 for --a Gentleman.
In the Country a laced Hat and long Whip makes --a Gentleman.
In Taverns and in Brothels, he who is the most of a Bully is the most of --a Gentleman.
With Heralds, every Esquire is, indisputably, --a Gentleman.
And the Highway Man, in his Manner of taking your Purse; and your Friend, in his Manner of debauching your Wife, may however be allowed to have --much of the Gentleman.
As you say, my Friend, our Ideas of this Matter are very various and adverse. In our own Minds, perhaps, they are also indetermined; and I question if any Man has formed, to himself, a Conception of this Character with sufficient Precision. Pray --was there any such Character among the Philosophers?
Plato,
among the Philosophers, was
the most of a Man of Fashion;
and therefore allowed, at the Court of
Syracuse,
to be  � 
the most of a Gentleman.
But seriously, I apprehend that this Character is pretty much upon the Modern. In all ancient or dead Languages we have no Term, any way adequate, whereby we may express it. In the Habits, Manners, and Characters, of old
Sparta
and old
Rome,
we find an Antipathy to all the Elements of modern Gentility. Among those rude and unpolished People, you read of Philosophers, of Orators, Patriots, Heroes, and Demigods; but you never hear of any Character so elegant as that of  � 
a pretty Gentleman.
When those Nations, however, became refined into what their Ancestors would have called Corruption. When Luxury introduced, and Fashion gave a Sanction to certain Sciences, which
Cynics
would have branded with the illmannered Appellations of Debauchery, Drunkenness, Whoredom, Gambling, Cheating, Lying,
&c.
the Practitioners assumed the new Title of
Gentlemen,
till such
Gentlemen
became as plenteous as Stars in the Milky-Way, and lost Distinction merely by the Confluence of their Lustre.
Wherefore, as the said Qualities were found to be of ready Acquisition, and of easy Descent to the Populace from their Betters, Ambition judg'd it necessary to add further Marks and Criterions, for severing the general Herd from the nobler Species  � 
of Gentlemen.
Accordingly, if the Commonalty were observed to have a Propensity to Religion; their Superiors affected a Disdain of such vulgar Prejudices; and a Freedom that cast off the Restraints of Morality, and a Courage that spurned at the Fear of a God, were accounted the distinguishing Characteristics of  � 
a Gentleman.
If the Populace, as in
China,
