- pleatly happy ; and indeed fhe was fo. The young gentlemen The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. gentlemen were exceedingly pleaf'd, too, but they had the leaft to fay of him, for he was above their clafs ; and one of them in the hight of good humour faid, ‘ I like my new coufin wonderfully, but d.... him, he is too learned for mé, he is fitter to be an arch-bifhop than a fpoilt man ; and yct he’s a good humour’d, merry fellow too; he’s fit for any thing ;’ and at Jaft it came out: ‘ Would T had half his fence, tho’ he had half my eftate !’ 1g! “ Among the graver gentry—for there were feverall /. 104 ¢. of them, too—it was the fame thing in a more folid degree. ‘They had his character up in a {train fuitable to themfelves, and particularly one fet that I was plac’d -among a good while, being all my neighbours and gentlemen I was acquainted with, talk’d very particu- larly of him. “ Thefe came into all the fentiments of the younger people, viz., that he was every way a complete gentle- man ; but a certain clergyman that was among them, a man noted for his learning and of a very good character alfo, faid he had had a ¢reat deal of conver- fation with him. ‘I was never more delighted,’ faid he, ‘in any gentleman’s company ‘in my life. IIe has travell’d over fome of the world in perfon and over all the reft in books. He fpeaks five or fix languages ; particularly,’ faid he, ‘he talks Latin and French as if they were his native tongues; he is perfectly acc- quainted with the cuftomes and manners of all the nations he has been in; and yet his difcourfe is fo modeft, fo grave, fo free from a noifie rattling way,” which is fo common in the world, that ’tis a pleafure to. be in his company.’ “ Another gentleman, who is call’d a e/rtso/o in our country and is alfo a noted phyfitian, he took it from the minifter. ‘It is fo, indecd,’ faics he, ‘ he is a finifh’d fchollar. I never met with fo much wit, fo much folid judeement, 192 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. judgement, and fo much polite Icarning in any gentle- man of his age in my life. We were talking phylofophy the other day with him; why he has treafur'd up a mafs of experiments of the niceft nature that I ever met with ; he has the Phylofophic Tranfaccions allmot by heart, he has brought fomething in his head from every place where he has been, and has a vaft memory ; and then for aftronomy,’ fayes the doctor, ‘he talks of the ftarrs and of the planets as if he was born there, and of their diftances, mocions, and revolutions, as if he had travell’d with them and knew his way back again.” “This was a new comet, fure, arnong the country gentlemen,” faid I; “ but didn’t fuch a character make the untaught gentlemen diflike him, or did they envy him?” “TI don't kno’ what they did,” faid my friend, “but Til tell you what I did. I look’d upon him with a kind of furprize. I faw every thing in him that they faid of him with a great deal of pleafure; but I went _ away with a proporcion’d chagrin upon my mind, and all the way it run in my thoughts: ‘Ay, this is educa- cion, indecd, this is learning,’ faid I.‘ Ifere my father might fee whether learning fits well upon a gentleman, whether a gentleman is above being well cducated. Why, if I had been taught, all this might have been my character as well as his,’” “Thefe were juft refleccions,” faid I; “but to what purpofe? Seeing your fate, as you fay, was determin’d, and that you were pai{’t attaining thofe things which were onely to be had by an early liberall education, you ought not to carry it too far, and make the want of what you cou’d not obtain embitter the comforts you had pofeffion of and you ought to enjoy with as much fatiffacétion' as you can.” He return’d warmly upon me, and told me I. was quite . Abbreviated. ‘The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. quite miftaken.—“ All my eftate,” added he, “ would have been nothing to me, nor did I enjoy one hour's fatisfa€tion, till I entred into meafures for recovring what I had fo miferably loft, tho’ it was not loft by my own fault, nor fhould I have enjoyd myfelf to this day, if I had not perfued the meafures which were happily diétated to me by a learned man of my accquaintance to recover in fome degrce the curfed darknefs of my uncultivated youth, and gain’d fome little light, at leaft more than I had before.” “Why,” faid I, « you were a ftrange convict, you were a profelite to learning by meer miraculous in- fpiration ; the impreffion was ftrook at a heat; you were a meer Czar of Mufcovy, a foul infpir'd with a truc afflicting fence of your want of knowlege, and refolv'd at any expence to retriev it.” “Twas fo indeed,” fayes he ; “and you fhall find, if the ftory is not too long for your pacience, what courfe I took with my felf, and what fuccefs I had.” “T fhall be very glad to hear it,” faid I, “upon many accounts. Perhaps, I may make ufe of it to the advantage of fome other gentlemen of my accquain- tance, who are under the fame mifsfortune and with as little fatisfaGtion' as you were, but do not fee.their way out of it, nor I for. them.” 193 J. 105. “Tl make the account as fhort as I can,” fayes he,. “but the tranfaccion was tedious, and tho’ I hate a ‘long ftory I fear you will think it fo; let me make it as fhort as I will. To begin then where I left off, I {pent two or three daycs at home tormenting my mind. about this young gentleman and talking to my felf of what a fot I was; how I was not fit to be feen in his company, or quallify’d fo much as to converfe with him. I knew that I was oblig’d, in regard to my neece who he had marryed, to giv him an invitacion to my houfe but 1 Abbreviated. .N 194 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. but I thought I fhould be afham’d fo much as to talk with him.” I told my friend I thought he was too humble, that he lay’d himfelf lower than he had any reafon to do, and that, tho’ he was not taught much and had not the advantage of education which others had, yet he was far from a fool; that as he need not be afham’d to go into any company, fo no company would be afham’d of him. “Well,” fayes he, “you did not kno’ me then. 1 am but fo fo now,” added he, “ but I was a down-right country blocked then, with this excepcion onely, viz., that I believ I thought of my felf as I ought to think; for all I thought of my felf I knew of my felf, and none knew it better. I, in fhort, knew nothing better than that I was a fool and knew nothing.” “ And,” faid I, “that was a foundation to build all upon that was to be, known ; for there is no Icarning any thing till we are humble enough to fee we want teaching.” : “Well,” fayes he, “but to go on, my neece came and din’d with me, and her hufband with her, and I kept them there a week ; for indeed I was fo charm’d with the young gentleman, that I could not part with him. He difcourf'd of every thing with fuch an agreeable plainefs and clearnefs, and with all was fo fincere in every thing, fo modeft, fo humble, and yet fo ftrong in his reafoning, that it was all mufick, I was charm’d with him, and, in fhort, he charm’d all the gentry about ; for feverall came to fec me while he was there, and all were delighted with him.” “Sir.” faid I, “you giv a charaéter of -him that would tempt a phylofopher ; can’t you giv a friend the felicity of feeing fuch a morning ftarr, fuch a genius as hardly ever was feen before.” He anfwer’d, if I would come down into the country, he would go and make him a vifit and carry ee im ; The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. him ; which fome time after this we did, and I found all he faid to be very juft with refpect to the gentleman ; but that is not to our purpofe, unlefs it/be to fhow how glorious an embellifhment learning and/bright parts are to a foul when they meet in the perfonjof a gentleman ;' but of that by itfelf. I defir’d him td go on with his ftory, which he did thus. “ After he had been with me fome dayes,” fays my friend, ‘I had by many tokens perciev’d I might with fafety open my felf to him. I afk’d him one morning to take a walk and told him I wanted to have a little chat with him ; fo we went out together into the garden, and I unbofom’d my felf to him without any referv. “*Coufin,’ faid I, ‘’tis the mifsfortune of many, nay, of moft gentlemen in this part of the country, and | doubt not but you have taken notice of it in other places, that we—for I may name my felf among them —are brought up in ignorance, are taught nothing. ‘Our fathers thought it below them to put us to fchool, and fo indeed we are below all learning; as we are taught nothing, fo we kno’ nothing, but live like the bear in the forreft, wild and not to be tam’d, rough and not to be fmooth’d, courfe and not to be polifhed.’ “ He began to compliment me about putting my felf among them; he could not denye but it was fo in gene- rall, but would have made an excepcion for his uncle. “*No, no, nephew, don’t flatter me,’ fayes I. ‘’Tis even fo with me in common with my neighbours. My father had that curfed notion that is fo univerfally receiv'd, that learning is a kind of mechanifme, that tis ufelefs to a gentleman, and that to go to fchool is below his quality ; and fo we that are eldeft fons are bred for fools by the meer courfe of Nature. “* But,’ faies 1, ‘my nocions' of things, however ignorant, are different from many people; I can not think 'MS. nocton. 195 fu 10% 196 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. think but that, tho’ we were not made {chollars when we were boys, we need not go block-heads to the grave. Is there nothing to be learnt now, becaufe we Jearn't nothing then? Is there no learning in the world, coufin, but Greek and Latin?’ “ He anfwer'd after fome very modeft apologies for , talking fo to me: yes, there was certainly a great many good things to be learn’t that had no great relacion to the tongues ; that, ’tis true, the tongues were ufefull helps, but that there were feverall things very needfull for the knowlege of a, gentleman that allways, or at leaft generally, were taught in Englith, and that fome of the greateft mafters of them in their time had not fo much as underftood Latin or Greek. “* Well, nephew,’ faid I, ‘now you come to me. Pray then, without any ceremony or appology, be fo free with me as to tell me what thofe things are; what is the propereft method to apply to them, and which of them are proper for, and moft ufefull to, a gentleman ; for fince I have not been taught what I fhould have learnt in the time of it, I am refolv’d to learn what | can, tho’ out of feafon.’ “Gir, faid my nephew, ‘it is true that cuftome has prevail’d fo at our Univerfities in favour of the tongues, that all the publick exercifes in the fchooles are per- form’d in the learned languages, but it is acknowleg’d there is not an abfolute neceffity of it other than that of preferving the ufe and knowlege of thofe tongues in the fchollars that perform them, But ’tis certain that a courfe of phylofophy as well naturall as experimental, as alfo of the mathematicks, of aftronomy and of moft of the fciences properly fo called, is to be taught in the Englith tongue, if the tutor or mafter pleafe to read his lectures in thofe fciences in Englifh to his pupils.’ ““* Say you fo, nephew ?’ faid I, ‘and is there then no fuch tutor to be found that will read his lectures, as you The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. you call them, in the Englith tongue ? and may I not make my felf mafter of fome degree of knowlege in the world, tho’ I do not meddle with Latin and Greek.’ “Ves, Sir,’ fayes he, ‘without doubt, you may; befides there are fome things, as I faid before, which are never taught in Latin or Greek, or very rarely, and which are in themfelves noble ftudyes and very agreeable to the genius and temper of a gentleman, extremely ufefull to him in converfation, and fuited to his inclinacion as a man of quallity, and efpecially as a man of fence.’ “« Pray, what are they, coufin ?’ faid I. “* Sir, fayes he, ‘the firftt and moft valuable is the ufe of the globes, or to fpeak more properly the ftudy of Geography, the knowlege of mapps, as alfo fo much of Aftronomy as may giv him a theory of the univerfe, particularly as far as relates to the motion and diftances of the heavenly bodies, the eclypfes, conjunctions, re- volutions, and influences of the planets, comets, fix'd ftarrs, and other phanomena of nature.’ ““May all thefe be learned in Englith?’ faid I. “Ye return’d : ‘Sir, as I faid before, they are very feldome taught in Latin except in the Univerfities, and there it is done fo meerly as it was the antient cuftome, and I think none of the beft cuftomes neither.’ “Why fo, nephew ?’ faid I. “© Becaufe, Sir,’ faid he, ‘it feems to confine the knowlege of thofe ufefull ftudies to the fchooles and to the men of letters exclufiv of other men, whereas abundance of men do, and more might, underftand them who are not train’d up at the colleges, and whofe ’ fortunes would not admitt a liberall education ; and confining thefe moft ncceffary branches of fcience to thofe onely who can read and underftand Latin is tying up knowlege to a few, whereas Science being a publick bleffing to mankind ought to be extended and made as difufiv as poffible, and fhould, as the Scripture ayes 19 7 éf f. 107" 198 } The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. fayes of facred knowlege, fpread over the whole earth, as the waters cover the fea.’ “*T think you are very right there, nephew,’ faid I, ‘and in particular your difcourfe is very agreeable to me; for according to your notion, then, I may learn all thefe things ftill, tho’ I don’t go to {chool again like a boy.’ “*Sir,” anfwer'd my nephew, ‘fo far from going to {chool again like a boy, that thefe things are feldome learnt till we are men; and as the feafaring men are generally well accquainted with thefe ftudyes, Ict any one examine how few of them underftand Latin or . Greek ; nay, the very Mafters that teach them do not allwayes underftand thofe tongues and have no occafion for it,as I think I hinted before ; and if Latin and Greek was neceffary to a ftudy of Aftronomy, Navigation, and, in generall, feverall other branches of the Mathema- ticks, what would become of Navigation in generall ; for where is there a fea-faring man in twenty that under- ftands Latin, and yet fome of them the compleateft artifts in the world.’ “*Well; but, coufin,’ faid I, ‘ you. intimated, I think, that there were two reafons why you thought the cuftome of the Univerfities in confining their fchollars, to read all the fyftems in the Latin tongue was not the; beft method: pray, what was the other reafon?’ “Truly, Sir, my other reafon was becaufe it throws the Englifh tongue fo entirely out of ufe among them, excluding it from all the Colleges, and out of every courfe of their teachings, that many gentlemen come from the Univerfity excellently well fkill’d in the {ciences, Mafters, nay, criticks, in the Oriental] languages and in moft parts of ufefull learning, and can hardly fpell their mother tongue, at leaft 'tis frequent that, tho’ all their performances are at laft to iffue in the original mother Englifh, yet being loft out of all their fchool readings | The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. readings and out of all the leétures of their tutors and all their own performances, they have no ftile, no di€tion, no beauty or cadence of expreffion, but are. fo dull, fo awkward and fo heavy in delivring themfelves, that ‘twould be a fhame to hear one of them declaim in Englifh, who, perhaps, would gain an univerfall applaufe if it were perform’d in the Latin tongue.’ “*This is ftill o’ my fide, coufin,’ faid I, ‘and 'tis a very great fatisfaction to me to hear it; for by your account of the thing ’tis very poffible for me, tho’ not a boy, and tho’ I have no Greek or Latin, to be mafter ; of fome parts of learning, at leaft; if I.can. not be a fchollar I need not be a fool.’ “* Sir, fayes my nephew, ‘I am of opinion that the world has a very wrong notion of what they call a fchollar. I think 'tis a miftake that a man can not be call’d a fchollar, unlefs he be mafter of all claffick learning. There's Mr...... , a gentleman who you know very well, and we all think him an extra-. ordinary perfon.’ “*Why,’ faid I, ‘is not Mr......a fchollar? I wifh I were as good a fchollar as he, I would defire no better a ftock of learning. Why, I have heard him dif- courfe with you, nephew, I thought it was in Latin.’ “* No, Sir, fayes he, ‘he does not fpeak Latin at all. He was taught Latin, and underftands it Eollecably, well to read it, but not enough to difcourfe in it, “What was it then you talkt?’ faid I. “It was Italian, Sir,’ faid he. “* Well then,’ faid I, ‘he underftands fome tongues. Will nothing make a man a fchollar but Latin and Greek ?’ 199 “*Some tongues, Sir,’ faid my nephew, ‘ why, he / 109. underftands allmoft every thing but Latin and Greek, and yet we will not, we muft not, allow him to be a {chollar.’ “ ‘Every 200 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. “* Every. thing,’ fayed I, ‘ pray, what do you call every thing? It feems they won't allow him to under- ftand any thing.’ “*Why, Sir,’ return’d he, ‘I think I may fay every thing that’s needfull to be known and that makes a man fit for the converfation of the beft men, for example. “*1. He fpeaks French as fluent as the Englifh. He fpeaks Spanifh and Italian and fomething of the Sclavonian, for he has converf't very much among the Poles and Mufcovites, and he has alfo fome thing of- the Portuguefe: and yet he is NO SCHOLLAR. “© 2. He is as good a proficient in Experimental Phylofophy as moft private gentlemen and has a nice colleccion of rarities: yet he is NO SCHOLLAR. “3. He is a mafter in Geography, has the fituacion of the world at his fingers’ ends. You can not name any country in the known part of Europe but he can giv you extempore an account of its fituacion, latitude, rivers, chief towns, its commerce, and, nay, and fome thing of its hiftory and of its politicall intrefts : yet he is NO SCHOLLAR. “4, He is as well fkill’d in all aftronomicall know- lege, the motions and revolutions of the heavenly bodies as moft mafters in that fcience, that ever I have met with, and I have heard feverall men of great’ judgement in thofe things fay the fame of him: but he is NO SCHOLLAR. “‘e. He is a mafter of Hiftory, and, indeed, I may fay he is an univerfall hiftorian, efpecially of all the hiftorys that are written or tranflated into the Englifh tongue, and thofe that are not, he has read them in French or Italian: but he is NO SCHOLLAR. “«6, For his own country he is a walking map ; he has travell’d thro’ the whole ifland, and thro’ moft parts of it feverall times over; he has made fome . the The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. 201 } the moft criticall remarks of feverall parts of it, fo that he could not be charg’d, when he went abroad, to have known much of other countryes and nothing of his own as is the juft fcandal of moft Englith travellers: and yet this man forfooth is NO SCHOLLAR.’ “*This is extraordinary. Pray then,’ faid I, ‘ what / 10754. do you calla fchollar ?’ , “© Truly, Sir, faid my kinfman, ‘1 am afham’d almoft to tell you what they call fchollars. A man may be a fchollar in their fence and be good for nothing, be a meer pedant, a Greek and Latin monger. I think our meer {chollars are a kind of mechanicks in the fchools, for they deal in words and fyllables as haberdafhers dealin fmall ware. They trade' in mcafure, quantityes, daétyls, and fpondzs, as inftrument-makers do in quadrants, rules, {quares, and compaffes ; etymologves, and derivations, prepofitions and terminations, points, commas, colons and femicolons, etc., are the product: of their brain, juft as gods and devils are made in Italy by every carver and painter; and they fix them in their proper ftations in perfpectiv, juft as they do in nitches and glafs windowes.’ “You make ftrange fellows of them, indeed,’ faid I. “*T make nothing of them,’ faid my nephew, ‘but what they are. They are meer pxdagogues, they feem to be form’d in a fchool on purpofe to dye in a fchool.’ “They are good for linguifts, faid I, ‘are they not ?.. or, I fuppofe, for interpreters and tranflators ?’ i “*No, indeed, Sir, fayes he, ‘they are fcarfe good for interpreters ; and as for tranflators, they are not fit by any means, for there is not one in twenty of them underftands Englifh, they have been fo fwallow’d up in Latin and Greek, Hebrew? and Syriac and Arabick, and value themfelves fo much upon their exotick phrafes, crabed lT. ' Heb. 202 ° SF: 108, The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN, crabed expreffions, and harfh unfSnorous words, that they wholly difregard the Englifh, in which they ought Principally to ftudy to be plain and intelligible.’ “*Ts it poffible, coufin,’ faid I, ‘ they fhould under- ftand all languages and not their own ?' “*T do not fay, Sir, faid he, ‘that, that they don't underftand it ; but they have no ftile, no fluency, no, polite language in their expreffion ; nay, they fcarfe. fpell it right. You would be afham’d to fee the Englith fome of them write ; nay, fome of them are fo fencible of it that they are afham’d of it themfelves, and there- fore hardly write at all.’ “What's the meaning of all this, coufin?’ faid I, ‘what is to be, done, then ?—May a man be a fchollar and a fool too? That’s ftrange. Who would be a fchollar then? Why, my father was in the right then to make a blocked of me the eafyeft way, if it would have been fo after hard ftudy ; this way’s the beft a great deal.’ ! ~ “*Sir? anfwerd my kinfman with a fmile and abundance of good humour in his face, ‘ you are too hard upon your felf. No queftion but learning is a beauty and an ornament to the very foul; but the fineft jewell ill fet can not fhine. Thefe men miftake the end and defign of learning. I think they let their very fouls ruft under the weight of thofe particular materialls which are given to polifh it. Learning is an ornament to a gentleman ; but like Saul’s armour upon little David, ‘tis a mecr cafe of iron to a cynic, morofe, four temper ; it makes ‘em ftalk about and go ftiff as if they were fit for nothing but to be fcrew’d up into Greek and Latin like a fkeleton in a prefs, to {care folks and be frightful.’ “ «Well, coufin,’ faid I, ‘but how muft we underftand the extream? What is learning then? and who would be a fchollar to be fo much as in danger of this madnefs?” “Sir, The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. “<¢Sir, faid he, merrily, ‘we muft diftinguifth between a man of polite learning and a meer fchollar: the firft is a gentleman and what a gentleman fhould be; the laft is a meer book-cafe, a bundle of letters, a head ftufft with the jargon of languages, a man that under- ftands every body but is underftood by no body, a creature buryed aliv in heaps of antients and moderns, full of tongues but no language, all fence but no wit, in a word, all learning and no manners.’ “«But what then fhould I be, coufin,’ faid I; ‘for I would fain be fome thing that I am not.’ “ He anfwer'd, ‘I fee nothing you want, Sir, but a little reading.’ “*T differ from you there, coufin,’ faid I, ‘I doubt you are miftaken ; ’tis a'great deal I want. I would be glad to read a little.’ “Perhaps, Sir, faid he, ‘’tis not fo much as you imagine. 1 diftinguifh, as I faid, between a learned man and a man of learning, as I diftinguifh between a fchollar and a gentleman, You have a polite educacion as a gentleman allready.’ “An ignorant education, coufin, faid I, ‘do you call that polite ?’ “No, Sir, faid he, ‘all that you call ignorance would vanifh prefently with a little application to books,’ “*What can I do,’ faid I, ‘and what will reading do for me that can read nothing but Englifh.’ “© Reading, Sir, in Englith,’ faid he, ‘may do all for you that you want, You may ftill be a man of reading, and that is in a large part of the fence of that word, a man of learning ; nay, it is the more gentlemanly part : you may in a word be a gentleman of learning. “* Your remark I believ is very juft, nephew,’ faid I, ‘about a gentleman and a meer fchollar; but it puts a new thought into my head. Is it poffible for me to furnifh my felf with all that treafure of knowlege as you 203 fi 09 204 f. 108. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. you fay Mr...... is mafter of, who they fay is no fchollar : tho’ I kno’ nothing of Greek and: Latin ? for I am no fchollar in the groffeft fence of that faying’ “Yes, Sir,’ faid my nephew, ‘I make no doubt of it: “*You begin to put new life into me, coufin,’ faid I, ‘why, I defire to be no better a fchollar than Mr...... All the gentry in the country admire him, the moft learn’d and beft educated among them! Even the . clergy-men fay he is a moft accomplifh’'d complete gentleman. I wifh I was but half fuch a fchollar.’ “* Sir, faid my nephew, ‘he had it not by educa- tion?’ ““What do you mean by that,’ faid I, ‘not by education ?’ “No, Sir, faid he, ‘he knew nothing, comparativly {peaking ; he was bred at home being a gentleman ; they thought it a difhonour to fend him to tekoal, jut as you are pleaf’d to fay of yourfelf.’ “* But how did he get it all then?’ faid I. “* Sir,’ faid my nephew, ‘he never began to look into books till he was 20 year old at leaft, and then, the ftory is too long to tell you, he fell upon a volun- tary ftudy, and with fome very few helps from a chaplain of his father’s, who was a man of learning and had travell'd abroad, I fay, by his affiftance and his own application, he became what now we fee he is: and you may without doubt do the fame and more if you pleafe.’ “JT was furprif’d at his difcourfe. A fecret joy fpread over my whole foul. I was quite another man than I was before, and I refolv’d from that moment: that if it was in nature, if I had any morall powers, any capafcities, I would put them to the uttmoft ftretch ; that I would learn every thing that was to be taught and get every thing that was to be got, that I might no more pafs for a blockhead in ei an The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. and look fo much like a fool, as I thought I did. and as I concluded others muft needs think of me too. “The next morning after this, I took my nephew afide again, and ask’t him if he thought a man might be found out that was capable of putting me into a 205 method for thofe things we talkt of the night before, — and that would undertake it. “He told me he did not doubt but he might hear of fuch a man either at London or at the Univerfity, tho’ he did not yet kno’ of any; but he feem’d to doubt my part as to the applicacion.’ 7 “Don't doubt that, coufin, faid I, ‘for I'll lock my felf up for feaven year for it, if that be needfull. / 11. My time is of no value to me till I know how to employ it better than I do now, and I am fure I can’t employ it better now, than to learn how to employ it better here after. Befides, I fhall hang my (elf or be wifhing to do it every day to liv in this ftate of primitiv nature, when it is evedent I may, by a little applicacion, bring my felf out of it.’ “Thus, Sir,” faid my friend, “I have given you an account of the firft act of this comedye. I doubt I have wearyed you with the length of it.” I was moft agreeably furprif’d with this little hiftory, and afterwards when I, had fome converfation with the young gentleman, his nephew, upon the fame fubject, he told me a great many particulars more of their difcourfe, which his own modefty would not fufter him to mencion and which are too many and too long to be repeated here. Upon the whole it was happily propof’d by his ' nephew ; for feeing his uncle, my friend, fo much in earneft and that, as he faid, the thing it felf was fo much to his reall advantage in the profpeét of it, he was refolv'd he would not be wanting in promoting fo good a defign; fo he went up to London and after- wards 206 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. wards to Cambrige, where he found out a grave gentleman eminent for learning and one of a very good character for his moralls, and. who was an excellent tutor, but out of employment and not in very good circumftances.' This man he brought home to his uncle, who, firft difcourfing with him upon the defign of his taking him and finding he approved of it and thought it pra¢ti- cable, foon agreed with him; and he was firft brought to the houfe on the pretence of fetting his books in order, and fo was call’d his library keeper. Tho’ the gentleman, my friend, had no great quantity of books’ before, fufficient to be call’d a library, yet by the direccion of his new tutor he foon furnifh’d himfelf with books proper for his ftudy, and had in lefs than two year a very good colleccion, not chofen after the manner of the perfon mencion’d before, but carefully and fkilfully chofen as his reading and his proficiency in ftudy call’d for them. He allow’d this library keeper very handfomely at his begining; but as he found him not onely a capable man for his buffinefs, but a moft agreeable perfon in his converfation and a worthy good man many other wayes, he added to his allowance and to his conveniences alfo; for he took him and his wife (he had no children) into his family, allow’d him £100 per annum falary and a table furnifh’d from his own kitchin ; and afterwards having built a feperate appart- ment for his books the library keeper had a very hand- fome appartment for himfelf, wife, and a maid fervant, and the gentleman’s family chaplin eat with them. Here he fhut himfelf up four houres every day: that was his {tated time, and to which he confin’d him- felf ; befides diverting himfelf at fpare times with read- ing hiftory and fuch other matters as beft ae his ancy 1 Abbreviated. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. fancy and as were recomended to him by his library keeper. This courfe he held four year and a half, during which time he ftudyed fo hard and with fuch applica- | cion, and his teacher mannag’d his inftruccions with fuch fuccefs, that in fhort he might be faid to mafter the fciences. Herun thro’ a whole courfe of Phylofophy, he perfectly compaffd the ftudy of Geography, the ufe of the maps and globes; he read all: that Sir Ifaac Newton, Mr. Whifton, Mr. Halley had faid in Englith upon the niceft fubjeéts in Aftronomy and the fecrets of Nature; he was extremely delighted with Sir Ifaac’s opticks and all his nice experiments, feparacion of colours, and other writings; for what he could not come at in Englith, his laborious teacher tranflated for him in leffons and abridg’d lectures, fo that in a word in thofe 4 yeares and half he was a mathematician, a geographer, an aftronomer, a philofopher, and, in a word, a compleat fchollar: and all this without the leaft help from the Greek or the Latin. However not content with all this, the laft half year of his ftudyes his diligent tutor form’d a compendious method to 207 teach him Latin, and made fuch a progrefs in it, that f 11. the gentleman, my friend, began to underftand it toller- ably well, could read and underftand any Latin author pretty well, and by talking it conftantly with his tutor, as it were by rote, had learn'd it as a -fpeech as well as learnt the rudiments and rules of grammar. But at the end of this fuccefsful progrefs, his pain- full library keeper dropt off and dyed, to his inexpref- fible affliccion and lofs. He was fo kind to the memory of his tutor, who he allways call’d father, that he continued his wife and her maid in his family, as fhe was before, allow’d her a table as in her hufband’s time, and £20 a year for cloths and her maid’s wages, expences, etc., till after about eight year 208 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. year more the widdow delivr'd him of that bencficence and dyed too. This {mall hiftory I have mencion’d here and been the more particular in, that all our gentlemen who are, as many pretend to be, fencible of the defects of their educacion and of the unhappynefs of their paternal ignorance may fee, if they are fincere in their concern about it, a fair way to recover the defficiency of their educacion, and may foon let the world fee thata gentleman may be a fchollar without Greek or Latin. Nor is it abfolutely neceffary that every gentleman, however defirous he may be of recovering him felf in the improvement of his knowlege, fhould purfue it with fo much application and in fuch a laborious manner as my friend did. He was, indeed, an extraordinary example, and is fo recommended ; but then he had an infatiable thirft after the thing call’d learning, and was refolute in the purfuit of it, unwearyed in his ftudy and never fatisfyed with knowing, and exceeding delighted alfo in the fuccefs. I muft add here that it would be a happy encour- aging ftep towards the improving young gentlemen in fcience and in the ftudy of all the liberall’ arts, as they are juftly call’d, if they were taught in Englifh and if all the learned labours of the mafters of the age were made to {peak Englith, to be levell’d to the capatcities of the more unlearn’d part of man-kind, who would be encourag’d by that means to look into thofe happy dif- coveryes in Nature, which have' been the ftudy and labour of fo many ages. I have often heard gentlemen complain that th Univerfities feem to lock up the knowlege of Nature, as the Papifts the cup in the Eucharift, from the ufe of the vulgar, as if they were afraid the unlearned part of the world fhould grow wifer, and thofe that ee ittle .MS. has. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. little for want of inftruccion fhould be farther inform'd by the help of reading. Knowlege can never be too diffufiv, nor too many men drink at her ftreams. The French are particularly to be applauded for this ; they have made allmoft all the learned labours of the Antients their own by tranflateing them into their own language and teaching all the phylofophy and wifdome of both the firft and laft ages in their own tongue to the infinite advantage as well as pleafure and fatisfaccion of the people who defire knowlege. The learned languages, as they are properly call'd, are no other way valuable to us in the article of know- lege than as they give us the reading of the antient hiftorys and of the wifdom and the phylofophy of the Antients, which is written in thofe languages, as Plu- tarch, Herodotus, Xenophon, Homer, and others, in the Greek ; and of Ovid, Horace, Virgil, Saluft, Livy, and abundance of other authors of the Antients; and, in a word, the labours of all the primitiv fathers, doétors of the Church, and other authors cither religious or phylofophick, who have written in thofe languages. Had the learning of the Romans and Grecians been taken from other antient authors, as ours is from them, and been to be ftudyed in other languages, how few learned writers fhould we have had efpecially among | the Romans. All the authors we learn from, all the poets, phylofophers, phyfitians, and hiftorians, wrot in their mother tongue and in the very language they learnt to fpeak and fpell in, whereas we are fain to learn the language of the author firft and then take in his fence and underftanding. Now if thofe writeings which are the labours of the learncd were harided down to us in our own tongue, if the phylofophy, the geography, the aftronomy of. as well the antient as the modern writers were made 0 familiar 209 210 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. familiar to us, and all liberall arts and fciences taught in our mother tongue; it muft be granted men might be made fchollars at a much eafier expence as well of labour as of money than now, and men might be term’d truly learned and yet kno’ nothing of the Greek or the Latin. It is faid, indeed, that a man that will be a fchollar ought to be able to examine the tranflacions of all books with the originalls, to fee that he is not impofed vpon by the tranflator ; that no man of fence cares to read a tranflation that can read the originall ; and in fome things it may be very well to be able to do fo. But is it worth any gentleman's while, as Oldham fayes, to go feaven year to the Grammar Bridewell (the fchool) and there beat Greek. and Latin, as whores _ beat hemp ? Is it worth all this labour to make a man fur, able to read and compare the originals, when he can read and may depend upon the juftice of the tranflation? If a man may be a good Chriftian, tho’ he can not compare all the tranflations of Scripture which are the foundation of his Chriftian knowlege, with the originals, and trye all the various readings with the text; that is, in a word, with out being able to read the polyglot Bible: why may he not be allow’d to be a fchollar who has gone thro’ all the fciences, paff't a courfe of naturall and experimentall phylofophy, and read over all the works of the beft mafters in thofe ftudyes, tho’ he has not read them in the originals but in the tranflation onely. It is faid of the learned Mr. Cambden that, in order to quallifye himfelf for his great Itinerat or Survey of England, he found himfelf under an neceffity to ftudy and makc himfelf mafter of the old Welch or Britifh tongue and alfo of the Saxon, and to be able to read both the Britifh and Saxon character. The reafon was plain : there was no tranflation of all the Britifh proper names The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. names of perfons, places, and familics, no authors who had rendred thofe words into Englifh or into Latin ; for he wrote his Brittannia in Latin. Had there been any tranflation of thofe things into Latin or Englifh, Mr. Cambden would never have beftowed the fruitlefs labour to learn a language which after his book was finifhed he knew would be of no ufe to him; and yet Mr. Cambden was no lefs a fchollar and a learned man before than he was afterward. We have, no queftion, a great many learned men among us, and whofe reputacion for learning fuffers no diminution, altho’ they can not read the Chaldce para- phrafe' of the Bible, or the Arabic or Syriac coppies of it, or tho’ they can not read the Mufcovite, which is the Sclavonian language, or the Chinefe, which is worfe to find out than all the reft. Suppofe a gentleman whofe character as fuch is un- difputed, who thinks it worth his while to ftudy naturall phylofophy, to dip into the abyffe of wifdom and‘ artfull knowlege call’d aftronomy, or any other of thofe. happy ftudyes which, being mafter'd, fo juftly denomi- nate a man a fchollar or a man of a lib’rall educacion ; I fay, why muft this gentleman take the drudgery upon him of learning that language meerly to quallify him- felf for the ftudy, when he knows that the books which are needfull for underftanding that fcience are allready made Lnglifh, and that he may as well learn every branch of feience in Englifh as in Latin. Upon the whole, the ftudy of {cience is the original of learning ; the word imports it. , Tis the fearch after’ knowlege. Latin and Greck are indeed great helps to make the work eafie, all the antient learning being found in thofe languages, which are therefor call’d the learned languages. But doubtlefs, Latin and Greek oncly propagate* themfelves ' MS. purapha/fe. 2 MS. propogute. 211 -212 Je 132. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. themfelves in it, feeing by the help of univerfall tranf. lation it is poffible a diligent man may, tho’ with fome difficulty, furnith himfelf with all neceffary RnoWlege without them. The knowlege of things, not words, make a fchollar. If you are to be no phylofopher, unlefs you can read the phylofophy of the Ancients, and read it too in the languages they were written in, then tranflation is out of doores, is all labour loft, and learning.and phylofophy is all lockt up in Latin and Greek, as money in an iron cheft, which no man can come at without the key. My friend who ftudyed thus hard for four year and a half, that according to Solomon he might be truly faid to feek for Knowlege as for filver and to fearch for her as for hid treafure, laugh’d at all this—‘ Why am I no fchollar ?” fayes he, “fecing I have hunted out Learning in all her deepeft and darkeft receffes, and have found her. I have made all the Greek and Latin that is lextant in the world fubfervient to my inquiry, and, by; the help of my never failing library kéeper, have had them tranflated and abridg'd for me, and fo have made them my own, and now,” fayes he, “lama fchollar in the ftricteft fence.” And fo without all doubt he was. It is true, this gentleman follow'd the enquiry after Wifdom with an unufuall applicacion ; he purfued her with an unwearyed dilligence, and he conquer’d the difficulty by the extreameft labour both of him felf and his faithfull inftruétor. He had alfo a treafure in that honeft and dilligent affiftant. He was a fund of all kind of learning; he was to him adiétionary for the Latin, a lexicon for the Greek, an oracle in all difficultyes, and an interpreter on all languages; and as he often faid, he was a fountain of knowlege to him, for the ftreams were all his own ; and as he had him entirely to himfelf, fo he thought he could not buy him too dear, a e The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. The pains that worthy inftru€tor took with him and for him ; the dilligence he uf’d, to find out proper and fuitable fubjects to pleafe, as well as inftruct him, that he might make his ftudy a delight to him; his labour in tranflating and abridging things which were not to be found in the English ; in-a word, the fincerity and fuccefs of his endeavour were fuch, and the gentleman was fo fencible of it, that he lov'd him as a father and call’d him fo, as long as. he liv'd, and thought he could never do enough for him; and that made him, as I have faid, take him and his wife and maid fervant into his family, and when he built his library, build him an appartment and furnifh it and allow him a feperate table with the chaplain onely as his gueft, all which was over and above his firft agreement ; for at firft he onely allow'd him an hundred pounds a year, and his lodging was in a farmer’s houfe hard by. I muft take notice here that I do not by this ex- ample intimate a contempt of the learned languages or difcourage any gentleman from fending their fons” to the fchools fo early that they may make themfelves mafters of thofe languages in the feafon of them ; and it is not. to be denycd but that ’tis greatly to their advantage to be able to read the antient as well as modern labours of the greateft men in the languages in which they were written. But the example is brought that thofe gentlemen who have had the mifsfortune of being neglcéted when they were young, and, whether by the pride of being thought above it, or by the indolence of their inftruct- ors, or by what ever accident, have loft the oppor- tunity of that help to erudition, may yet fee that they are not entircly loft to the world and to them felves by the lofs, but that with applicacion and taking proper methods they may retreiv the great diffadvan- tage they are under, and may ftill mafter the moft ufefull 213 214 le 113. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN, ufefull parts of knowleg and be yet good {chollars to all the ends and purpofes of learning, notwithftanding' the lofs they have fuftain’d. oe ‘ It is evedent by this example that all the fciences may be taught in the Englith tongue; all phylofophy. whether of the Antients or Moderns may be, nay, much of it allready is, written in Englifh; and many Englifh gentlemen, men of learning and of. the greateft capafcityes, who have firft publifh’d their labours in Latin have thought fitt to tranflate them into Englith them felves and publifh them again, for the making knowlege the more extenfiv and doing a generall good to the world. Thus we fee Mr. Cambden’s Britannia, Mr. Burnet’s Theory of the Harth, and fome other valuable things written firft in Latin and made Englifh by their authors being fencible that there might be men of learning fufficient for the reading and under- ftanding thofe very learned difcourfes and accounts of things, which yet might not be mafters of the Latin fo as to be able to read them in the originall with fluency and eafe, This is a teftimony to the world that a man may be phylofopher enough to underftand, and judge of, the whole theory of the earth, which I might in that par- ticular refpeét call the theory of Nature, and yet not be accquainted either with the Latin or the Greek; and this is the reafon of my quoting Mr. Burnet. If he had not been affur’d of this, and that his work would be profitably underftood by many judicious readers who could not underftand it or perhaps not read it in the Latin tongue, he would not have taken the pains to have written it over again in Englifh, and he gives a very good account of the reafon of it in his intro- duccion to that elaborate work. In his dedication to the late King William he — this 2 Abbreviated. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. this extraordinary expression, which is directly to my prefent purpofe and fully confirms my notion, that men may be fchollars without Latin, and phylofophers without Greek. His words are as follows; having first briefly defcrib'd the fubjeét he had written upon, he adds: , “Thefe' things, Sir, I propofe and prefume to prove in the following treatife, which I willingly fubmit to Your Majefty’s judgment and cenfur, being very well fatisfied that if I had fought a patron in all the lift of kings, your contemporaries, or in the roll of your nobles of either order, I could not have found a more competent judge in a fpeculation of this nature. Your Majefty’s fagacity and happy genius for Natural Hif- tory, for obfervations and remarks upon the Earth, the Heavens, and the Sea, is a better preparation for inquiries of this kind then all the dead learning of the fchools.” If then a naturall fagacity and a happy genius quallifyes a man for obfervacions and remarks upon the hiftorys of Nature and the fyftems of the Heavens and the Earth, then thefe things may be enquir'd into without the helps of languages and the ufe of tongues, and a man by the helps of Nature may be a compleat mafter of Naturall Vhylofophy, of Natural! Hiftory, and in a word may be really a phylofopher without the helps of the learned languages, and may be truly call'd - a fchollar without Latin or Greek. In his introduccion, as above, he has alfo this farther expreffion, which agrees fo exactly with the thing I am reafoning upon, that I could not omit the quotation. Like him I am far from depreciating the labour of the fchools or running down the value of learning; but neither muft we be fuch bigots to the languages to wrap ? This extract, ending with learning of the /chools, is ina different handwriting. 