The Portable Edmund Burke (Portable Library) (9 page)

SOME OF THE LEARNED have quarrelled with the vulgar notions of a fine Gentleman; and because they thought this a Character highly esteemable, were displeased to see it so often applied to a sort of men they could by no means approve. They therefore wholly excluded from this denomination all whose morals were dissolute, though their manners were none so agreeable; and they concluded that the man of compleat vertue was alone the fine Gentleman.

We must trust the world to give names to Characters; to change and transpose the distinctions Custom has settled, would not be an improvement of knowledge, but an abuse of words. Let us see then, what sort of men they are, who are generally termed fine Gentlemen, and endeavour to settle with ourselves a notion of this Character. But a Character is too complete a thing to be drawn into a Definition. We may acquire a much better Idea of it from viewing it in as great a variety of Lights as the Subject will bear.

This Character is not denominated from excellence in any sort of Business or employment; it belongs solely to conversation, and the habitudes of pleasant Society; its Basis is politeness, whose essence is Ease: and hence it is that there is no Character more rarely found; for easy behaviour, easy conversation, and easy writing are the hardest things in the world. At your first Entrance into any company, the fine Gentleman is not the person who strikes you most, and you may possibly converse with him several times before you discover what his excellence is, and where it lies.

He is no Scholar; every accomplishment he has seems to be derived immediately from his nature; there must be no appearance of any thing borrowed; to think justly, costs him no more trouble than to breathe freely.Yet he is not ignorant; he seems rather to slight books, than not to know them.

There is very little of Wit in his conversation; this is a quality that draws the admiration of company, but often at the expense of their esteem. It very soon tires; and there is such an immense distance between the heights of that, and the plainness of common discourse, that it breaks the even tenor of conversation that can alone take in the whole company and make it agreeable in all its parts.

Neither is his discourse of the humorous kind; it never raises a laugh; but yet it is not wholly averse from that Strain. There is a sort of concealed Irony that tinges his whole conversation. He entertains no extremes of opinion; he scarcely ever disputes; he is sceptical in his notions; and not fond of deep disquisitions; there is some one point in all Topics that seems to determine his judgement about them without much enquiries into other particulars. He seldom contradicts your opinions, and you will gain very little by contradicting his.

To make a man perfectly agreeable to his company he ought not to exert such Talents as may raise the envy, and consequently the uneasiness, of anybody in it. ‘Tis on this principle, that the Character of a fine gentleman is not a brilliant one. There is no part of his discourse you prefer to another; and he is never the man whose bons mots are retailed in every company. His expressions are well chosen and easy, but they are not strong. There is no Glare; but there is a universal Effect produced by an infinity of fine Touches, which are imperceptible and inimitable.You may observe in lower Life, that a speaker of wise Sentences, a strenuous disputant, or one ostentatious of knowledge, never want[s] abundance of admirers; but in an higher Sphere such persons are in no great request. People of rank can brook a superiority, especially an avowed superiority, much less than others; there is a principle of politeness that forms an apparent level of their understanding. And hence I believe it is that politeness is apt sometimes to flatten into the Insipid.

The Vulgar are apt to judge of politeness by a number of ceremonious observances; but this notion is a good deal exploded amongst people of good sense and breeding.You distinguish nothing in the address of the fine Gentleman other than that it is free and unconstrained; there is a sort of openness and candour in his demeanor that invite you to that same openness and freedom; his Civilities and compliments are few, for there is something in professions that confound[s] a man; and a complement has not always a very pleasing Effect when it cannot be answered with Spirit.

Nothing is more disengaged than the language, the behaviour and the very looks of a perfect Gentleman; for which reason it can seldom be reached by men of Business, or professions, or those who are given to a close attention to any thing. This part grows almost spontaneously out of a plentiful fortune, the smiles of the world, and acquaintance with Courts.

Indolence is a predominant ingredient in this Character; Diligence, economy, prudence, and a consideration of the future are the virtues of men of business; and give an air of closeness and reserve, inconsistent with the perpetual Gaiety and ease that shine with such a constant Lustre in the fine Gentleman.

To be libertine in his practices and opinions is another part of his Character; but he is not a debauchee; ‘tis only so much as may make him entirely a man of the world. In point of Gallantry he is no way scrupulous. The greatest liberty in his actions, and the greatest decency in his discourse are his Character in that point. Drunkenness is a Vice he abhors; but Luxury in point of eating he is not ashamed of. He may be accused of excess in Gaming; but the great Temper he preserves under his Losses, is one of his remarkable excellencies.

You see no Tincture of Vanity in his conversation; and it is a nice Eye that under that air of Affability and complaisance can discern a great deal of pride.

The fine Gentleman is never a warm friend;—it is but too true, that a Close attachment to particulars makes a man less easy and pleasing in general Society; and it is there and not in the relations of a friend, a father, a husband, or a relation, or any close connexions that a fine Gentleman shines. France is a great polisher of manners; for there they pursue publick assemblies, and neglect the satisfactions of privacy and retirement. The fine Gentleman has but little of Tenderness or what is called Good nature; a frequent feeling for others, a mixing with the unfortunate, and interesting oneself in their concerns, tends to throw a gloom on a man’s Character and make it splenetick and uneven.

It is almost impossible for any man to be a fine Gentleman, who has not courage. But as such a Character is not ostentatious or affected, it is equally Essential to it to conceal this Quality. It is only to appear in a composure, formed by a confidence a man finds in himself, that he is able to prevent being disturbed in his own Course by the insolence or brutality of others. The whole Circle of Taste must be open to him; but the affected parts, the Cant of a dealer in pictures, or the Chimeras of a Virtuoso never make their appearance. Such a Character goes through Life with great Smoothness. He is praised by everybody; respected, esteemed, courted, and everything but really Loved.

