In a country like England,
where there is such free and unbounded scope for the exertion of
intellect, and where opinion and example have such weight with the
people, every gentleman of fortune and leisure should feel himself
bound to employ himself in some way towards promoting the prosperity
or glory of the nation. In a country where intellect and action are
trammelled and restrained, men of rank and fortune may become idlers
and triflers with impunity; but an English coxcomb is inexcusable; and
this, perhaps, is the reason why he is the most offensive and
insupportable coxcomb in the world."
The Squire, as Frank Bracebridge informs me, would often hold forth in
this manner to his sons, when they were about leaving the paternal
roof; one to travel abroad, one to go to the army, and one to the
university. He used to have them with him in the library, which is hung
with the portraits of Sidney, Surrey, Raleigh, Wyat, and others. "Look
at those models of true English gentlemen, my sons," he would say with
enthusiasm; "those were men that wreathed the graces of the most
delicate and refined taste around the stern virtues of the soldier;
that mingled what was gentle and gracious, with what was hardy and
manly; that possessed the true chivalry of spirit, which is the exalted
essence of manhood.
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