215 216 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. wrap up all learning in their fwadling cloths and de-. termine the world to the bondage of their tyranny or to irretrievable ignorance. 'Tis the hight' of pedantry to confine learning to a ru/e and /calc, out of the fquare of which nothing is to be known, or to infift that nothing that is known by meer nature fhould be acknowleg’d’ valuable in the world. Mr. Burnet is very particular . to this purpofe. Thus this work being chiefly philofo- phical, reafon is to be our firft guide. “Neither* does it fo much require book-lcarning and {cholar-fhip as good naturall fence to diftinguifh true and falf and to difcern what is well proved and what is not. It often happens that fcholaftick education like a trade docs fo fix a man in a particular way, that he is not fit to judge of any thing that lyes out of that way, and fo his larning becomes a clog to his natural parts, and makes him more undocile and more uncap- able of improvments and new thoughts then thofe that have only the talents of nature; as mafters of excrcife had rather take a fcholar that never learn’d before, than one that hath had a bad mafter, fo generaly one would rather choofe a reader without art, than one ill inftructed with learning but opinionative and without judgment. Not that it is neceffary they fhould want cither. Learn- ing, well placed, ftrengthens all the powers of the mind. To conclude, juft reafoning and a generous love c/ truth, whether with or without erudition, is that which maks us moft competent judges of truth and makes it eafie and plain to us.” From this truth and from fo great a man fome juft inferences naturally arife in the cafe before me; (1) that as a meer knowlege of the tongues is not the fum or fubftance of all learning, fo without leffening the value of that knowlege at all I am to add that the mind may be receptiv of much knowlege and be capable of true ’aMS. highth. 2 This quotation, too, is not written by Defoe. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. true learning, and even larger degrees of it, as well in Natural Phylofophy as in many other branches of Science, without what Mr. Burnet very juftly calls the dead learning of the fchools. 2. That our gentry are in the wrong, who place their ignorance in gencrall to the account of their fathers in neglecting their education and not fending them to fchool ; Ict the reafons of that neglect be what they will for that: in fpite of all that neglect and omiffions they have it in thcir power to inftruct themfelves in- all manner of fcience and humane knowlege, the meer fimple knowlege of the tongues excepted. All the Phylofophy whcther of the Antients or of the Moderns fpeaks Englifh to them; all the Mathe- maticks are taught in LEnglifh; all the Geography, Geometric, and the navigating arts fpeak to them in 'Englifh ; many of the beft fyftems of Natural Phylo- fophy are publifh’d in our mother tongue. What, excufe is the not being able to read fome men’s works againft their reading others which are as good? What occafion have they for the originals when they have unexcep- cionable tranflations? Let them but go thro’ a courfe of Philofophy, a courfe of Aftronomy, Geography, Hiftory, etc, as far as the Englifh tongue will carry . them; and let us fee whether their knowlege of Phylofophy and all the. other fciences will not deno- minate them fchollars, or whether any man after that will venture to call them men without learning, ignorant, and untaught. I conclude therefore that, notwith{tand- ing’ all the unhappy nocions of the gentry and ladyes in England that their fons must not be fent to fchool, yet the eldeft fons in England, who are generally the 217 fufferers in this cafe, have no room to complain that / 1134 they are ignorant and untaught, becaufe, if they are fo, it muft be their own faults and none other! It 1 Abbreviated. 218 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN, It may be true that their fathers and mothers deny'd them the dead Jearning of the tongues and that they were not taught as they fhould and ought to have been when they were boys, and they have no knowlege of Latin or Greek ; but Science and Phylofophy are the ftudyes of men, not of boys, neither are they any part of the learning of the grammar fchooles. There's no time left for thofe things, nor is the lofs of the learned languages any juft obftruccion to the accquirements of thefe kinds. The knowlege of Philofophy may be obtain’d in a due method without them. I once’ was accquainted with a tutor of unqueftion’d reputacion for learning and who was himfelf a critick in the learned Janguages and even in all the oriental tongues, as the Syriac, Chaldee, Arabic, Hebrew; and. none could object that he did it for want of fkill, but being fencible of the great defficiency I have been fpeaking of, and how our gentlemen were dropt, as it were, out of the converfation of the learned world, he fet up what he call’d an Englifh Accademy. He firft publifhed his juft complaint againft the fchool learning and their locking up, as I have call'd it, all fcience in the Greek and Latin, compelling all their pupils to learn the fciences in thofe languages or not at all, and to perform all their public exercifes in Latin or Greek ; by which means many young gentlemen, even the greateft and beft proficients in learning, as they underftand the word, came finifh’d, as. they call’d it, out of their hands, and yet had no taft of the Englifh tongue, could neither exprefs themfelves fluently upon any fubject or write elegantly in their mother tonguc. To reétifye this great miftake of the fchools, he fet up his little Accademy, whercin he taught Phyficks, that is to fay, Natural Phylofophy, with a fyftem of Aftronomy as a feperate fcience, tho’ not exclufiv of the generall fyftem of Nature; he taught alfo Geography and a ufe | The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. ufe of the maps and gldébes in a feperate or diftinct clafs: in a word, he taught his pupils all the parts of accademick learning, except Medicine and Surgery. | He alfo had a clafs for Hiftory, ecclefiaftic and civil. And all this he taught in Englifh. He read his lectures upon every fcience in Englifh, and gave his pupils draughts of the works of Khiel and Newton and others, tranflated ; alfo he requir’d all the exercifes and per- formances of the gentlemen, his pupils, to be made in Englith. i He had a clafs for cloquence, and his pupils declaim’d weekly in the Englifh tongue, made orations, and wrot epiftles twice every week upon fuch fubjects as he prefcrib’d to them or upon fuch as they themfelves hofe to write upon. Sometimes they were ambaffa- dors and agents abroad at forreign Courts, and wrote accounts of their negotiacions and recepcion in forreign | Courts direéted to the Secretary of State and fome imes to the Soveraign himfelf. Some times they were Minifters of State, Secretaries and Commiffioners at home, and wrote orders and inftruccions to the minifters abroad, as by order of the King in Council and the like. Thus he taught his pupils to write a mafculine and manly ftile, to write - the moft polite Englith, and at the fame time to kno’ how to fuit their manner as well to the fubjeét they were to write upon as to the perfons or degrees of perfons they were to write to; and all cqually free and 219 plain, without —— flourifhes and ridiculous flights of / 14. jingling bomba ile, or dull meaneffes o expretion below INE wimity-of the-fubjedt-or-the-character of the writer. ~“In-a-word=-his~prpts—eanreout of his hands finifh’d orators, fitted to fpeak in the higheft prefence, to the greateft affemlics,’ and even in Parliament,’ Courts of Juftice, or any where; and feverall of them come 1 Le, offemblies. “ P. | 220 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. came afterward to {peak in all thofe places and capaf- cityes with great applaufe. It is my opinion that we greatly want fuch an accademy at this time for the recovery of our younger gentry from that unhappy ignorance which the negli- gence of their opinionated anceftors and inftructors left them in, and which is occafion’d by the groffeft an fimpleft of all foolifh nocions, namely, that. going to fchool was inconfiftent with thcir honour, and that learning was necdlefs to a gentleman ; that is, in fhort; that a man of fortune was abov being a man of fence, that it was an indignity for the child of a gentleman, the heir of the family, to be fubjeét to the mechanifme o letters and the difcipline of teaching. I wonder indeed they would vouchfafe to let him be learnt to fpeak or to kno’ his letters, to learn his A B C, and to read Englith ; which indeed fome of them can hardly be faid to do. The way of learning I am recommending would certainly retricv all this lofs and bring a gentleman to be a man of fence, in fpite of all the D.... has done to make him a fool, will accomplifh him in all the beauties of learning and oratory and make him be acknowleg’d for a man of learning even among the beft and wifeft of men, and that without the learned languages, feeing they can not be had. How many noble artifts have we in the greateft and beft branches of the Mathematicks, (viz.) in Aftronomy, in Geometry, in Arethmitick as well vulgar as decimal, in Algebra, in the doétrines of the Spheres, the ufe of the globes, the art of navigation, and in feverall other things, who kno’ very little or nothing of the learned tongues. Again how many gentlemen and travellers, mer- chants, and even feamen, that is to fay, navigators or . commanders of fhips, are there at this time to be found who are men of generall knowlege, fpeak and write feverall The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. 221 feverall languages, as I may fay, to perfeccion, and yet kno’ ‘nothing of the Latin or Greek: are none of thefe to be call’d fchollars ? I had occafion to be in the company of two merchants, even while I was writing this tract; (1) the one had liv'd 20 yeares in the northern and north caft parts of Europe in the Courts of Ruffia and Poland, and he {poke the Ruffian, the Sclavonian, and Polifh tongues as now in ufe in Mufcovy, Poland, Tartary, and Hungary. Alfo he fpoke the High Dutch, and that in the feverall dialects of Pruffia, Danemark, and Sweden, and with all he fpoke French as the common fpeech at Court all over Europe, and, laftly. he fpoke Englith as his mother tongue: and yet this gentleman had no Greek or Latin. 2. The other was what we call a Turkey merchant, and had liv’d at Aleppo, at Conftantinople, and at Grand Cairo. This gentleman, for fuch he was by blood, tho’ by his profeffion a merchant, he fpoke the Arabic in all its feverall dialects as fpoken by the Turks at all thofe places ; for their language is certainly a generall Syriak and Arabic jargon, neither of them feperatcly. He {poke alfo Italian, French, Low Dutch and Englifh, but neither Latin or Greek, except fuch Greek as the people call’d Grecks now fpeak in the Morea and at Zant, where he had alfo Jiv’d fome time, but which, as he faid, did not deferv to be call’d by the name of Greek. Now, neither of thefe men in the language of our - times were to be call'd fchollars or men of learning, and yet they had feperately, and much more together, / 15. fuch a fund of knowlege of hiftory, of perfons and things, of the intreft of nacions, and of the languages of nations from one end of the known world to -the other, that not a man of learning in Oxford or Cam- bridge but would have been delighted in their converfa- tion, 222 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN, tion, and would have efteem’d them as living treafuryes of knowlege and learning. But fuch is the vanity of the times, fuch the humour or ufage of the day, that nothing but claffic reading is call'd litterature ; Homer and Virgil and Horace and Ovid, Livy and Saluft, Cicero and Tacitus, thefe are, and fuch as thefe are, in our modern acceptacion, are the founders of knowlege, and no man is learned with- out them; nay, unlefs he is mafter of the very letter, has them by heart, and can bring them out peice meal and in fragments in all his difcourfe. It is the vanity of this perticular kind that has brought it into a proverb to the fcandal of our nation, that paid a eran Trouth—frrH——of...barrow'd phrafés, that he is allwayes_ borrowing other men’s lariguagés and quoteing other men’s fentences in Latin, but faies none of his own; not an author writes a pamphlet, not a poet a coppy of verfes, no, not to his miftrefs, tho’ fhe knows nothing of the matter, but he draws a bill upon Horace or Virgil or fome of the old chiming train, and talks as familliarly of them as if they had been brought up together. And what is there in all their claffic learning which is not made Englifh or made French, by which, tho’ the beauty of the verfe is not, and indeed can not, be preferv'd, the fubftance of the author is convey’d to us either expreffly or complexly and really and fub- ftantially, fo that the gentlemen that can not be faid to have a taft of them in the beauty of their originall. languages can not however be faid to be wholly ignorant of them ? On the other hand ’tis evedent from what has been faid, that {cience is generally unconcern’d' in them. A gentleman may go thro’ a whole courfe of Phylofophy whether natural or experimental ; he may be a compleat : : \ mafter IMS. wa-cernd, The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. matter of the Hiftory and Geography of the whole world; he may have furvey’d the whole abyfie of learning and knowlege call'd the Mathematicks, and have fearcht into every creek and corner of it, and yet have never open’d a book or read a line among the clafficks. © He may have ftudyed Divinity, practical and polemick, div'’d into all the facred myfteries, and made himfelf mafter of all the controverfies, judg’d of all the herifyes and doctrinal errors from Ebion and Cerinthus down to Toland and Emlin, and yet not have been concern’d among any of the Roman and Grecian heathen writers, nor have been able to have look’d over the Polyglott, the Scptuagint, or the Talmud. All thefe things have been laborioufly tranflated and faithfully rendred in the Englifh tongue, and thefe tranflations and rendrings have been fo often and fo dilligently revifed and compar'd with the originals, that a dilligent and underftanding Englifh reader can not be faid to be at a lofs in underftanding them and may be properly faid to be thoro'ly mafter of the true meaning of them. It would be very hard with us all if it might not be faid that a good Chriftian may fully underftand the Scriptures, which are the greateft and beft and trueft original! of all religious knowlege in the world, without being fkilled in the originall Hebrew and Greck, in which thofe facred books were firft written. If then a man may be learned in all the wifdome and knowlege of God fo as to be a complete Chriftian, and that with- 223 out the knowlege of either Latin or Greek, I fee no f 116. reafon to fcruple faying he may be a complete phylo- fopher or a complete mathematitian, tho’ he has no fkill in the learned languages. The dilligence of the learned would hav chang’d this fcene, and have made it poffible by the helps of their labours and on the fhoulders of their learning in tranf- lating, 224 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN, lating the antient and modern writings, that men may be really fchollars and compleatly learned without knowing’ the originalls by the meer reading and ftudying thofe tranflacions, All that can be objected has been the fidelity of the tranflators and the juttice of the tranflations, and this is to be anfwer’d for feverall ways, Firft, the character of the men as well for fkill as reputacion. Second, the criticall examination they have paft't in every age. 1. The character of the men; and here without giving a lift of the tranflators as well of the prefent as of the paft ages, we may fay their fidellity as well as their fkill has this tryall, (viz.) that as they have been varyed by feverall hands, fo they have generally agreed in giving the fence of the authors they have tranflated. What difference is among them is chicfly in the lan- guage of the tranflation, the Engiifh ftile having been faid to have’ vary’d morc between this age and the laft 50 or 6O yeares than in a hundred yeares before. I need not enter into particulars here or enquire into the differing manner. of writeing: ’tis too well known by men of learning; and this may have been the reafon why moft of the Roman and Greek authours have fuffr’d the hardfhip of feverall tranflations ; and even thofe books which were tranflated very well, nay beft, in the laft ages, have been done over again in this, and that, as we fuppofe, greatly to advantage, as Virgil, Juvenal, Ovid, Czefar, Saluft Livy and feverall others among the Latins, Plutarch, Herodotus, Homer, Seneca, Jofephus and others among the Greeks. But in all thofe tranflacions, tho’ the tranflators have given us a differing taft of their wit, learning, and good language, and the lateft are efteem’d the beft, yet they all appear candid and genuine, giving the fence of the authors MMS. kowing, * have isomitted in MS. * MS. Suluf. er The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. authors fincerely according to the ordinary underftand- ing of the times, nor is there any confiderable variz ‘on among them in matters of fact, which fhew that they all purfued the defign of tranflators, honeftly and uprightly. Hence a man may be as well fkill’d in all the Roman and Grecian hiftory, to fay nothing of the reft, by read- ing thefe learned authors as they are tranflated onely, as if he had been able to have examin’d them all by the originalls and had read them critically in the Latin and the Greek. This being the cafe, then, no gentleman ought to throw up the point and grow defperate becaufe he was not fent to fchool, as he ought to have been, in his child- hood, and been made mafter of the learned languages in the time of it, feeing it is never too late ; and he may {till form his genius with the fublimeft ftudyes, and ftore himfelf with all the learning neceffary to make him a complete gentleman. If he has not travell’d in his youth, has not made the grand tour of Italy and France, he may make the tour of the world in books, he may make himfelf mafter f the geography of the Univerfe in the maps, attlaffes, nd meafurements of our mathematicians.’ He may ravell by land with the hiftorian, by fea with the navi- ators. He may go round the globe with Dampier and Rogers, and kno’ a thoufand times more in doing it than all thofe illiterate failors. He may make all diftant places near to him in his reviewing the voiages of thofe that faw them, and all the paft and remote accounts 225 prefent ‘to him by the hiftorians that have written of / 17. them. He may meafure the latitudes and diftances of places by the labours and charts of thofe that have furvey’'d them, and know the ftrength of towns and cityes by’ the defcripcions of thofe that have ftorm’d and taken them, with this difference, too, in his know- lege, MS. mathematicia, "MS. de. 226 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN, lege, and infinitely to his advantage, viz., that thofe travellers, voiagers, furveyors, foldiers, etc., kno’ but every man his fhare, and that fhar but little, accord- ing to the narrow compafs of their owne aétings. But he recievs the idea of the whole at one view. The ftudious geographer and the well read hiftorian travells with not this or that navigator or traveller, marches with not this or that generall, or making this or that campaign, but he keeps them all company ; he marches with Hannibal over the Alps into Italy, and with Czfar into Gaul and into Britain, with Belifarius into Affric, and with the Emperor Honorius into Perfia. He fights the battle of Granicus with Alexander, and of Actium with Auguftus ; he is at the overthro’ of the great Bajazette by Tamerlain, and of Tomombejus and his Mamaluks by Selymus ; he fees the battle of Lepanto, with the defeat of the Spanifh Armada with Drake ; with Adrian he views the whole Roman Empire and, in a word, the whole world ; he difcovers America with Columbus, conquers it with the great Cortez, and replunders it with Sir Francis Drake. Nothing has been famous or valuable in the world, or even the ruines of it, but he has it all in his view; and nothing done in the world but he has it in his knowlege, from the feige of Jerufalem to the fiege of Namure, and from Titus Vefpafian to the greater King William : he has it all at the tip of his tongue. Nor are thefe ftudyes profitable onely and improving, but delightfull and pleafant too to the laft degree. No romances, playes, or diverting ftoryes can be equally entertaining toa man of fence; nay, they make a man be a man of fence; they give him a taft who had none before; they teach him how to relifh fuperior knowlege as he looks up to the heavenly bodyes, whofe mocions he learns to underftand in his aftronomicall readings ; he is charm’d with the harmony of the fyftem The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. L fyftem and with feeing their direct, as well as retro- grade mocions conform exaétly with the calculacions of them by books. When he fees the ecclypfes, conjunccions, and oppofi- tions of the plannets, thofe folemn teftimonyes of the verity of Aftronomy, happen exactly in time and quantity, fituacion, and degree, I fay exaétly to the moment foretold by the artifts, he is fir’d with defires ' of fearching farther into the glorious circle of wonders, the hemifphere, the arch of which appeares continually revolving in the moft beautifull order, exaétly as defcrib'd by his Ephimeris' and as he can read it upon the celeftial globe. He has the like delightfull view of the terreftrial * globe when reading all the moft antient, as well as modern hiftories of the world ; he can turn to his maps and fee the very fpot where every great accion was done, however remote either in place or in time. Every fcene of glory is there fpread before him, from the great overthro’ of Senacharib’s army at the gates of Samaria, or from the defeat of the Ethiopian army of a thoufand thoufand to the yet more well fought battles of Leipfick, Blenheim, and Malplaquet. How agreeable a diverfion is it to him to read the public prints with his colleccion of maps and charts 227 before him, where he can fee the Britifh Squadron | blocking up the Spanifh* Plate Fleet at Porto Belo, and imediately turn his eye and fee another Britith Squadron, awing the Ruffian Navy at Revell and Narve, and they, tho’ double in number, not daring to put to fea to fuccour the Spaniards? The next moment he has turn’d over a leaf, and the like chart prefents Gibraltar to his view, and the Spaniards battering. themfelves to peices inftead of the town, and wafting their army in a fruitlefs, unfkillfull feige without fo much 1 MS. Ephinenis. > MS. terreflial. * Ss, 228 Sf u8. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. much as comeing near enough to draw a {word in the whole war. ‘There alfo he fees another Englith Squadron keeping the feas open and convoying troops and relief dayly to the place and affifting that one {mall town in overmatching all the forces of Spain, whether by land or by fea. When armies march or fleets fail he can trace them .with his eye, fee all their mocions, and fome of them even before they are begun, can tell where they are to day, and make a probable judgement where they will be to morrow. : I might enlarge experimentally upon the delightfull fearch into naturall hiftory and the rarityes difcover'd ‘daily in the vegitativ world, like wife into experimental as well as natural! phylofophy the moft agrecable as well as profitable ftudy in the world. All thefe things lye before him ; he may turn his head to them as he fees fit ; his having been abufed in his child-hood and not having been fent to fchool may prefent nothing difcouraging to him for thefe are the ftudyes of men, not of boys. The ladyes can not put him off of them by faying they are below his birth ; for thefe are improvments for gentlemen, not mechanicks, nay, even for the higheft rank of men. __ But to go farther yet, the inquiries and improv- ments of this kind are fitted for the brighteft genius, the moft clear underftanding, the moft difcerning heads ; men exalted in their curious fearch after knowlege above the ordinary fort of people look into fuch things as thefe. The king himfelf might glory in the acc- quirement, nor is it beneath the dignity of an emperor to underftand them. How weak then is it for a gentleman to fit down in a ftate of ignorance and indolence, on pretence of his having loft his firft teachings of the fchools. Thefe are ftudyes 4S. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. ftudyes not to be begun till thofe claffic inftruccions are over, and may be fet about and maftr'd, tho’ thofe teachings had been wholy omitted. I could giv many more examples of the fuccefs of thefe Poff Entries, as they might be call’d, in learning, and of the eafynefs of gentlemen in making the happy attempt upon themfelves: I fhall however, for the prefent, content my felf with what has been faid, onely adding one thing, which I think is particularly remark- able and which may be depended upon, (viz.) that fuch voluntary ftudents, fuch gentlemen, who thus being fencible of the deficicncy of their educacion have applyed themfelves by a voluntary ftudy to recover the lofs, make a fwifter progreffion by many degrees than thofe who are taught young and under the difcipline of pewdagogucs and domineering mafters, who think to | drive Greck and Latin into them with a beetle and wedges, as men clear blocks, and who, in a word, fpoil as many fchollars as they make. On the contrary, here, befides the difference of yeares, ' a man learns by choice, knows fomething of the ufe of what he learns, and more of the want of it, before he begins. He reads as hungry men cat, not with the guft, appetite onely, but with a fence of profit and under the anguifh of neceffity. He knows what it is to be without knowlege, and is cager to take it in ; and what is ftill beyond all, he will be as eager to retain it. Tis a pleafure to teach thofe that make it a pleafure to learn ; he that reads thus, teaches himfelf and learns from himfelf; an inftruétor has little more to do than to tell him what books he fhall read, and anfwer fuch enquiries as he fhall make. The gentleman that reads will neceffarily inftruct himfelf, he necds only a tutor like a Lexicon Technicum to be at his hand to refolve difficultyes, explain terms, and ftate the world to him as it comes in his way. ‘Let 229 7 230 \ The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. Let him no more affli& himfelf, then, at the loft houres of his child-hood. ‘Tis a lofs indeed and, as it f- ug. were, a fetting him back in point of time, and ’tis a lofs of the tongues. Don’t leffen it as if it were no injury to him; but ’tis no fuch injury but it may be repair'd. He may recover the greateft and moft fatal part of the lofs ; he may mafter all the polite part of learning ; he is fully quallifyed for the ftudy of Nature; he may mafter all thofe branches of f{cience in which reafon is the guide and Nature the book ; he may, in a word, be every thing which a gentleman need to be, and kno’ every thing that a gentleman need to kno’ and that is neceffary to deliver him from the fcandal of being ignorant and untaught. As to the advantages’ which the meer knowlege of. the tongues may be to fuch a gentleman fo taught, they need take up none of our time here. There are feverall things which would recomend the ufe of the languages to us; and if they were learnt in their feafon, it would be in its kind a great addition ; but to talk as if a man could have no complete knowlege without them is to carry their rate much higher than the intrinfick worth,? as a man may value his gold, at L10 an oz. when ’tis not worth above four. Nor is Latin and Greek of fo high a price as it has been in the world of litterature ; as when our American collonies were’ firft difcovred, the drugs, the furs, the fugars, nay, even the tobacco were of three times the value they are at now; but by large importacions and doubling the cultivacion and bringing other plants and drugs from other parts, and which, perhaps, ferv to the fame ufes, the rate is fallen, and they are not fo eftem’d as before. We find the Moderns begin to gain upon the Antients extremely, and fome parts of knowlege fhine brighter in Englith 1 MS, advantage. 2 worth not in MS. Sey The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. Englifh than ever they did in Latin. Our phylofophers have exploded the Ancients in many things, fuch as in the mocion of the heavenly bodyes,' the ufe of the magnet, and the improvements of navigacion, which are all modern, and feverall other things ; likewife the circulacion of the blood in phyfickal experiments, and abundance of modern experiments not to be nam’d with the other; likewife the improvments in the mathematicks, fortificacion, incampments, intrenchings, millitary difcipline, befeiging and defending towns, in all which and many other the knowlege and experience of the prefent age is infinitely beyond what ever went before them. Now all thefe ftudyes are made in the Englifh tongue, and are neceffarily to be receiv'd there, and in no other. Greek and Latin has nothing to do with it, nor are fome of the beft mafters in thcfe ufefull parts of knowlege accquainted with them. ? Over A, &. is written Mew Philofophy. CAP. A CAP. VI. | Of the gentleman's government of himnfelf, his family and fortune. 1. Of the government of himfelf. oO F the gentleman we are treating of can not RC ay govern himfelf, how fhould we expect any aS ck good' ceconomy in his houfehold? how NNR fhall he direét his family or mannage his fortune ? and why is it that we fee fo many good familyes fink in the world and both their eftates and pofterity fuffer an irecoverable decay but for want of this neceffary thing call’d ceconomy or good ' govern- ment and mannagement of the family? Where can the negleét or omiffion of it all lye but in the head of the family? Who we find too often letting the reins loofe to his vices or at beft to his pleafures, thinks it below him to mind his other affaires, either to regulate his family or to mannage and improv his eftate. Let us confider thefe three heads apart. 7he gentleman's government of himfelf. It muft be con- feff’t there is a great, I had allmoft faid an univerfall, defficiency among our gentlemen in the government of themfelves ; their moralls' and manners are deprav'd and vitiated in a manner hardly to be defcrib’d, at leaft not fully. Whether this generall depravity of manners is 1 Abbreviated. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. is more the caufe of the defect of education or the confequence of it, is not eafily determin’d ; but ‘tis manifeft that it works both wayes, tho’ with different effets, as in the father ’tis the caufe why the jfon is not well taught and inftructced, and in the fon ’tis the effect of his father’s not inftru¢cting him. Firft, his vicious, debauch’t father omited the inftruct- ing or inducting his fon; the uninftructed, untaught fon grows vicious and debauch’t, becaufe he is untaught and uninftruéted in the wayes of wifdome and knows not the beauty and excellency of learning and of virtue. In a word, ignorance is the feed of levity, and a fool turns proffligate by the meer deprivation of wit; the weaknefs of his moralls derives from the weaknefs of his head, and he follows mean and fcandalous vice from his meer ignorance of virtue and true wifdome. In confequence of this, when he comes to have a family of his own, he docs the fame, and his heir fucceeds to the miftakes as well as the eltate of the family. The fame increafe of ignorance and decay of virtue follow from the fame fund of naturall depravity. Thus vice begets ignorance, and ignorance nurfes up wickednefs in the meer courfe of things. ’Tis all caufe and confequence, meer nature, and it can be no otherwife. The alternativ is as neceffary, and fuccceds 233 to it felf as naturally as light and dark, death and life ; £ 122. where one precedes, the other muft fuccede, it can not be otherwife. How hard it is that Nature fhould thus tye us up to the fatal confequence that becaufe I am fot my fon muft be a fool! If I am wicked and vile for my felf, it is nothing but to my felf, and when I am gone the world is well rid of mc. But to think I fhould entail a defcent of folly and vice, ignorance and wickedness, upon my whole pofterity, that I fhould -bring a race of fools into the linc, and that they fhould go on curfing me, the great progenitor of all their wicked 234 fim The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. wicked gradacions, and that there fhould be an’ alter- nate fucceffion of fool and and knav in all my genera- cions for a hundred ages to come: this indeed is very mortifying ; that I, becaufe I am indolent and debauch't, muft beget .an ignorant fon, he not knowing better leaves his heir like his anceftor, indolent and a defpifer of that learning he was never taught to value; from which he runs on to the fame excefs of. floth and ignorance that I was wrapt up in at firft. Thus wickednefs fucceeds Hell ; and Hell, wickednefs, take it which way you pleafe. I might very profitably enlarge here upon the neceffity the compleat gentleman is under in the government of himfelf, to regard his moralls and that the generall part of his perfonall conduct fhould de- nominate him a man of virtue in meer compaffion to his pofterity ; but it would be too tedious a digreffion. — Allow me, however, to recommend it with relation to | himfelf perfonally. It is a great miftake to fay that a proffligate, vicious life is confiftent with a compleat gentleman ; virtue is_ fo far from being below the quallity of a gentleman, or even of a nobleman, that ftrictly fpeaking a man can }{ not be truly noble or compleatly a gentleman without | it; and tho’ I were to take no notice of religion in this difcourfe, but confining my felf to thofe we call moral] virtues oncly, yet the thing is true in the moft abftracted fence. A gentleman giving himfelf a loofe in all manner of vice and extravagance, what is he to be efteem’d in life? how can he be call’d a gentleman without making a juft excepcion for his ill government of himfelf ? We have frequent examples of this in the ordinary acceptacion of a gentleman, where nothing is more frequent than to fay fuch a nobleman or fuch a gentle- s man MS. a fuccefion alternate, corrected to a alt, fuce. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. man is a very fine perfon, has a thoufand good qualli- tyes, but he is this, but he is that, mencioning fome immorallitie, fome impropriety, which he unhappily mingles with his chara¢ter, and then they conclude, what pity it is that fuch a fine gentleman, fuch a noble perfon, fuch an extraordinary man fhould fully his character in fuch a manner. Perhaps, it is a mif- trefs or two, perhaps an open profeff't athcifme, perhaps a habit of fwearing, or that he is given to exceffiv drinking, perhaps violently paffionate, or the like. His favourite vice is allwayes brought in as an excepcion to his character otherwife unfpotted. On the contrary, we never find a gentleman’s being fober, modett, wife, religious, temperate, learned,’ virtuous, I fay, we never find thefe brought in as excepcions againft, but as ornaments of, and addicions to, his character, and as things which in the univerfall opinion of mankind ferv to illuftrate and brighten his fame. Even the men of crime themfelves, who want the virtues which addorn his character, will recognize the value and beauty of them in the virtuous gentleman, and frequently reproach themfelves with the want of them, like Baalim withing to dye the death of the righteous. It muft remain upon record in honour of the memory of the late Queen Ann that Her Majeftie ufd to fay fhe thought there was not a better lecture of morallity to be read in the world, than might be read in the vifible differences between the meer figure or ' appearance of a gentleman or noble-man of virtue and a rake of the fame quallity as they ordinaryly fhew'd themfelves at Court, and that they might be read at firft fight. / ; I muft therefore lay it down as one of the moft neceffary accomplifhments of a compleat gentleman that he takes an efpeciall care of his moralls; that he takes good principles into his family as his efpeciall favourites 235 ‘ 236 fi tavé, The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. favourites and domefticks ; that he guard his virtue with the uttmoft caution and care; and that he never thinks it below him to be efteem’d as a man of modefty, fobriety and temperance, nor a man of religion too, as things without which his charaéter will be allwife markt with an afterifme or * when it is mencion’d in converfa- cion, having an excepcion allways attending his good name and allways mencioned with him in company. If the unhappy gentleman has been ill taught or un- taught, the thing I have been reprefenting as the firft mifsfortune in his houfe and efpecially in himfelf, let him confider that defeét as the firft to be repair’d ; and he has this for his encouragement, that this part is to be recover’d without a teacher. No man need be taught to abandon his vices and reform his manners, as Nature will dictate one part of it, confcience will dictate the other. He wants nothing but to be convinc’t that it ought to be done; and it would be needlefs to preach moralls to him any long time. Let him but appeal to himfelf, and he will find teachers in his own breaft, that will tell him it is not onely neceffary to be done, but eafie alfo, and that without it he not onely is ruin’d himfelf, but his pofterity alfo. / For take him in the meer ftate of nature, as I may call it, namely juft as he came out of his ignorant, immorall father’s hands, that is to fay, uneducated, -uninftructed, and confequently foolifh, wild, vicious, and immorall : how unhappily, but, unavoidably, unlefs thus prevented, does he propogate ignorance and vice, and hand them down from his anceftors to his pofterity by the meer courfe of humane generacion ! But now to return to my argument. How fhall the gentleman govern himfelf? As we learn fpeech from the imitacion of our forefathers, fo, in a word, we learn vice or virtue from the like imitacion. We fee the method of the family has been to entail ignorance and immorallity The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN, immorallity upon the race ; and how fhall that race fo initiated introduce the practife of virtue ? The example is layd down in the foregoing chapter. If the gentleman who thus had the diffafter of a vicious introduccion into life, abandon’d to ignorance without education and without inftruccion, comes by meer Provi- dence’ or fence, call it what you will, to fee his own defficiency and to be virtuoufly inclin’d, tho’ whence it fhould come.is fome thing hard to fay, but if it fhould happen fo, the way is lin’d out for him: let him fett about the work of informing and inftructing himfelf with fuch helps and fuch affiftance as I have faid abov may be had as well from books.as from men of learning, and ’tis evedent from experience and from the example I have given that the cafe may be retriev’d and the want of carly teaching be very much repair'd, if not fully fupply'd ; for, in a word, tho’ the defects of parents and the want of carly inftruccion is great, yet ’tis wilfull ignorance and obftinate contempt of, and averfion to, learning, that is in generall the fin of the day. That our gentlemen are illiterate and untaught is true; but’’tis as true that where there is one gentleman who complains of it and thinks himfelf the worfe for it, there are 20 that boaft of it, value themfelves upon it, think their ignorance fits well upon their quallity, and that contemn the men of letters and books as below ~ them and not worth their regard ; who think learning unfafhionable, and, at beft, ufelefs to them, and that to write their names is enough for men of fortunes, that they have nothing to do but fit {till and enjoy the world and roll in the abundance of it, that the reft is all buffinefs and buftle, that ’tis below them and not worth their notice. 237 This pride, however prepofterous and however incon- /. 123. fiftent with common fence, is the ruin of the Englifh gentry ' Abbreviated. 238 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. gentry at this time ; for tho’ the ignorance it felf is a criminal folly and admits of no excufe, but that unhappy one of laying it upon their fathers, yet valuing them- felves upon it and perfifting in it as a matter of choice, is ftil worfe. Ignorance is a crime in it felf, but obftinate, affected and refolv'd ignorance is tenfold more criminal. To be untaught and to have our education neglected is one thing; but to boaft of it, value our felves upon it and, in a word, to choofe it, is another ; to be uneducated is a mifsfortune, to choofe to be fo is a folly: but to boaft of being fo is the Devil. 7 Now let us look a little into the family of this felf- wife, but uneducated creature. We are to fuppofe he is the head of the houfe and on that account ought to: be the beft governed thing in it; but how does he behave? Directly contrary to an extrem in every capa({city, without government, without rule, ignorant and obftinately fo. 1, Take him as a mafer: he is haughty, imperi- ous, and tyrannick, or elce foft, eafie, and capable of being wheedl’d, impofd upon and drawn in by every fharper and into every bubble, till firft he is expofd and then undone. 2. As a hufband: he is froward, furly, humorous, and uneafy, teizing every body and perplexing himfelf, unconftant in temper, untractable, pofitiv, and wants every thing that denominates a gentleman to be a man of fence ; in a word, as a fool is certainly the worft of hufbands, fo an illiterate, untaught, concieted, felf -opinionate hufband is the worft of fools. 3. Asa father: Fatal relativ! Here he is cut out to have his children curfe him; he neither knows how to be a father, nor how to teach them to be children ; he breeds them up to defpife him, and yet to imitate him. They can learn nothing good from him, and what's ee they The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. they are fure to have his example for. As he contemns the learning he wants, he is fure to Ict his children want the learning he contemns. He educates his fons at the ftable door, inftead of the Grammar School, and his hunt(man is Head Tutor; he teaches them to fwear with a particular applicacion, and his own valuable ex- ample is their introduccion ; his daughters are bred at the affembly and at the card table, and the Quadrill is the hight of their accquir'd knowlege. He entails vice and ignorance upon his eldeft fon in honour to his primogeniture, and if he does giv his younger fons a little clergy, ’tis meerly to put them off with a few letters inftead of an appenage, and giv them a grammar for a porcion. 4. Take him in publick flacton, fuppofe as a magif- trate in the country. He makes a tollerable juftice, becaufe he has little or nothing comes before him. If he is plac’d where buffinefs comes in, he gets a better learn'd clark, and leaves the matter to him, and the warrant money is his wages, fo makeing good the old ~ proverb that the clark makes the juflice, while the mafter does juft nothing. 5. Take him g¢ London, that is to fay, at Court. If he has ‘the honour to be fent up to Parliament, he enters himfelf among the dead weight of the Houfe, makes one of Sir T. Ha... r’s 50, and does juft what other men bid him. If he has wit enough to get in 230 for a little fecret fervice money, 'tis the hight of his / raq. attainment ; but ’tis much oftner that he is made a property without it, being every way quallify'd for that advanc’d poft in nature, a fool for nothing and a fool gratis. If he gets a penfion, he comes readily into all fchems and meafures, his part being excellently well fuited to his capafcity ; for he has nothing to do but to follow as he is led, and fay Ay and .Vo, juft as they bid him. When he goes home from London, he may be. 240 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. be truly faid to have fold himfelf (that is, his country) and run away with the money. Enough of a fool. Now let us view his contrary, who this foil ferves to illuftrate. The compleat gentleman is the reverfe of all this. As he governs himfelf by the rules of vertue and good fence, fo his family appeares diftinguifh’t among all the families about him for their: excellent order, their generall and particular conduct under his government. His conjugal life is all harmony and mufick, peace and joy ; tendernefs and affeccion are the fum of their united enjoyment. She knows no felicity but what fhe finds in him, and he centers his uttmoft fatiffaGtion in her. She is com- pleatly’ happy in him, and he is compleatly happy in ‘her. If fuitable focyety is a heavenly life, 'tis here in the uttmoft perfeccion that humane affairs can produce ; for here every thing, appeares agreeable in it fclf and to one another. From this conjugal harmony all the beauty of a Heaven upon earth is to be feen. Every ftacion of life is fill'd up. Virtue and honour diffufes their luftre thro’ every fcene of life, and fill up every relation. He is, in confequence of this excellent conduct, the beft father, the beft mafter, the beft magiftrate, and the beft neighbour ; in a word, he is a bleffing to his family, to his country, and to himfelf ; he is kind to all, belov'd by all, has the prayers of all; the rich honour him, the poor blefs him, vice trembles at him, and none but the devil envyes or hates him. Let us look back that, upon ¢he government of him- Jelf in particular, he is frugal without avarice, man- naging without rigor, humble without meannefs, and great without haughtynefs; he is pleafant without levity, grave without affe€tacion ; ff he has learning, his knowledge . MS. compleaty.. The COMPLEAT ,GENTLEMAN. knowledge is without pedantry and his parts without pride; modefty and humility ‘govern him, and he applyes his learning purcly to do good to others and to inftruct himfelf farther in the good government. of himfelf., If thro’ the error of cuftome his father left him unfinith’d and he loft the bleffing of a liberal educacion, he fees the miftake with a fecret grief, and accordingly applyes himfelf with the uttmoft dilligence to retriev the lofs and finifh himfelf; and in particular, he follows Solomon’s rule, he /eeks after knowlese as for filver, and fearches for her as for hid treafure, Prov: Ut, 4. In a word, he labours for improvment with an un- wearied applicacion, and never gives over the purfuit of it till he has compleatly fitted himfelf for converfa- tion and for appearing in the world as a compleat gentleman. II. Of the government of his children. Take him next in his family capafcity ; for he fills up 241 every relativ ftacion. If he has children,' his principal / 125. care is their educacion ; the knowlege he had of his own ‘defect and of the lofs he fuftain’d by the miftake of his father in neglecting his education fills him with a happy anxiety for the timely inftruccion of his eldeft fon ; and it is obfervable that he takes a particular care of Azs learning for that very reafon for which other gentlemen difpife it, namely, becaufe he is a gentleman and becaufe he is to-be the heir. He fees how glorious a thing learning is to a man of quallity and what a luftre it adds to his family ; how well it becomes him in every figure he makes in life; how it fets off his other virtues, as fine jewells fet off a beautifull face. For the reft, he refolves his children fhall not curfe the memory of their father either for wafting their patrimony » Abbreviated. Q 242 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. patrimony or ftarving their genius. He is as carefull to fill their heads as their pockets and to fit them for the world in every ftacion of life which fate may deter- mine for them, To this purpofe he very early caufes|his fons, the eldeft as well as the reft, to fubmit to difcipline and to, kno’ the reafon and nature of government and fubordi- nation, as well family government as national. .He in- culcates as early as poffible good principles into their minds that fo they may become good Chriftians, as . alfo modefly, humillity, and every branch of good moralls into their heads, in order to fitt them for a life fuitable to their birth, and that they may be made good men as well as good gentlemen, making it the ftated, eftablifh't foundation of all good inftruccion ‘that Afanners makes the Man and that modefty and virtue and humillity are the brighteft ornaments of a gentleman. After he has eftablifh’t them in an early lov of virtue and in earneft defires after knowlege, he then ftores their heads gradually and in its due order with all kinds of ufefull learning, diflinguifhing them in the manner of their inftruccion as Nature has directed. The eldeft fon is allways regarded as the eldeft fon, even in the manner of his fchool government, and yet with due government alfo; and this is carry’d on to all the needfull degree of learning as fuites their _ capafcityes and as they will take it in. As they advance in learning, the eldeft fon efpecially is re- mov'd from the fchools to the college, where he caufes him to finith his ftudyes in a manner fuitable to what he is and is to be. There he goes thro’ a courfe of phyficks, I mean phylofophy, not medicin ; for he is to be a gentleman, not a do€tor,? a profficient, not a graduate ; having gone thro’ a courfe of aftronomy, geography, ' MS. .Y. “Dr. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. geography, hiftory, and fuch other parts of needfull knowlege as are peculiar beauties in the life of a gentleman, he furnifhes him with a proper perfon ex- perienc’d for the purpofe, in whofe agreeable and im- proving converfacion he finifhes him with the advan- tage of travell, and thus he comes out into the world a compleat gentleman. To return to the father, his next care is of his younger fons ; and to thefe he is fure alfo to giv the uttmoft ftore of learning fuited to their refpectiv genius and inclination, and fo to prepare them for what ever 243 figure or ftacion in life they fhall turn their thoughts / 126. to, whether to the Church, the Law, the Court, the Camp, the Fleet, or whatever other thing fuitable to their quallity and confiftent with a life of virtue and good fence they feem inclin’d to; withall not forgetting by the well mannaging his own fortune to make fuch pro- vifon for his younger children, the collateral branches of his family, as that they may not be turn’d loofe to make their fortunes by neceffity and wander thro’ the world ub? fata vocant,; but that they may have their proper figure to make in the ftacion he fhall leav them without difgracing his family, depending upon, and incumbring, the heir, or hanging about the Court for bread, the moft fcandalous of all human dependencies. Thus he does nat ftarv his younger fons to eftablifn the family in the heir, nor embarras the heir and load his eftate to fupport and provide for his younger children ; but all have a proporcion’d bleffing from the provident father to keep up their figure as his children and to place them in the world independent of one another. The like he does by his daughters, if he has any or many ; and tho’ it is true a numerous family will make a kind of a depredacion upon an eftate, however large it 244 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. it may be and however prudent the head of the houfe may be, yet a wife and well mannaging father begins his concern for them fo foon by retrenching moderately his own expences and even the manner of his living, that he enables himfelf to provide fuitable fortunes for the young ladyes, and this without abating any of the neceffary parts of their educacion or of their ornaments, equipages, etc.; for there are allwayes fo many lefs neceffary things in the figure of a great family, which may be retrench’d and abated filently and unperciev'd, that the prudent head of the houfe will not be oblig'd to abate thofe neceffary things without which the credit of the family can not be fupported or by which the educacion of the children may be negleéted or the inheritance of the heir leffen’d or incumbr'd. Under this good government of himfelf and family the compleat gentleman proceeds in the moft happy and fuccefsfull manner to eftablith his family, direé&t his affaires and to introduce his children’ into the world with all poffible advantage, well furnifh’d, well finifh’d, and compleat like himfelf, till at laft he leaves the family growing in wealth and reputacion by his example, and himfelf fleeps with his fathers like old, King David full of dayes, riches, and honour. III. Of the government of his eftate. I come now to the government of his fortune or eftate. Next to the firft and great miftake among our gentry of which I have fpoken at large, viz. that it is below the quallity of a gentleman of fortune to meddle with learning and books, the next and in its kind as prepof- terous, and fometimes as fatall, is this, viz., that it is below them alfo to audit their own accounts, let their own lands, mannage their own revenues, or, in fhort, to ies after 1 Abbreviated. } The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. after their eftates. Unhappy and miferable pride! the never failing way to poverty and difgrace! What | havock has this abfurd Spanifh temper made among our nobillity and gentry! How many flourifhing woods has it cut down!. How many manours_has it par’d off from the inheritance! How many entails has it dock't, that is, cut off from the familyes! Ina 245 word, how has it brought the ftewards to be richer / 127. than the lords, the bailyes than the gentlemen! and how many flourifhing cftates are at this very day run- ing to ruine, and the familyes who pofeff’t them to decay, under the miferable confequences of this fatally indolent temper. It is true, this unhappy thoughtlefs cuftome is not the fame every where, nor is it carry’d up to fuch a hight in all familyes ; yet there is a degree of it to be found allmoft every where ; and it fhows it felf remark- ably in this generall, viz. the new fafhion’d and pre- vailing extravagance’ and expenfiv living, which at this time runs allmoft thro’ all the familyes of the gentry, not confidering or, at lcaft, not fufficiently con- fidring whether their expence out-runs their income or no, or what proporcion their yearly payments bear to their anual rent. This is in fhort the fame thing which, as above, I call not auditing their own account, , Now, without entring into a full enquiry into all the fatal confequences of this ill mannagement, this, in fhort, is the gencrall effect of it, namely, that at this time if you take the familyes of the meaner gentry (efpecially) all over England you will find a great part of them, I might fay the moft of them, are allwayes in neceffitous circumftances,? bare of money, borrowing rather than lending, and what we ordinary exprefs by an apt, tho’ courfe Englifh faying, they are run eh (0a7s 1 Over extravagance, Defoe has written /uxury. * Abbreviated, 246 J. 128. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. hand ; in the country you have it in a {till courfer way of fpeaking, viz., they are out at heels. By the meaner gentry here I would be underftood to mean thofe familyes of gentlemen as have eftates from £500 a year and under, to 4100 or 200 a year, and yet liv wholly upon thofe eftates without what we - call employment or buffinefs ; for of fuch we have other things to fay. Of thefe familyes the generall circumftance is fuch as this :-— 1. The gentlemen are often times of very good: houfes of antient defcent, ally’d to feverall other familyes, perhaps of the fame name but of fuperior fortune, to fome by intermarriages, fome by imediate relacion, collateral branches, younger brothers, and the like, and perhaps intimate by the accidents of neigh- bourhoods and the like ; all which circumftances' oblige the gentlemen, or at leaft the family, to an extraor- dinary expenfiv living in drefs, equipages, fervants and dependences, treats, entertainments, houfe-keeping, &c., moftly upon the weak and foolifh pretence that they may, as 'tis call’d, look like other people. 2. This extraordinary way of living muft neceffarily exhauft their fubftance, being, as is fuppof'd, abov the income of their revenue ; all which tends as naturally to poverty, as a confumcion of the vitals in the? humane body tends todeath. It isa certain axiom in matters of this nature that every wife mannager will proportion his layings-out to his comings-in, fo as that allways he may lay up fome thing. He that fpends but one hundred pounds a year lefs than his eftate brings in, muft grow rich of courfe, as naturally as that he that fpends £100 a year more than his income mutt certainly be poor. From this unhappy cuftome of living abov them- feives, which at this time more than ever prevails among 1’ Abb: eviated. 2 the is left out in MS. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. among our gentry, it comes to pafs that, as I faid abov, almoft all the gentry in England of moderate} eftates are kept low and in neceffitous circumftances.' I do indeed place it chicfly upon the clafs of familyes from £500 a year downward, and I believ it is more gene- rally fo among the gentry of that rank. But I am told I nced not confine my felf to them, for that it is fo (with a very few excepcions) even to the gentry of the greateft eftates, lords, earles, and dukes, of which many examples might be given, if I would make the fatyr perfonal and bring examples of particular people ; but that is no part of my prefent defign. I return to thofe I call the-meaner gentry; their cafe is thus. Suppofe a gentleman of £400 to 500 a year eftate, and fuppofe him living in the country upon the eftate and in the manfion houfe upon the fpot, the antient feat of the family to which he has or has not a park adjoyn’d, and other ufuall advantages as it may happen. His firft advantage is that he payes no rent, that his park having fome meddow grounds within the pale, few parks are without it, affords him grafs and hay for his coach horfes and faddle horfes, which goes alfo a freat way in the expence of the family ; befides that, /he has venifon perhaps in his park, fufficient for his own table at leaft, and rabbits in his own warren adjoyning, pidgeons from a dove houfe in the yard, fifh in his own ponds or in fome fmall river adjoyning and within his own royalty, and milk with all the needfull addenda to his kitchen, which a {mall dary of 4 or 5 cows yields to him. All thefe are vaft helps in houfckeeping to a frugal family, and giv my lady, A¢s A/ayor Domo, opportunity to keep a very good houfe upon very reafonable terms, and which, if the gentleman was inclin’d to Po wit ' Abbreviated. 247 vend 248 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. with prudence, would go a great way towards living comfortably. : But let us look a little within doors. Perhaps the lady, as a late author has it, having éed in her young dayes like a tame pigeon, they have now a {tock of children 2 fons and 4 daughters, and thefe are now grown up. The eldeft fon writes gentleman, and he muft appear as fuch in the country. He has his fervant and a couple of hunters, and he follows his {port with his neighbours either with his father’s hounds, if he keeps a pack of dogs, or if not, with the next gentleman that does. The young gentleman begining to keep company muft have a good equipage and money in his pocket, that he may appear as other gentlemen do and may keep the beft company, and this cannot be done without a large allowance; and this makes the firft hole in the father’s cafh, and fometimes the fon calls . for it fafter than the father can fupply him, which often times caufes fome chagrin and difcontent in the family, and fome times is of bad confequence, makcs the young efquire' warm and uneafie, and away he goes up to London, gets into bad company and is undone early. i But we will fuppofe the beft, and that it does not go that length, but he goes on as above. We come next to the daughters. The young ladyes are genteel and handfome ; the father is vain of them, and the old lady, their mother, breeds them up to the hight of the figure the family in gencrall allwayes ufed to make. They drefs rich, are gay, are taught to do nothing but ride in the coach and vifit my Lady ox this fide, the Countefs of .... on that fide, and my Lady Dutchefs on the other fide, being all neighbours, There they dance, play at Quadrille, and being agreeable young ladyes 1 E/q’. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. ladyes, the countefs and the dutchefs and’ their daughters are mighty fond of their company, and come and vifit them again, the honour of which extremely .: elevates them ; and thus they learn to taft the pleafure of living high, in which they muft imitate as far as poffible all the cuftomes, nay, and even the! very drefs of the ladyes of quallity with whom they kept company ; and how far this will agree with £500 or 600 a year, you fhall find in the confequence. By this improvident and thoughtlefs way of living the gentleman, the head of this ill goverend family, ‘gets into debt, and finds himfclf embarraff’t. One tradefman afks him for money, another fhop keeper fends in his bil’. und he cannot raife money for them; till after fome time they grow rude and impertinent, faucy, and threatning. Impaticnt and perplext at this, poor gentleman! he knows not what to do. He can not bear to be dunn’d, but making his complaint td Mr. Gripe, a country attorney, or to Mr. Sharp, a fcrivener at London, he prefently tells him he muft make himfelf cafic by taking up a little money upon the eftate, that he ought not to let his credit in the country fink and that he has £1000 at his fervice, adding as a farther kindnefs that he will do it for him fo privately, that no body in the country fhall kno’ any thing of it. — From this moment the gentleman is undone, his revenue is now Ieffen’d by £50 a year, I mean, the intreft of this £1000, his expence goes on at leait the fame; and tho’, while the 41000 Jatts, he fits prety eafie ; yet that watts, and at laft he fees himfelf walling and falling into the fame embarraf('t condicion as before, and this fits clofe to his heart. I am loth to carry on the cafe to the winding off the bottom and bring the family to ruine, which muft be the end of all, if the gentleman lives many yeares ; but 250 fi 130. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. but I'll break it off here and fhow you the confequence of but one ftep downwards. Juft at the end of the firft £1000 the old gentleman, who begins to fee, tho’ too late, the growing ruine of his family, becomes mellancholly, and, in a word, breaks his heart and dyes, having firft made his will as follows :— Firft, his eldeft fon muft have the eftate; that he can’t avoid, for it is generally entail’d, and if it was not, the honour of the family requires it: the houfe muft be kept up. But as the reft of the family muft not ftarv, fo his younger brother muft have £1000 to buy him a commiffion, and his 4 fifters each of them 4800 to marry them as well as they can, perhaps to fome indifferent body ; for that fortune will go but a little way with a gentleman, and they are bred too high to take up with a tradefman, or indeed for a trades-man to venture upon them ; fo, if they marry at all, ’tis a great hazard but they are ruin’d and undone, for they have little elce before them. But we leav the ladyes to mannage their own good or bad fortune, and return to the heir, the eldeft fon; for he is the ftay of the family ; he comes to the eftate! in very unhappy circumftances.' His eftate, which was 500 a year befides the manfion® houfe and park, which to carry every thing up to the higheft pitch you may call £100 a year more, is heavily loaded, as follows’*: In the firft place, his mother, during her life, keeps £200 a year from him, which was her joynture, and muft be out of his hands while fhe lives. How- ever, to make the beft of things, we'll fuppofe the good lady, loth to ftand long in the way of her fon’s profperity, drops off and dyes alfo, and fo the whole eftate falls into his hand, which then ftands encumbr'd as follows: 1A ! Abbreviated. 2 MS. majfon. 3 MS. foll. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. 1. A mortgage for money borrow'd £1000 2. The younger brother's appennage, which muft be paid off, for he can not ftay for it; his prefer- ment depends upon the money: 41000 3. Four fifters’ porcions of £800 each, due as faft as they marry, and the ladys to keep in the mean time £3,200 5,200 So that in fhort the unhappy young gentleman is incumbr’d to the tune of 45200 with the intreft of the firft £2000 to pay in the mean time, fo that indeed he has but 4400 a year to fupport the family and maintain his four fifters. In this condition what courfe does he take? The firft thing he has before him is to marry; if he gets a fuitable match, we will fuppofe £5000 porcion, then his happynefs ftands thus: The gentleman pays away all his lady’s fortune to clear his eftate, and then he has the comfort of begining juft where his father did before him, namely, that he has juft the family eftate that his father had, that is to fay, a good manfion houfe and park (proper tools to ruine him by leading him to liv in too great a figure), £500 a year land and no money in his pocket ; fo that as, I fay, he began juft where his father began, fo he is in a fair way to end juft where his father ended and leav his heir and family embarraft juft as he found it; and all this is fuppofing the gentlc- man to be a fober man too, a man of moralls and virtue, onely unhappy, as I have faid, in his circum- ftances.' If he proves ever fo little extravagant, immorall, drunken, like other men, that alters the cafe exceedingly, of which in its place; but firft {peaking of him as a man of virtue, let us then take the 1 Abbreviated. 251 252 Sf: 13%. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. the ordinary alternativ here, that frequently happens in this cafe, that, to begin with the beft part, it may happen that this gentleman may drop into the city, and falling into a merchant's family’or fome other wealthy trades- man’s,’ he meets with a young lady of fortune, that being willing to marry a gentleman and fond of a title, and with all the gentleman being perhaps handfome, well educated and a man.of addrefs, fhe takes a fancy to him, and he gets £10 to 20,000 with her. If this be the cafe, he is made eafie at once ; he makes her a- joynture of the whole eftate, pays off the incumbrances, purchafes £500 a year more, and adds to the eftate, keeps £3 or 4000 ready money in his pocket, and efpecially if the lady be a good mannager, too, as fome- times happens, efpecially among the city ladyes, to their fame be it fpoken. Thus the gentleman lays up fome- thing every year, and, in a word, the family is made, his fortune is doubi’d, his houfe is fettled, he is thoro'ly delivred, and he is a rifing man. But where and how often is this black fwan to be found? Let us look at the reverfe of it, which is much oftner the cafe. Suppofe on the other hand one of thefe two cafes are his lot: 1. That inftead of the lady with a fortune, as abov, nay, inftead of the lady with a fuitable moderate for- tune, £5000, as abov, he cripples his fortune in the begining, marrys below himfelf, and takes a woman with a mean fortune, or what is worfe, with no for- tune; or 2. Suppofe he has? marry’d, as abov, with a fuitable fortune, and has paid of the incumbrances and, as I have faid, begins juft where his father began ; but that, not having his father’s prudence, he runs out by fome extravagance of his own, and plunges himfelf by fome imorrallityes, } 7T—M—. ? MS. having instead of fe has. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. imorrallityes, ill habits, bad company, and the like, and fo runs back. In either of thefe cafes, be it which it will, he is infal- libly reduc'd, and having once dip’d, that is, mortgaged his eftate, he never retrievs it, and all comes to ruine. If death or any intervening help fteps in, to put a {top to the diffafter before all is loft, yct the family is reduc’d ; and if the remainder of the eftate comes out at one “hundred or two hundred pounds a year, juft to keep the family from mifery, which indeed is more than there is room to expect, ’tis a favourable end; and in the clofe the children are beggars, the fons muft run into the army, the daughters, put off with 300 or 400 pound fortune, are oblig’d to run abroad, marry trades-men or, perhaps, a clergy man or two among the neighbour- hood, and, in a word, are brought to very mean things ; what is left to the eldeft fon is a callamity, not an eftate, and ends, as we often fee, in a fhaddow of a gentleman, not a family, till it dwindles at laft into nothing, is loft and forgot in the country. It is true, in great cftates we have feen examples of it, when a frugal fon has recovr'd the depredacions which a drunken, extravagant anceftor has made in the 253 inheritance ; and fome times the very fame pofeffor that /- 132. has run out and exhaufted the fortune of the family, has taken up, retrencht his expences, fequeftred himfelf, and liv’d retir’d, till the eftate, by time, has out-grown the wounds it has receiv’d, and the family has recovred ; but this muft be in great eftates, where, the family refolving to liv in a narrow compafs, the remainder of the eftate will work out it felf, and even this is very difficult ; but where the eftate is fmall and the incum- ‘brances together with meer fubfiftance for the family rife too near to a ballance of the eftate, there it is impoffible, and therefore the wound is mortall in fuch , families, and it can not be done. Thus 254 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. Thus you have a view of the ordinary fate of the middling gentry and the diffafters by which they are often reduc’d. I forbear to giv examples, tho’ I could illuftrate this difcourfe with a great variety, and whofe ftorys, were it not that the relacion might feem to be a perfonall fatyr and touch fome houfes too near, would be very diverting and inftru€ting, too; but I purpofely avoid expofing families and gentry and making thefe miftakes exemplar, which perhaps may yet be recovred, and if not, are too tragicall to be entirely conceal’d. It is enough to add here that the compleat gentle- man I am fpeaking of avoids all thefe miftakes and leaves his houfe eftablifh’'d on the foundacion of his own prudence and good conduct beyond the power of difafter. It is no fcandal upon a gentleman of the higheft quallity or of the greateft eftate to mannage his own affairs with prudence and judgement: on the contrary, there is no manner of reputacion either of judgment or underftanding raifed upon the foundacion of an un- ‘thinking, indolent temper; as ’tis no credit to a man of quallity to do little things unworthy of himfelf to fave his money, fo'neither is their [!] any credit in ex- travagance ; doing mad things will rather mark a man for mad than for a man of thought; a man of fedate judgement will judge fedately and act wifely. Bring this home to the cafe in hand: ’tis no credit for any man to fquander away his fubftance ; by fquan- dring I am. to be underftood fpending it imprudently, unwarily, and beyond the limits of his income, without regarding the due proporcion between the expence and the fund ; on the contrary, it tends to poverty if a man {pends but £20 a year more’ than his income. He is from that moment a declining man, and his fortune is in a confumcion, and at length he muft decay. The MS. dfs. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. The gentleman I am recommending the character of confiders this; and as he abhorrs being poor, as who does not, fo he refolvs never to wait the capital. Ifhe f:2 | layes up nothing, he will fink nothing; if he has a capitall eftate, he may alleage that he has no occafion to increafe it, and fo may be doing good with it to the full extent, and fo far his not improving may at leafl be excuf’d ; but no man has any occafion to leffen his eftate or to fink his revenue mecrly becaufe it is too ' bigg, feeing a leffning the capital is in its kind a decay upon his family.’ td: try! ' In MS., de follows alter samdy. PART SJ. 123. PART II. CAP. I, Of the fund for the encreafe of our nobillity and gentry in England, being the begining of thofe we call Bred Gentlemen, with fome account of the difference. ONO HAVE mencioned fome thing of our antient NSA A gentry, their originall, the value they put ot SY TY: § YP AS] [en upon themfelves, the unhappy methods Ope) ‘ they take in bringing up and introducing their pofterity, and how the poor unhappy heirs of the fortunes of the beft familyes are abandon’d to ignorance and indolence, till they are become objects of pity rather than worfhip and homage, and how they are plac’d below their inferiours in all the virtues and accomplifhments which fhould render them valuable in their ftacion. I have alfo, as_the end of the whole difcourfe, evedently direéted them how_they thall_recovery the lofs, retriev_the unhappy funk reputacion of their un- has plac’d them and where by education they ought to have been plac’d, I men,' in the truc elevation of a complete gentleman. I now proceed. Law 11 Jie, mean. | The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. Law, trade, war, navigation, improvement of ttocks, ans on public funds, places of truft, and abundance yf other modern advantages and private wayes of get- ng money, which the people of England in thefe laft ges have been accquaintcd with more than formerly, have joyn’d, I do not fay confpir'd, together for fome - yeares paft to encreafe the wealth of the commonalty, . and have raif’d~a_great number—of-familyes to not ondhyprotperous circutsItances?tor-thnit I am not {peaking of, but to immenfe citatcs, vail and, till of late, unheard of fumms of moncy amaff’d in a fhort time and which have, in the confequence, raif‘d fuch families to a ftacion of life fome thing difficult to defcribe and not lefs difficult to giv a name to. We can not call them gentlemen; they don't infilt upon it themfelves as the word gentlemen is underftood to fignify men of antient houfes, dignify’d with here- ditary titles and family honours, old manfion houfes, old advoufions [!], the right of patronage to churches, eftablifh’d burying places, where they fhew the monu- ments of innumerable anceftors, names deriv'd from the lands and eftates they poffefs, parks and forrefts made their own by prefcripcion and ufage time out of mind, and fuch like marks of the antiquity of the race. Thefe things they have no claim to, but as a rich merchant anfwer'd to an infolent country efquire who upbraided him that he was no gentleman: “ No, Sir,” fayes the merchant, “but I can buy a gentleman,’—fo 257 thefe have the grand effential, the great fund of families, / 3+ the money, if they have no more, and very often they really have no more. You fee I am willing to giv up the firft money getting wretch, who amaff'd the eftate, tho’ he rod in his coach and four and, perhaps, coach and fix, wore a fword (the latter I think our laws fhould reftrain) ; in fhort, perhaps he had al! the enfigns of } Abbreviated. R 258 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. of grandeur that a true bred gentleman is diftinguifh'd by, yet the ftock jobber, the Change Alley broker, the projector, or whatever low priz’d thing he was, may be allow’d to hang about him too much for the firft age to give him fo much as the fhaddo’ of a gentleman. Purfe-proud, infolent, without manners, and too often without fence, he difcovers his mechanick quallifi- cacions on all occafions ; the dialect of the Alley hangs like a brogue upon his tongue, and if he is not clown clad in his behaviour, ‘tis generally fupplyed with the ufuall air of a fharper and a bite, and he can no more leav the ravening after money, Jas aut nefas, than an. old thief can leav off pilfering, or an old whore leay off procuring. But when I fay I thus giv up the founder of the houfe, I muft yet open the door to the politer fon, and the next age quite alters the cafe. Call him what you pleafe on account of his blood, and be the race modern and mean as you will, yet if he was fent early to {chool, has good parts, and has improv'd them by learning, travel, converfatior, and reading, and abov all with a modeft courteous gentleman-like behaviour: defpife him as you will, he will be gentleman in fpite of all the diftinccions we can make, and that not upon the money onely, and not at all upon his father and family, but upon the beft of all foundations of families, I mean a ftock of perfonall merit, a liberal education, a timely and regular difcipline and inftruccion, and a humble temper early form’d and made the receptible of the beft impreffions and fubjeéted to the rules and laws of being inftructed. By thefe things the fucceffors to, and fons of, the over-rich fcoundrel, call him as you will, become gentlemen and are without hefitacion receiv’d for fuch among the beft families in Britain ; nor do any of the moft antient families fcruple to form alliances hi them The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. them by intermarriages, or eftecm their blood at al difhonour’d by the conjunccion. To fpeak truth the antient families are fo reduc’d or fo many of them extinct, that we find abundance of the manfions and parks and. eftates and inheritances of the moft antient extinct families bought by citizens, mer- chants, lawyers, etc., and the old race gone and for- gotten; and for the decay’d families of our gentry, ay, and even of the nobillity, we find the heires flye o the city as the latt refort, where by marrying a daughter of fome perfon meaner in dignity, but fuperior in money, the fortunes of the family are reftor’d, the eftates, dipp'd and mortgag’d and in danger of being | loft and devour'd, are recovr'd, the fame and figure of the family reftor'd ; and the pofterity make no difficulty to own the defcent of fuch a line, or think their race at all difhonour’d in blood by the mixture. His grace the D....0f..... was a perfon of the firft rank ; he had fome of the beft blood of England in his veins; he quarter’d the arms of an incredible number of antient familyes in his efcutchean' of arms ; his father had enjoy’d fome of the greateft places of © honour and truft in the kingdom ;* there had been two or three blew ribbons in the family, and he was | himfelf a young prince that had a thoufand good qual- lities to recomend him. ; But my Lord Duke was unhappy after all: Ilis eftate was low; his father loft prodigious fums in the Civil Warrs by his loyalty and gat no amends upon the reftoracion except titles and a blew ribband. He was _ a generous-hearted noble-man, and liv’d above his fortune, fo that he brought the eftate into great. encumbrances, and even the great houfe and the eftate adjoyning had £17,000 mortgage upon it and fome yeares intreft. Two 'MS. Ffutchean. 1K, ! 2 r a 9 260 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. Two other eftates of about 4000 per annum cach were dip’d alfo and the intreft unpaid for a long time, fo that my Lord Duke had very little left clear and was glad to accept a penfion of £2000 a year from the royal bounty to fupport his dignity. He had liv'd frugally and retir’d, if poffible, to bring the cftate to work it felf out of debt, and he had cut down near 460,000 worth of timber to help deliver himfelf, and it had made fome progrefs ; but alafs, he was in fo deep, it would require an age to retriev it, and the uttmoft he could expect was to leav a good eftate to his heir, if he fhould have one; for he muft not expect to get thro’ it till 40 or 50 year hence. Under thefe difficultyes:he heares of a ‘certain lady in the city ; her father indced was but a tradcs-man!' and of no family, but he is dead, and the lady is well educated, being left in the hands of a guardian, a mer- chant, who bred her up to what fhe might be fuppof'd to come to, not what her fathcr was ; and the merchant has been fo juft to her, that he has encreaf’d her fortune exccedingly fince the father dyed. To fum up all, the lady is agrecable, vp beautifull, virtuous, well bred, and has £80,000 fortune, befides a rever- fion or two, which, if they fhould fall in to her in, any reafonable time, may ecncreafe it farther very con- fiderably. In fhort, my Lord Duke heares of her, gets himfelf handfomly introduc’d to her, makes very honourable propofalls to the guardian, fettles #4000 a year joyn- ture upon her, part of her fortune paying off £20,000 , mortgage which lay upon it with 8500 intreft left unpaid, and on this fettlement marrys the lady. She comes into the family with a flowing ftream of wealth. My Lord Duke is a man of honefty as well as honour ; he cleares all his eftate with this fortune, and has 1 7—M- The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. 261 has £20,000 Icft in cafh. He ufes his lady, as her merit as well as fortune deferv’d, with all the kind- nefs, refpeét, and affeccion imaginable, and particularly | honours her as if fhe-had becn born a princefs. She on the other hand by an extraordinary behaviour wins: the regard not of his grace onely,, but of all the perfons of quallity both in the country and the Court alfo, and this, I fay, by a behaviour unexepcionable and allmott unexampled. She brought his grace 4 fons and 2 daughters, and nobody leffens their quallity or blood on their mother's account. How many familyes of noble- / 125. men, gentlemen, and perfons of the beft characters, who having been pluny’d in difficultyes as this noble perfon was, raif‘d by fuch matches! If this was a, difhonour to the antient blood, how few familyes arc there to be found in England untoucht that way! For « example :— How are the prefent ducal houfes of Beauford and , Bedford intermarry'd with the daughters and grand daughters of Mr. Child and Mr. Howland; and how many, if it were not an offence tu reckon them up, might we bring forth of a meaner produccion, where inferiour ladyes are marry'd to perfons of rank and dig- nity, and others where ladyes of noble familics match | with private men and hardly with gentlemen.’ ‘ ut 1 On folio 134 6 és the following list: Duke Argyle... with Mrs. Duncan Earle Ila...) . with Mrs. Whitfield, a baftard Earl of Buchan . . . Mrs. Fairfax : Lord Onflow. . . . . Mrs. Knight Earl of Excetfter.. . Mrs. Cirambers Duke of Beaufort: . . Mrs. Child Duke of Bedford . . Mrs. Howland Duke Hamilton Mrs. Stangeways old Duke Hamilton . . Mrs. Gerrard Duke Wharton . . . Mrs. Holmes Lord Tankerville » Mrs Lad y 262 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. But tho’ this is a confirmacion of the thing with respect to the mixtures of blood, yet this is not the main article on which I found the ballance which I am ftating.C It is evedent all family honour begins fome where, either in trade, virti our of the prince, all affifting ‘to’ the advance of fortune. Some rife by pofts and places either in the armics or fleets or courts ; others by civil employments, profeffions or pofeffion "tis no matter as to our purpofe which of thefe. In every age fome of thefe form new houfes, as acci- dents in life remov familyes from one clafs into another. We find in moft ages mortallity or other incidents frequently remove great, antient, and even honourable families from the ftation they were in, and they are ex- tinct and gone as effectualy as if they had never been//t IT could name feverall antient and illuftrious families ¥’ whofe names onely live in ftory, but whofe place, as the text fayes, knows them no more, as the Peercys, the Veres, Mohuns, and feverall others of the nobillity and a multitude that might be nam'd among the gentry. s we fee thefe families wear off, we at the fame time fee a fucceffion of modern families who, raif'd to eftates by the accidents nam'd abov, purchafe the old mannors and manfion houfes of the extinguifh’d race and rife up as new familics of fortune and make new lines of gentry in their ftead. Thefe fupply the roll of Englith gentry, and in a fucceffion or two are receiv’d as effectually, and are as effentially gentlenten, as any of the antient houfes were before aa This Lady Compton... . to Mr. Gore Lady Roffel. ‘ to Sir Tho. Scawen Lady Churchil ’ to Sir Ja. Bateman Lady to Pattee Ling Lady Narbro’ 2’... to Cloudfly Shovell Countefs Dowager of “Warwick . ; cum alijs to Mr. Addiffon The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. This is clpecially to be obferv’d-in the feverall countyes adjacent to London, where, in fhort, you have very few of the antient gentry left, as in the countyes of Effex, Kent, Surry, Middlefex, Ilartford, etc. Take the two great countyes of Effex and Kent in particular : how few of the antient familics are to be found, but the eftates arc pofefft and the new pallaces built all by modern houfes, the poftcrity of trades-men, merchants, foldiers, and feamen; and onc particularly: accquainted with both the cafe and with the perfons affur'’d me that in the two countyes of Kent and Eficx oncly there was not one fifth part of the antient families remaining, and that he could name near 200 houfes of merchants and trades-men fettled in thofe counties with immenfe wealth and eftates, having purchaf‘d the eftates of the antient gentry and erected a new race of gentry in their ftead, whofe originals begin allready to be for- gotten and who gain cither by merit or money, and perhaps by both, to pafs for good familics and for unqueftioned blood as much as any before them, 263 and in a few yeares more will pafs for antient families / 13. alfo. How many antient eftates are purchaf‘d in thefe two counties by citizens and merchants of London within thefe few yeares paft, and fine houfes built upon them, equall to the pallaces of fome princes abroad. Sir Richard Childs, now Lord Caftlemain . at Wanftead, Effex ; Sir John Ifles . . . near Rumford ; Sir Nath. Mead . . near the fame ; .... Chefter . . near the Rye; Sir 1 On folio 134 6 the following fumilies are named: In Effex the familics of Child, Rebow, Crefiner, Athurft, Weflern, Rawfon, Martin, Mead, Illes, ‘Tyffon, Dayal, Lcethulier, Toublon, ‘Chefter, Webfier, Blunt, Coward, Collier, Brookbank, Gould, Howard, Shovel, Page, Papilon, Furnis or Furnefe, Lethuliere. Cock at Charleton, De Ja Port. 264 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. Sir Gregory Page . . on Black Heath; Sir Robert Furnefe . near Deal. Thefe I name as extraordinary great capital houfes of the firftrate. The number of other buildings and which would be call'd pallaces if not ecclypft by thefe, arc not: to be reckon’d up, nor are the families which pofefs flourifhing cftates with them to be number'd, whofe names are yet not to be found in the books or rolls of : the antient gentry ; and what will be the confequence ‘of this but that the next age will acknowlege thefe all to be gentlemen, without enquiring into the length of time when their houfes and lines began ; nay, the pre- fent age does reciev them as fuch even allready. There is alfo another thing not much thought of in this cafe, which however affifts to eftablith thefe modern houfes ; viz., fince trade, by the encreafe and magnitude’ of our commerce in generall, raifes fo many families to fortunes and eftates, abundance of our antient gentry have not thought it below them to place out their younger fons in the families of merchants and over- grown tradefmen, and fo to mingle not the blood, but the name alfo of the gentry with that of the mechanick,. breeding them up to buffinefs and getting of money, as what they efteem no way unworthy their character or family. By this means many of thefe younger fons raife themfelves eftatcs alfo, as other men of buffinefs do, and bettering their fortunes, as above, by fome happy turn in trade, they return into the clafs of gentlemen: _ from whence they began. Thus we fee abundance of trades-men' who deriv from families of the beft gentry in the nation: whether our niceer obfervors of the untainted blood of familyes, as they call it, will pretend that fuch men lofe the claim which they had before to the name of uaa an 7M, The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. and are, being once levell’d with the meaner people, allways of the rank with them: I fay, whether they will pretend to this or not, | kno’ not any more than I do whether they have any authourity for fuch pre- tenfions or no. But this is certain, whether thofe pcople will allow it or no, that thofe gentlemen arc of the tru¢ blood of their reall anceftors ; ftill their having been merchants or faétors or trades-men, whole-fale or rctail, did not cut off the entail of blood any more, than it cut off the fir-names. Now fuppofe a merchant of the family and blood of the Ruffells, an antient and noble, now ducal, houfe, or a wholefale grocer of the name of Ilowland or Crefner or Blacket, ancient families of the gentry : I fay, fuppofe a trades-man' born of thefe antient families comes, after a long courfe of trade, to accquirc an eftate, and they! leav off vaftly rich to the tune of £30 to 50 to 100,000 in a man, and purchafe an cflate in proporcion to that fortune, and live in the country for an age or two; it fhall be remembred hereafter, and the heralds fhall allow it, that this new family came from, or were of, the line of the antient houfe of Howland or Crefner or Blacket, and the interval of time in which he, the new family, apply'd to trade and got that eflate thall be loft and forgotten: fo the man is a gentleman of an! 265 antient family with-out any referv, and is allow'd for fir fuch without the leaft hefitacion in ages to come; nor indeed can we affign any juft reafon why it thould not be allow’d fo in the fame age, tho’ the circumftance* was known. I fee no rcafon why the younger brother fhould lofe the honour of his family for having gotten an eftate by his witts, as we call it, that is, by induftry and applicacion to buftinefs, fuppofe it an honourable buffinefs, any more than the Duke of ..... fhould nis 17MM, * Abbreviated. 266 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. his honour and dignity for marrying the daughter of a mean perfon. But be that as the heralds and the criticks in blazonry and the rights of blood fhall adjuft it, this is certain, that_as trade, efpeci i i ry, raifes innumerable families from the duit, that is to fay, from nrear_and low beginings to great and flourifhing eftates, fo thofe eftates exalt thefe families again into the rank or clafs of gentry; and from fuch beginings it may be faid that the greateft part of the fami been raif'd, and moft of the gentry ages are like to be of the fame ftock. It muft be acknowleg'd that the wealth and eftates of thefe rifing families is very particular in this age, more than ever it was before, and that men arc not now counted rich with twenty or thirty thoufand pounds in their pockets, as was the cafe fome ages agoe ; but trades-men leav off now with immenfe wealth, not lefs than two or three hundred thoufand pound, nay with half a million in their pockets, a fum of money truly call’d immenfe in a private man’s pocket, and which was rarely heard of in former times. ~The pofterity of thefe men appear not purchafing eftates of three or four hundred pounds a year, as was then thought confiderable, but of three or four, nay up to ten and twelv thoufand pounds a year, and fome times much more, as was the cafe of the late Sir Jofiah Child, Mr. Tyffon, Sir James Bateman, Sir Tho. De Vall or Daval, Sir Wm. Scawen, and feverall others that are gone, and is like to be the cafe of many now in view, who I refrain nameing becaufe they are fo, but they are eafic to be pointed out. Now fuppofe any of thefe gentlemen to be defcended from. antient families of gentry, however brought up in buffinefs: fhall fuch gentry as thefe be rejected by the pretenders to antiquity and blood of families, onely becaufe ies among us has in the fucceeding The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. becaufe they have beltow’d a few vacant houres to get ceftates by their own application, when their great an- ceftors could not get it for them. If they are thus defcended from antient families one would think there could no objection lye againft them, for they have the blood and the eftates too. What.can be offred againft them? They have the families and the fortunes joyned together, and can oncly be charge- able with the crime of getting the moncy. Muft their ecteending to_hullinefs_in order to recover the-mifi- fortune of being a younger brother bea forfeiture ? This-Would be ftrei¢hing the fring up to a higher pitch than ever I met with yct, and would break into the pedigree of moft of the great and antient families in -England. | ?Tis hardly worth digrefling thus far upon the foolifh part. I proceed therefore to the matter of fact and to trace our gentry to, their proper beginings, whether antient or modern, whether to original branches or- collateral. I belicv we fhall find the luftre of the Englifh gentry not at all tarnifh’d by their flock of the old race or by the addition of the new. As thofe gentlemen who have thus defcended to com- merce claim a rank, as abov, by blood, fo thofe raifd meerly by the help of fortune claim the fame advantage’ with the help of time; that is to fay, the merchant or the trades-man whofe applicacion thus bleff’t has lay’d the foundacion of a family in his accumulated wealth, as he feldome arrives to the hight, till he is, as we fay, advanc’t in yeares, fo the racc as gentlemen feldome begin in him. He may be call’d the founder of- the family, but his pofterity are the gentlemen, as is merrily faid of the great anceftor of the family of the Foleys now iluftrious, Z/e cas the workitan, aluding to his trade,’ “hat built the houfe. ut we admit the branches of the pi ° who UT, 267 } 268 ia 438. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. who ever built it, into the higheft rank of our gentry without the leaft hefitation. By the laft mencioned methods thoufands of families are revived or new raif’d in the world, and, as they deferv, are rank’d among our gentry ; and whether they come in by the door or over the door, ’tis the fame thing ; as they are raif’d to the dignity by the proper addition of fuch vaft eftates, thofe clevations are ‘thoro’ly well accepted by the world,.and in one age they are acknowleg'd as gentry to all intents and purpofes as effectually and as unoppofed as it could have been done had their title to it been as clear as poffible from antiquity. It comes of courfe now to enquire into the ufuall education of the eldeft fons of thefe familyes ; and firft I am to tell you they generally out-do the born gentle- men all over the Kingdom, I mean in educacion. Ican affure you they are not thought to be above. educacion. Their parents never think learning or going to fchoole a difgrace to them or below their quallity. And thus I am brought down to the terms of ad- miffion, as I may call them, vpon which the modern families of our gentry rank with the antient ; and I think they are very fairly reduc’d to two heads :—1!. Great eftates, whether raif’d by trade or any of the ufuall improvments of the meaner people, fuppofing them onely to be without a blot of fcandal, which I may explain in its turn. 2, A remove or two from the firft hand or, as ’twas call’d above, the workman that built the houfe. Thefe, and thefe oncly, are the foflu- Jata requir’d, or at leaft that I infift upon as neceffary. Sir A....C.... isa baronet ; his father was Lord Mayor of London, and kept his fhop\in ..... Street many yeares, a worthy honeft citizen of long {tanding, and liv’d to be father of the city, was belov'd by every body, had an extraordinary good name, and deferv'd. very The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. very well, having been a fair trades-man, juit in all his dealing, and had a wonderfull good reputacion, and vaftly rich. He bred up his eldeft fon to no bufiinefs, having fo great an eftate to give him, but fent him to Eaton School, where he made fuch a proficiency that at 18 year old he was fent to the Univerfity; there he ftudyed fome time, when at his own requefl and with his father’s confent he went abroad to travell. His two younger brothers were brought up to their father’s trade, and the’ old gentleman Icft it wholly to them ; and they are very rich allready, having great ftocks given them by their father at firft, and they | being complete trades-men encreafe it every day, grow rich appace, and may be as good gentlemen as their eldeft brother in a few. yeares, or at leaft, may lay a foundation of the like greatnefs in the next age by educating their eldeft fons fuitable to the breeding of a gentleman and giving them eftates to fupport it. Their eldeft brother being juft come home from his travels, the good old baronette his father dyed, and having purchaf’d an cftate of £3000 a year in Hamp- fhire, befides leaving him a vaft ftock of money in the Bank of England, the South Sea' ae other public funds and fecurityes, enough to purchafe £3 or 4000 a year more. He is gone down to the manfion houfe in . fhire to put a in condicion, he having: refolv'd to fettle there and to liv upon the fpot. When he came there, he fell imcdiately to work with the eftate, look’t over the Icafes, talk’t with his father's bailies and ftewards and with tennants too, making himfelf mafter of the condicion the eftate was in, as well as of the ecftate itfelf, ordring new leafes where the old ones were expir'd, ordred the farm houfes and barns to be repair’d, and fome new ones e OS Saas 2by 270 A+ 139 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. be built, raif'd feverall cottages for the poor, which were old and fallen down, and, in a word, did everything to encourage the tennants and i improve the eftatc, letting his tennants kno’ that he intended to come and fettle among them. Then he goes to work alfo with the manfion houfe or family feat ; and firft he ordr'd the park to be wall'd about, the old pale being very much decay’d; and as the carth was in many places proper for brick making, he caufes the bricks to be made upon the fpot, having fome of his owne tennants who were brick makcrs, and fo agreed with them by the thoufand, he finding them earth to make them and wood to burn them. Then he fetts men to the pulling down the out- houfes which were decay’d, and builds a very handfome fett of ftables, coach-houfes and ee a large dog kennell, with a little dwelling houfe for his hunts-man, and having ftock’d his park with dec of an extraordi- nary kind, he builds two lodges in his park, with other | conveniences for the keepers; and all thefe things are done with a magnificence fuitable to his fortunes, and to the figure he intended to liv in, and yet with a pru- dence and frugallity as to the manner of it that was admir’d by every body; there was no want of any thing, and yet no ncedlefs fimple profufion or ignorant weak extravagance ; and particularly he took care that ready meney was allways paid for every thing that was bought, and that all the workmen were punciually pay'd their wages. In all this Sir A... . does not think it below him- felf to direét and lay out every defign and to be his own _ Surveyor Generall. If the workmen commit any mif- take or prefume to dictate, as fuck men will, contrary to his fchemes, he fees it imediately and corrects the error, caufes it to be pull’d down and done his own way, and is not affraid to let them kno’ that he dares truft to The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. to his own judgment and will have his orders ftrictly executed. 271 . It happen’d one day that fome neighbouring gentle- - men riding by and feeing the works going forward in this manner, halt to fatisfye their curiofity. “ Let us go in,” fays one of them, “and fee how the buildings go on here, and what they are a-doing.”. When they had | view'd every thing and enquir’d of the workmen or, perhaps, of the head workman what this or that par- ticular part was or was to be, and fec: the admirable order in which all was begun, and how every thing is ° defign’d, and for what, they were furpriz’d ; firft, they were fhow'd the ftables for his coach horfes in one place, for his runing horfes in another, and for his hunters in a third; here the ftack yards, there the barns and hay lofts; here the granarics, there the wood yards; here the ayrings and riding places ; then they were fhow’d the offices for the family, fuch as the dairys, the cow houfes, the yards, the laundryes, and the lodgings over them for women fervants, and how to be wall'd in and enclof’d from the other offices of the Ecurie or ftables, with particular inlets to the kitchens and other appartments of the houfe when built: I fay, when they had fully view'd and obferv'd all thefe things, the gentlemen go away exceedingly pleafed, and difcourfing among themfelves faye one of them. Firft gentleman; “1 affure you, Sir A. will have a fine dwelling here when ’tis all done.” Second gentleman: “Yes, ne they finifh every thing very handfomly as they go.” Third gentleman: “ Ay, and 'tis all well defign’d too, admirably well ; who ever is his furveyer under- ftands things very well.” Firf? gentleman : “1 obferv every thing looks great and magnificent, and yet not gay and taudry, as if built for oftentacion.” Second 272 | Si. 140. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN, Second gentleman : “ No, indeed; here'is the grandeur without the vanity, her's no pride; ’tis all ufefull, all neceffary.” Third gentleman : “ Ay, and wonderfully ftrong and fubftantial ; ’tis built for the family. Why, ’twill ftand for ever. I want to kno’ who is his head mannager ; I want fuch a man.” Second gentleman: “What, for your own building, Sir James, that you are going upon atthe Grange? I can fatisfy you in that point, and particularly that you can’t have his help.” Third gentleman : “Why fo, pray ? I would not take him from Sir A., if I could ; but I might talk with him and have fome direccions from him; I would pay him for it.” Firfi gentleman: “1 underftand Mr...... It is true you can’t have him, indeed; why, Sir A. is his own furveyor ; he layes out all the defigns himfelf, and gives the workmen all the fcantlings and dimenfions from his own draftfts. a Third gentleman : “You furprife me! Why, they fay he was bred a trades-man, a meer citifen. His father wasa..... grocer or a———” Second gentleman : “ Let his father be what he will, tis apparent he underftands very well how to- be a gentleman.” Firft gentleman: “ Ay, and intends to liv like a gentleman too ; that’s evedent by all the defign.” Second gentleman . “1 affure you he has had as good an educacion as moft gentlemen, for he was bred at the Univerfity ; he was fiv year at Cambridge.” Firft gentleman: “ And has been three year abroad upon his travells.” Third gentleman : “Nay, then he'll be too learned and too proud for his neighbours, that are better gentlemen than himfelf.” Firft The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. Firft gentleman : “No, indeed ; you wrong him. He is the moft courteous, free, fociable gentleman that ever you kept company with in your life.” Third gentleman: “ And is he not allways telling you of his travells, and what he has feen, and where he has been ?” Second gentleman: “ Not at all; indeed, unlefs any body enquires and afks him queftions ‘about it for their | own informacion.” Firft gentleman: “Nor then neither any more than. juft to giv a dire&t anfwer.” Third gentleman: “And ifn’t his mouth full of {craps of Latin and of Italian, and fuch out of the way things ?” : Second gentleman: “Not a word; he is the beft humour'd, humbleft, and merryeft thing that ever you | faw in your life.” ‘Firft gentleman: “ Nay, and he’s a compleat fportf- Man.” Third gentleman : “ Indeed, he feems to love the fport by his building fuch conveniences for his dogs -and fuch a houfe for.his huntf-man,” Second gentleman: “He is but every thing that a man of fortune fhould be.” Firft gentleman: “He is indeed a complete gentleman.” Third gentlenan: “But fo much _ {fchollarfhip! | D.... it, I hate thefe learned gentlemen; a man can’t keep ’em company ; he muft have fuch a care of ‘em for fear he fhould look like a fool.” Second gentleman: “1 fee no need of it in his com- pany; he is above fuch little things. If a man makes a little flip, he is fuch a mafter of good manners, he never takes the leaft notice; in fhort, he is a clever gentleman. You would be charm’d with his company.” Firft gentleman : “When does he come down to liv among us ?” : Ss Third 273 274 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. Third gentleman: “1 muft needs fay I don't defire it; for I have no accquaintance with him.” Firft gentleman : “QO you'l be foon accquainted with him.” | Third gentleman: “1 accquainted? No! no! he is above me.” Second gentleman: “\Nhat do you mean by that? Is any gentleman above Sir James......?” Firft gentleman; “ We is above no body, and will be belov’d by every body.” Third gentleman: “ But he is too well read for me, he is above me in converfation ; I can’t cary on fuch an acquaintance.” Firft gentleman: “If you won't be accquainted with him, he will be accquainted with you. It’s impoffible you fhould avoid it ; you will be acquainted with him before he has been here a fortnight.” Second gentleman: “ Ay, and be as fond of him as any body, too; you have too much fence not to! love fuch a man; and he'll be as well pleaf’d with you, too, Sir James. I can tell you that, for he loves a man of fuch an open, free, generous converfation as you are.” Third gentleman: “But I have no learning. 1 was an unhappy dog; I was born to the eftate, or elce I had been taught ; but I muft be a blockhead for footh, becaufe I was to be the gentleman. There's Jack, my youngeft brother; they gave him Latin and Greek as f-14x. much as he could carry upon his back, and the D .. .] and all of other learning befides, and now he’s (al... Pocket) a lawyer I would fay; and there's Will, my fecond brother ; now he’s commander of a man.of war and knighted a’ready, and all by his being a mathe- matical dog. Ther’'s ne’re a blockhead in the family but me.” Firft gentleman : “Come, don’t run down your a f ir 1 MS. 60 fo. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. Sir James ; there’s no body takes you for a blockhead but your felf.” Third gentleman; “T have the moft reafon to kno’ what I am.” Second gentleman : “Well, well, Sir A... . won't take you for fuch.” Lirft gentleman: “ We can make a better judgment than fo, I tell you; he'll be delighted with you.” Third gentleman: “Yes, and I fhall hang my felf. I wifh my father had been a right worfhippfuli whole- fale grocer or draper or brandy maker, what d’ye call them, diftiller, or any mechanick thing with but money in his pocket ; then I fhould have been——” | Second gentleman: “What? what would you have been ? an arch-bifhop, would you? Are you not better as you are?) What would you have done with all this: eftate and a gown upon your back ?” Firfl gentleman: “ Aren't you Sir James...... ; Knight and Baronette, and £5000 a year? What ‘ would you be better?” Third gentleman: “Vl tell you. I would not per- . haps have been an arch-bifhop ; I fhould have made but a forry prieft; but I thould have been a man of reading, a man of letters, and a fchollar, and I muft own that becomes a gentleman. I’de give half the eftate for it with all my foul.” This difcourfe happen'd upon a curfory view oncly of Sir A.’s buildings; and the fubftance of it is to obferv how well a young well cducated fon of a citifen or tradef-man knows how to be a gentleman, if he has an eftate to fupport it; and how foon the pofterity of fuch eftablifh themfelves among the gentry, and are accepted among gentlemen as effectually as if the blood of twenty generations was runing in their veins. I could giv you fo many examples of this kind that it would be tyrefome to the reader ; but as fome variety is 2 75 276 fi lye The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. is neceffary, befides thofe whofe particular families are fo well known to us and who it is not for that reafon proper to mencion, take the following hiftory, which may be depended upon for truth. SirB..... Reena is another family now flourith- ing and eminent in the country. His father was an eminent city knight, a tradef-man or merchant with+ out family, without race or name in antient ftory, and what is ftill worfe, without fortune,an accidental blow or blaft of fortune overthrowing the old knight in the ordinary difafters of trade, fuch as are frequent among _tradef-men. He had educated his fon during his better circum- ftances' with all the advantages that a birth fortelling a rifing family could defire, and as his flowing wealth could well affuard. He was a comely perfon, had an agreeable behaviour, perfectly good humour’d, and, in a word, was every thing that could be defir'd in his out-fide. His head was furnifh’d with a great ftock of common knowleg by travell, and having feen the world he fpoke feverall languages. He had a tollerable fhare of fchool learning too, and had read much and feen more; and what added to it all, he had a mind fortify’d with virtue and folid judgement againft the fopperies and follyes of the age; and this fupported him under the difappointment of his father’s diffafters fo that he carryed it with an equall fteadynefs of temper, not affraid of a figure below what he was bred for, and yet not infencible and thoughtlefs, indolent, and care- lefs; but as he was defign’d for a gentleman by his father, when in condicion to have fupported it, and was furnifh’d as well by Nature as by education to be what his adverfe fortune feem’d to forbid, yet he refolv'd to maintain. the temper and behaviour of a e é o : 1 gentleman in proporcion to his circumftances' and to 1 Abbreviation. The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. 299 to let the world fee that, if fortune had deny’d him the advantage of appearing in the brighter figure for which he was fitted, that yet he would fhine in what ever orbit he mov'd in. This equanimity of his temper gain’d him an uni- verfall efteem. Every man lov'd him, every man fpoke well of him; he was the fubject of difcourfe at the tea tables, at the affemblyes,.at the meetings of all kinds among either the gentlemen or the ladyes ; and tho’ he was not treated as an object of charity recomended to the gentlemen for their fupply, yet all the difcourfe generally ended with a kind of acknowlegement that he was a gentleman that deferv’d a better fortune. Ges da was a maiden lady, well known in the country. She was an heirefs in reverfion to a very " great fortune, and had a handsome eftate in pofeffion ; fhe was well bred, of an antient family, and tho’ not . a celebrated beauty, not the toaft of the country, yet far from being ordinary, fhe was very gentecl and per- fectly agreeable. As fhe had a very good eftate and was well defcended, fhe had not wanted the addreffes of feverall gentle- men in the country, fo that if fhe was not marry’d at 23 it was no bodye’s fault but her own. Prudence and a very good judgment kept her from takeing up below her felf or with the worthlefs empty bcaus of | the adjacent town, tho’ of equall fortunes; and it was her receiv’d maxim that fhe would rather never marry than be match’d with a fool, however great his eftate. At a particular affembly of ladyes, where being by themfelves they made themfelves amends upon the men for the fcandalous freedom which they on the other hand often, I might fay allways, take with the fex, P they had among others the character of Sir B.... upon the carpet. Not one of the ladyes had fo much as a hard or un- kind 278 The COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN. kind word for him. Every body faid he was a compleat gentleman ; in the blow which his father’s miftake had been to his fortunes, how modeftly did he behave! how humble and yet how eafie! how chearfull, how per- feétly mafter of his own felicity! how did he fhew that, not deprefft with the difappointment of what he had before to expect, he was able to compofe his mind to a perfect enjoyment of what he had loft! “To prov,” fayes one lady, “that he knew how to have been a gentleman with a good eftate, he fhows that he can behave like a gentleman without an eftate.” “ Such a foul as his,” fayes another, a maiden lady of a great fortune, “moves in an exalted {phere above the low, clouded, ecclypft regions of common life ; it can fhine from its own luftre, and has all its merit in it felf” From this kind of difcourfe they began with fomc tendernefs to fpeak of his paft circumftances,’ and efpe- cially concerning the blow he had received ; how he vifited and affifted his father as far as he was able ; and abundance of foft things fuitable to the goodnefs of the fex were faid, At laftC... .. da took up the cafe. “T have heard much of this gentleman,” fayes fhe.” A Abbreviativa: ? End of MS. NOTES. Pace 6.—Mothers are frequently blamed for their inter- ference in their sons’ education. Cf Peacham, “Compleat ' Gentleman,” p. 32; and J. Gailhard, “Compleat Gentleman” (1678), p. 16. Pace 15.—Sir William Craven was Lord Mayor of London in 1611. His son William was made Earl of Craven, and died in 1697, aged .88, thus being contemporary with Aubrey, twentieth and last Karl of Oxford, who died in 1702. It seems almost certain that these are the persons. ,; But Defoe has confused the Earl’s genealogy; Aubrey’s father was Robert (od. 1632), the nineteenth Karl. Robert was the son of Hugh, son of Aubrey, who was the younger brother. of John (04, 1562), the sixteenth Earl. The seventeenth Earl was his son Edward (od. 1604). The eighteenth Karl was Henry (06. 1625). Another younger brother of John, the sixteenth Earl, was Geotirey, who had two sons, Sir Francis (died 1608) and Horatio de Vere. Nevertheless, the story seems to be true. (Bickley.) Pacr 18, 1. 22.—After Ze the printer has erroneously taken out the mark! which refers to the foot-note. Fol. 8 of the MS. begins thus: he finkis .... . Plebeti* [here is a mark for an insertion, which is lost] rea//y ought .... has fet them.** Veniceand Poland ..... PaGE 25.—The quotation is from Andrew Marvell's poem, “ A Dialogue between Two Horses.” : Pace 30.—Zhomas Thynne, known as “Tom of Ten 280 NOTES. Thousand,” succeeded to Longleat, and lived there in great magnificence. He was basely assassinated while in his coach in Pall Mall, Feb. 12, 1687, by the connivance, as it is believed, of Count Konigsmark, a Swedish nobleman, who was tried for the crime, but. was acquitted; his associates, who actually committed the murder, were hanged. (Burke, ‘* Peerage and Baronetage.”) The following extract from Kennet, “ History of England,” iii. 402, will correct Defoe’s mistake as to the nationality of Captain Vratz :—‘ The chief of the murderers readily confess'd the whole fact, said his name was Vratz, that he was a German and a Captain of Foot. Ais servant, who was a Polander, (is- charged his musquetoon upon Mr. Thynne.” PaGE 32.—Charles Stourton, seventh baron, having com- mitted a foul murder upon a person of the name of Hargil and his son, was tried, convicted, and executed in a halter of silk at Salisbury, in March 1557. (Burke, ‘‘ Peer. and Bar.”) ‘Mervin Lord Audley, Earl of Cas//ehaven in Ireland, having had three indictments found against him at Salisbury Assizes, for a rape upon his own wife and for sodomy, was tried by his Peers in Westminster Hall on April 25 ; and, being found guilty of those abominable sins in their aggravated form, was sentenced to death, and soon after executed. (Kennet, “ History of England,” iii. 59.) He was the second Earl of Castlehaven, The execution was on the 14th of May 1631, on ‘Tower Hill. (Burke, “ Peer. and Bar.”) Pace 32.—Balthasar Gérard, assassin of the Prince of Orange, 1558-1584. \ Pace 32.—John Felton assassinated the Duke of Bucking- ham at, Portsmouth, August 24, 1628. PacE 33.—2/modean is a blunder ; it should be A/monean race—viz., the family of the Asmoneans, who ruled over the Jews for about one hundred and seventy years. PaGE 34.—After as to the true and proper means of obtaining Jame (line 2), the following long passage has been struck out :— I might go on here, and that very fuitably to my prefent purpofe, NOTES. 281 to mencion the follys of other nacions, who value themfelves upon the antiquity of their race and upon the blood of their anceftors ; but there is one country in particular, and not the leaft famed for pride neither, who are fo unhappily corrupted by the meaneft of all mixtures, I mean that of Moors and Arabs, Turks and Mahom- etans, that they begin to quit the claim to the antiquity of their blood, and claim their honour from the modern advances of their families, and choofe to run up their pedigree to fome foreign familyes, if poffible fo to fhun fo much as the probability of their being traced back to the Morofcoes or fome other race of flaves, negroes, or barbarians. Thefe are the Spanifh and Portuguefe. It is true it is not much lefs than three hundred yeares fince the ‘Moores were expelled from the footing they had in Spain and Portugal alfo, being oblig’d after the battle of Neres to abandonne the whole country and leave it to the Spaniards. It is true alfo that no longer ago than the year 1500 or thereabout the King of Spain banifh’d all thofe people call’d the Marofcoes, | being the offspring of thefe Moores, and moft of whom, rather than quit the country, had turn’d and quitted the mahometan religion and began to call themfelves Spaniards, but who for reafons of © State, which I confefs I think were no reafons, were, I fay, at once expelled the Kingdom to the number of near a million of people, and to the great impoverifhing of the country as well in that which is the main wealth of any nacion, viz. their people, as their money. but with all this, as the Moors, who were all Mahometans and the fpurious, promifcuous race of Goths, Vandals, Arabs, Negroes, and Mauritanians, amongft whom no diftincion of blood or families are made, were poffefft of the whole country for above 700 yeares, till the time of King Ferdinand, who, by the taking of the city , of Granada and the yreat battle of Xeres above, entirely conquer'd them and drov them over into Africa; I fay, as they poffeff’t the whole country in property and government fo many years, you hardly find a family of any antiquity beyond the year 1400 to 1500 who are not of Moorihh original, or whofe blood has not been blended with the meaneft of all corrupted originalls, the Moors; except fuch familyes as have fettled in Spain from other countryes under the Spanish government. Pace 35.—The quotation is from Defoe’s “True Lorn Englishman.” Pace 40.—On the back of fol. 14 is the following sentence, which, however, is struck out :— ’tis for younger brothers to travell, (tudy, and accomplith them- 282 NOTES. felves ; the eldeft fon of the famil utterly needlefs to him. The quotations from Rochester on this page and the next are from his “ Letter from Artemisia in the Town, to Chloe in the Country.” y is abov it all, thofe things are PaGE 61.—On fol. 22b is the following list of the revenues of Spanish bishops and archbishops :— A.B. of Toledo, 300,000 pieces of eight ; A.B. of Seville, 120,000 ; A.B. of Mexico, 60,000 ; A.B. of Lima, 30,000 ; Granada, 40,000 ; Cordova, 40,000; Placenza, 40,000; A.B. Saragoca, 45,000; A.B. Valencia, 30,000 ; Cuenza, 50,000; A. Burgos, 40,000; Seyuenzo, 40,000 ; Segovia, 26,000 ; Ofma, 26,000 ; Pampelona, 28,000 ; Sala- manca, 24,000; Coria, 26,000; Jaen, 40,000; Malaga, 50,000; Murcia, 24,000 ; Los Angelos, 150,000. PaGE 63.-—The word ¢/ax in line 15 is a slip made under the impression thas the beginning of the sentence was jive times more. Pace 68.—After for the liberty of being ignorant (line 2), the following paragraph has been struck out :— ‘ Nay, when the Czar caufed a high way to be cut thro’ the woods and forrefts, broad and ftrait, pav’d and folid, to pafs the neareft way from Mofcow to Peterburg, tho’ no man was injur'd by it, tho’ it was clean and fair, and the old way was full of floughs and for many months unpaffable, tho’ it was a ftrait road bya line and con- fequently much nearer, the old way being above 30 German miles, that is, 120 Englith miles about; tho’ he built inns and houfes of entertainment at moderate diftances for fupply and convenience, and bridges for paffing the rivers, whereas before they were oblig’d to crofs deep and dangerous rivers and often to fwim their horfes, or, if frozen, venture upon the ice ; yet they were fo farr from accept- ing the publick good that becaufe it was among the reft an innova- tion, they murmurd at, and for a long time would not travell that way or make ufe of the houfes of entertainment provided for them. PaGE 69.-—After of the people about them, the following tong. passage has been struck out :— In Mufcovy the clergy are no more able to inftruct the people or fhew them examples of polite learning and a. liberall educacion, that they are as groffly ignorant as the reft, perfectly untaught, infinitely fuperftitious and oppofd [to] all improvements, as above, NOTES. 283 under the notion of innovacions and finfull being a conformity to other nacions of differing churches, pretending there is no falvation out of the communion of the Greek Church, in which their religion is.a meer heap of confufion, a lump of ceremony and fuperitition, nonfence and contradiccion ; abhorring images of Saints, yet wor- fhiping their pi€lures; keeping 5 lents in a year, and abftaining from fleth till they are allmoft flarv’d, but getting drunk every day for the reliefe of nature and an empty ftomach. The learning requird in a clergyman is to ting well and be able to fay what they call their Mafs, which is neither fo good as the Miffal of Rome or quite fo bad as the old one of the Pagans, out of which both are deriv'd. : As for preaching or exvolition of the Scripture; they neither perform or underfland it, neither is there a man amony them that. was ever taught'to preach, expound, or difcourfe to the people in a pulpit to the conyreyation. ‘Their whole oftice is perfonn’d in the detk, and their churches are rather like pageants and picture shops than places of worship. They can rail at other people’s religion indeed, when they cannot underftand their own, raife mutinyes and rebellions againft innovations, for fear any body thould open the people’s eves and make them too wife for their inflructors ; and in the late rebellion of the Strelitzes there was near 200 of the pricfts among them animating the foldiers to cut their Emperor's throat for defiring to introduce learning and the knowledge of ufefull arts among them. Pace 72.—That ladies of rank ought to suckle their own children 4s also recommended by other writers on education ; eg., Braithwait, “The English Gentlewoman,” 1631, p. 161. PaGE 74.—Cf. Elyot, “The Governor” (ed. Croft), i. 29. For, as fome auncient writers do fuppofe, often times the childe oukethe the vice of his nouryfe with the milke of her pappe. Pace 77.—On the opposite page the names of the two families are given: [Vhartox and Darwentwater. PAGE 114.—That Defoe himself was doubtful as to the Latin names of these towns is apparent from the mark for “ query which he has added in the margin. Pace 117.—We need not believe Defoe’s assertion as to the genuineness of the two letters which he meant to insert here. 284 - NOTES. PaGE 120.— The three Leslys. Yn the other work contained in the MS., “‘On Royall Educacion,” fol. 72-74, Defoe speaks only of two such generals ; but he is not quite accurate in either Place, as only two of the family served under Gustavus Adolphus, and as only one of these could not write. In the “Historical Records of the Family of Leslie,” by Colonel Leslie, I find that no less than four members of the family served in Germany during the Thirty Years’ War. 1. Str Alexander Leslie of Balgony was general of the Swedish army in Westphalia (cf “Records,” vol. ii. 103). Gustavus Adolphus raised him to the rank of lieutenant-yeneral and field- marshal. In 1626 he was sent to take command of Stralsund, and successfully resisted the sicge of that place by Wallenstein (iii. 336). He is reported to have been absolutely illiterate. 2. David Leslie (iii. 198), first Lord of Newark, born 1601, entered the service of Gustavus Adolphus during his wars in Germany. There he attained the rank of colonel of horse, and acquired the reputation of being an excellent officer. When the civil war broke out in Scotland, he was called home by the Covenanters in 1637. He greatly contributed to the defeat of the royal army at Marston Moor, 1644. But he was not illiterate, as is shown by a letter printed in the “Records,” and which he wrote himself.—Defoe’s error as to number seems to be caused by the two other members of the same family who also fought in Germany. '3. Walter (iii. 241), first Count Leslie, founder of the family of the Counts Leslie of the Holy Roman Empire, born 1606 ; he entered the Imperial service, in which he served with great distinction and honour in the war against the Swedes. He was created Count Leslie and Lord of Neustadt in Bohemia. He became a tield- marshal and Governor of Sclavonia. He was one of the partisans of the Emperor who murdered Wallenstein. 4. George Leslic, second son of George Leslie, went to Germany, entered the army, attained the rank of colonel. He was killed ata ’ siege (iii. 356). i Pace 121.—These verses, which Defoe quotes also in his “ Essay on Projects,” are taken from Roscommon’s ‘‘ Essay on Translated Verse.” PaGE 178.—Switt, in his ‘‘ Essay on Education” (“ Works,” 1841, li. 290), shows at length how after the Restoration the Crown lay under the necessity of handing over the chief NOTES. 285, conduct of the public affairs to new men merely for want of a supply among the nobility. He gives a long list of names. Pace 180.—Sir..... H., mentioned again On page 239 as Sir T. Ha. . . 5, is probably Sir Thomas Hanmer, born in 1676, son of William Hanmer, Esq. He was returned to Parliament, at the accession of Queen Anne, for the co. of Flint, elected in 1707 for the co. of Suffolk, and chesen Speaker of the House of Commons in 1712. He sat more than thirty years in the House of Commons. (Burke, “ Peer. and Bar).” | Pace 181.-—Aftér éut that by the by the following lines have been struck out :—Of whom the famous Andrew Marvell Jings merrily : But thanks to thew... who made the King dogged, for giving no more the fools were prorogued, Then follows the heading of Chapter V. (page 184), after which comes the deleted paragraph beginning Of thefe gentle- men (p. 181). 4 Pack 184.—At the beginning of fol. ror is a different head- ing to Chapter V., but is struck out: — CHAP. V. Of what is properly to be call'd learning in a gentleman ; of the affliccion it is fometimes to gentlemen of quallity, whofe genius and capafcityes are equally perfect with thofe of the moft leamed, to find themfelves, as it were, wholly excluded from the fociety of the befl men by the neglect of their parents in their educacion ; and of the great miftake they are guilty of in being afflicted at it and not takeing (and of the eafy and) [waded over line] proper meafures to retriev it. Pace 184.—After zevthout any difwuife, the following passage is struck out :--~ When the fabrick is thus built and that the foundation lay’d in pride is grown up in ignorance, ’tis fill fupported by the fame prepoflerous notion: the gentleman {corns the {candal of beiny learned, is vain of his ignorance, calls it a life of pleafure, glories in it, and is happy onelyasnotkn...? He is blinded by his pride not to fee that he is compleatly miferable ; and here his pride is evedently a vertue, fay thofe criticall enquirers. ; ; 286 NOTES. | Pace 186.—After when he is grown up, the following passage has been scored through :— His mafters, his parents, his inftructors, who turn’d him into the field an afs, would never have taken him up a horfe, had he fed in the beft paflure in the world ; and to have beftowd teaching upon one that could not learn had been fomething like a covetous man who, carrying gold to the refiner’s to be melted, put lead into ” the crucible to encreafe the quantity, not doubting but being melted with the pure metal it would all come out gold together, but found his lead was but a lump of lead fill and could not incorporate with the gold. But this is oncly where I fay the youth is incapable by meer naturall defects, where he has no power, and is not receptiv of learn- ing ; then, indeed, the parents had been in the right and it had been the beft thing they could do to let the underflanding run wild. Why - fhould they make vain attempts to hamer in learning where the flrokes would make no impreffion ? But if there are fuch natural powers ; if the youth was forward to learn, had a genius, a memory, an inclinacion, all fuited to reciev the impreftions of early education, there it muft be acknowley'd twas an unfufferable injury to deny teaching and to withold the helps which nature indeed, as it were, openly call’d for. PaGE 207.—W. Whiston, 1667~1752: “ A New Theory of the Earth; wherein the Creation of the World in Six Days, the Universal Deluge, and the General Conflagration, as laid down in the Holy Scriptures, are shown to be perfectly agreeable to Reason and Philosophy,” Lond. 1696, 1718, 1725, 8vo. PaGE 210.—John Oldham, 1653-83. PaGE 214.—Dr. Thomas Burnet, d. 1715: “ Telluris Theoria Sacrae,” Lond. 1681-9, 2 vols. 4to; Amst. 1699, 4to. "‘Trans- lated into English by himself, Lond. 1684_9, 2 vols. fol. Pace 218.—In writing this, Defoe perhaps thought of his own schoolmaster, Charles Morton, to whose excellent teaching he has borne testimony on another occasion. ; The first schoolmaster who advocated the study of English was Richard Mulcaster (1582), as has been pointed out by Mr. Quick (ed. of Mulcaster’s “ Positions”) and Dr. Furnivall (p. lviii of his article mentioned in the Introduction). PAGE 219.—Xdiel is doubtless a wrong spelling for Keill NOTES. 287 (John), the name of the author of the “ Introductio ad Veram Astronomiam,” ed. 2", Londini, 1721. ‘There is a Flemish historian and poet, Corne/is van Kiel or Cornelius Kilianus. 1530(?)—1607 ; but he can hardly be meant. _ PaGE 223.—/ohn Toland, a deistical writer born in Ireland, 1670-1722. Zhomas Llyn, an English Nonconformist theologian, 1663-1743. Pace 223.—Epiphanius and Tertullian derive the name of the Lbonites from Kbion, a disciple of Cerinthus. Others derive it from the Hebrew Ebionim, f.¢., poor people. PaGeE 225. -Capt. Woods Rogers: © Voyage to the South Seas and round the World,” 1708-11; “Cruising Voyage round the World,” Lond. 1712, Svo. Pace 244.4-In a book entitled “he Country Gentleman's Vademecum,” by G. Jacob, Gent. 1717, it is shown at length what the annual expense in the country was, at Defoe’s time, of a nobleman’s family comprising about twenty-five or thirty persons, “to be maintained genteelly and plentifully.” ‘The total expense is estimated at £1200 to £1500. ‘The wages for the twenty servants amount to only 4170. : Pace 266.—After pointed out. the following words have been struck out :— fuch as Mr. Edwards, Sir John Eyles, Sir Gilbert Heathcot, and many more. : Pace 268.—After Acftation, the following passage has been struck out :— Nay, fhall thefe be rejected, when ’tis evedent that fome of them fhall come in and be received without fuch a ceremony, when the huckflers of partyes and families thall upon the moft foolifh pretence fhut them entirely out? PaGr 268.—No Lord Mayor’s son of the name of Sir A....C.... is known; the two persons are either fictitious or disguised under wrong initials. (Bickley.) PaGE 276.— No baronet with the initials B and F, suiting the circumstances ielated here, can be identified. (Bickley.) Ric eee / LBAPSO . INDEX. ACADEMY, an, where everything was taugbt in English, 218°. Adam, 37, 110 Addison, 262 Adrian, 226 ASsmonean (MS. .Esmodean) vce, 33 (see the note: AM thiopians, 12 ‘Alexander the Great, 226 Ammon, the children of, 83 Anne, a saying of the late Queen, 235° Anne, wite of James [., suckled her own children, 78 Archangel, 37 Argyle, Duke of, 261 August I., Elector of Saxony, 30 Augustus, 226 Ave Maria Lane, 237 BACKSWORD men, 12 Bajazet, 226 Bar Jesus, 33 Bateman, Sir James, 262, 266 Bear Garden, 32 Beauford, Duke of, 261 Bedford, Duke of, 261 Belisarius, 226 Ben Gorion, 33 Bing, Pattee, 262 Blacket, the family 0°, 265 | Blenheim, 22 : ‘Blunt, 263 Boyars 227 290 INDEX. Boyle, 69 Braganza, the Royal House of, 34 Bridewell, 210 , Brookbank, 263 Buchan, Earl of, 261 Burnet, 214 CADOGAN, 62 ; Caesar, 4, 226 ' Cambden, 210, 214 - Carthage, 39 Castlchaven, Lord, 32 (with a note) Castlemain, Lord, 263 Catharine I. of Russia, 35 Ceciles, the, 77 Cerinthus, 223 Chain of Tartary, 29 ; Chambers, Mrs., 261 Charles II., sayings of, 25, 93, 180 Chester, 263 Chevy Chase, 135 Chiid, a modern family in Essex, 263 Child, Mr., 261 Child, Sir Josiah, 266 | Childs, Sir Richard, 263 Churchil, Lady, 262 : Classic, value of the, languages, 209; nothing but classic read- ing is now called literature, 222 Clergymen, position of the, 46 Cock at Charicton, family in Essex, 263 Collier, 263 Columbus, 226 Compton, Lady, 2€2 Cortez, 226 Coward, 263 , Craven, Sir William, and his son, 15 (with a note) Cressner, 263, 265 DAMPIER, 225 Darcyes, the, 167 Darwentwater, note to p. 77 Vaval, 263 David, 25 INDEX. 291 Dead-weight, the, in the House of Parliament, 95 Defoe, his knowledge of Latin, note to p. 114 De la Porte, family in Essex, 263 De Vall, Sir Thom., 266 De Vere, 14, 77, 167 Drake, 226 ‘ Drinking, the habit of excessive, with gentlemen, 70 Duncan, Mrs., 261 EBION, 223 (sce the note) Education of the born gentleman, mistakes committed by his ‘mother and aunts, 6 (and note), 7, 92; by his father, 9, 10; he is Not sent to school, 7; very few elder sons are sent to the Universities, 55, 118; elder sons are above study, note to p. 4o Edwards, Mr., note to p. 266 Emlin, 223 English, the study of, recommended, 219 (see a/so note to p. 218) Excester, Earl of, 261 Eyles, Sir John, note to p. 266 FAIRFAX, Mrs., 261 Fawkes, Guy, 32 Felton, 32 (witu a note) Ferdinand of Castile, 35 Foleys, the, 267 ° Franks, 22 French horn, the, 44, 57, 158 Furnese, Sir Robert, 264 Furnis, family in Essex, 263 GARTER, Knight of the, 28 Gentleman, distinction between, the born gentleman and the bred gentleman, 3, 4, 257 sey.; the complete yentleman, 3, 4,5; derivation of the word, 11; its meaning, 13. 15, 46,52; a Scotch gentleman sentenced to be beheaded instead of being hanzed, 52 ; how a day is spent (rhe a gentleman, 57, 58; manners and occupations of the country yentlemen and their ignorance, 39, 64 s¢g., 86 seg.; conver-ation of two brothers on the meaning of the word “ gentleman,” 43 sey. Gerrard, Balthazar, 32 (with a note) Gerrard, Mrs., 261 Gore, Mr., 262 292 INDEX. Goths, 22 Gould, 263 Grand Seignior, 29 Gustavus Adolphus, 14, 120 HALLEY, Dr., 154, 207 ; Hamilton, Duke, 261 fs Hanmer, Sir Thomas (called No. 50), 180 (see the note), 239 Hannibal, 226 Hastings, the, 167 Hawking, 70 Heathcot, Sir Gilbert, note to p. 266 Holmes, 261 Honorius, 226 Houblon, 263 Howard, 263 Howards, the, 167 Howland, Mr., 261, 265 INCOMES of the Spanish and Italian clergy, 61 (and the note) ; of the English gentry and nobility, 60 Irish custom, an, 146 Isla, Ear}, 261 Isles, a modern family in Essex, 263 Isles, Sir John, 263 Italian gentlemen, I! JOSEPH, 33 Jove, 80 Judas, 33 KHIEL, 219 (see the note) : Knight, Mrs.,-261 LEARNING despised, 7, 44 5¢g., 64, 65, 98 seg. Le Fort, 67 ‘ Leipzig, battle of, 227 ; Leopold, Emperor of Germany, called the old fiddler of Vienna by Louis XI1V., 119 Lesly, three Scotch generals, 120 (see the note) Lethulier, 263 Library, a catalogue of books in a country gentleman’s, 135 5 how a country gentleman bought a library, 137 <¢7e INDEX. 293 Locke, 69 London in ruins, 39 Louis XIV., 119 Ludyate Street, 137 MALPLAQUET, 227 Marlborough, 62 Marshals, French, 62 Martin, 263 Marvell, Andrew, 25 (sce the note), and note to p. 18 ‘Mead, 263 Mead, Sir Nath., 263 Menchikoff, the Deputy-Czar, 35 Milton, 20 Moab, the children of, 83 Mohuns, the, 262 Moors, 34 i Muscovites, ignorance of the, 63, 112, 122 NARBRO’, Lady, 262 Narva, 22 ‘Nebuchadnezzar, 17, 18 | Nero, 119 Newgate, 32 Newton, 69, 207, 219 ; Nobility, enormous wealth of the English, 60-63; Spanish, - 61; French, 61; Venetian, 21-26; Polish, 114 ‘ OLDHAM, 210 Onslow, Lord, 261 Oxford, Earl of, 14 PAGE, family in Essex, 263 Page, Sir Gregory, 264 Papilon, family in Essex, 233 Pater Noster Row, 137 Patricii of Rome, 11 | Pension Parliament, 95 Percys, the, 262 Peter the Great, 35-38, 66, 187, 193 Pharisees, 12, 17 Plebeij, 18 Polanders, 21, 29-3! 294 INDEX. Polish gentlemen are. li of them scholars, 1I4 Poltcot, 32 Porto Bello, 227 Portuguese nobility, 34 (see a/so the note) RAVENNA, 22 Rawson, 2 263 Rebow, an Essex family, 263 Reval, 227 Rhehobeam, 107 Robin Hood, 135 Rochester, tie poet, 4o, 41 Rogers, 22 Romans, the, 11, 18, 22 Roscommon, Earl of, 121 Russel, Lady, 262 Russels, the, 77, 265 Russian nobility, 35, 67-69 ; Russian stupidity, 12, 63, 147; Russian clergy, note to p. 69 ST. PAUL’s CHURCH YARD, 137 Salisbury, cathedral of, 32 Saul, 25 Scawen, Sir Thom., 262; Sir William, 266 Scholar, description of a, 201 Schoolmasters despised, 7, 9; their severity, 7 ; Schools, 7; Eaton, Winchester, Westminster, Felsted, Bishop Stortford, Canterbury, 8; Winchester School, 129; going to ¢ school is below a gentleman, 7,98 Selymus, 226 Senacharib, 22 Shovel, family in Essex, 263 Shovell, Cloudsly, 262 Simeon, 33 Simon Magus, 33 Solomon, 37, 78 Southampton, 141 Southsea, 269 Spaniards, 12, 34 (and the note) ; revenues of Spanish bishops, note to p. 61 Spelling, bad, of gentlemen, 117 Stangeways, Mrs., 261 Stourton, family of, 32 (with a note) : INDEX. 295. Suckling.of children, 70 (and note to p. 72) TALBOTS, the, 167 Tamerlan, 226 Tankerville, Lord, 261 ! Thynne, Thomas, Esq., assassinated by Capt, Vratz, 30 (with a note) Titus Vespasian, 226 Toland, 223 Tomombejus, 226 ; ‘ Transactions, Philosophical, of the Royal Society, ry2 Translations, value of, 223 seg. Travellinz, 38, 39 Tunbridge, 117 ' _ Tutors generally are only the play-fellows of their pupils, 57; besides, they ruin their morals, 87 ; and this they are com- pelled to do, 87 ; they are the “ murderers” of a child's morals, 71; their salary, 206, 213 Tysson, family of, 263. Tysson, Mr., 266 VANDALS, 22 Venetian nobility, 21-28 Veres, the, 262 Vratz, Captain, assassin of Thom. Thynne, I->y., 30 Wakwick, Countess Dowager of, 262 Webster, 263 . / Welsh gentlemen, 21 We-tern, 263 Wharton, Duke, 261 \ Whartons, the, 77 (see a/se the note} Whiston, 207 * Whitfield, Mrs., 261 William the Conqueror, 4 William IIL, saying of, 102; a greater king than Titus, 226 ZINA, strange customs in the island of, 93 PRESET D BY BALL VS. TYNE, HAS OS AHD co. LONDON AND EDINBURGH } ras Sahota eeese! Ce ie Foe Beery Sos