I am not sure as to this last point; for he receives all the marks of Love, except the disagreeable one[s] that arise in Close intimacies, when men are undisguised and unrestrained, and give their Tempers a loose in all humours.

Perhaps this Character in all its points is not to be met. I have sometimes seen something not very far from it. To be consistent and perfect, I fancy it must be nearly as this is described. I do not mean a perfect man, for this Character has many faults; but none that do not in a good measure contribute to what we find most beautiful and pleasing in it.

The person I intend to describe is not the wise man of the Stoics, much less is he one of those whom the scripture calls wise unto Salvation; but a mere wise man of this world; one who chooses some desirable end in life and disposes the means of it judiciously and with efficacy. Having given this definition, any further character may seem useless and idle; as to give a Character of prudence and industry in the abstract. But to me it seems otherwise. Those things which appear to depend wholly on reason and prudence have always some inferior supports in our passions; even reason and prudence themselves depend, if not for their substance, yet certainly for their colour and bent on our native constitution and complexions. A certain adjustment of passions, and a certain mode of understanding, are as requisite to form a wise man as a certain degree of reason and good sense.

 

A wise man may properly be said to have but two passions, avarice and ambition; the rest are absorbed in these. And if they appear, it is in a subordinate way and to serve the purposes of the two principal.

When he has any end in view, he never looses sight of it; he never suffers it to be sacrificed to intermediate and triflling gratifications. Weak minds cannot fix their eyes steadily on one object. They are soon weary of the pursuit. At the same time that they are unwilling wholly to relinquishing the principal Design, they cannot avoid taking up with some temporary Reliefs, every one of which, however, puts them further and further from their Object.

They waste their whole life without the enjoyment of their pleasures or the establishment of their interest; and drop into their Graves fatigued, restless, anxious, unsatisfied, unsuccessful beings. But the whole life of a wise man is one uniform plot;—everything lends the main design. He knows he cannot enjoy all things, and therefore he drives at some one secure and permanent enjoyment. He leaves nothing to chance; and you might as well take away his Life as make him live extempore. He considers each day only as it does something for the next, and every Year he lives only as it promises a greater interest or grandeur for the future. Yet he is not without the enjoyment of his grandeur or fortune; but this enjoyment only whets him for new ones; and the chief satisfaction he has in them is that they are the certain pledges of more.

He is courageous in an high degree; and knowing that Life without its ends is nothing, he will always venture his life for his ends; and the ends themselves sometimes to extend them. But this never without reason; for his courage is rather of the steady than adventurous kind. He will not move one foot untill he has fixed the other. Yet as he has always a principle of Vigour within him; when he has done so, no frivolous fears shall hinder him from moving both. His pace is not rapid but firm and even. If he does not gain ground as fast as they who move by starts, he never looses any; and is always gaining something. He is called fortunate, and he is so; there happen chances nearly equal to all men; but only those who are ever attentive to their Design, see all the accidents that may tend to it. And it is not that more of these adventures happen to him than to other men; but he knows them when they do happen and knows too how to make use of them. His understanding is strong without being very extensive; and the stronger for being confined. His imagination is neither warm nor bright; so that all his actions are rather to be approved than admired. Vanity is a little passion gratified with little things; and always pernicious to the owner of it. It never gains much, because it lays by nothing, and works always for present pay; it has an appetite early many [may be] satisfied but [which] must be fed often. A wise design has been disconcerted because the vain contriver must needs have his wisdom appear as well as his design executed: but the wise man is far above that triffling gratification which puts him in the power of every fool; yet he knows his own value to a scruple; he is even proud to the last degree; a passion which never yet brought any man into contempt but one extremely weak,—a sort of people who are seldom proud. But as he carefully avoids contempt he is not passionate for admiration; he gains a solid esteem attended with solid advantage; he admires no man, esteems very few, and those he esteems he always fears. Those whom he holds in the lowest contempt are good natured men of no great abilities and men of fine parts who are imprudent and unsuccessful in the World. He knows that patient suffering one injury is sure to draw on another; his pride makes him feel all injuries deeply, and his constancy enables him to keep any resolution he has formed. So that his revenge is deep, slow, certain, implaccable and ruinous. On the other hand his friendship is sure; oblige him and he never forgets it. He understands the Value of a good Office; and that is a great deal. He knows likewise the use of a friend in any design. In choosing his friends he has little regard to the heart or moral character; and once he has chosen a friend, no vice of his can alianate
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him. He expects them in men. It is not vice but folly he objects to; and as he never much esteems his friends, even something of that he may forgive. But if he should chang[e] his friendship, the object is not neglected but ruined.

In his discourse he is not eloquent, yet he is always very well heard; because no man has ever heard him say a light undigested thing. He seems to say more than he expresses; he has a slowness to determine; he draws all his ideas from experience rather than Speculation; and chooses to appear not so much an agreeable man as a Man of good contrivance and sagacity; and of Action rather than Elocution. He is extremely slow in trusting or believing; and he is confirmed in this disposition every day he lives. When he sees any man perfidious, he grows more cautious. And when he sees another faithful, he does not change his mind; because he believes he has an interest in his fidelity. This belief of men acting more according to their interest than they really do, is what prejudices him more than anything else. He trusts much to himself; this sometimes hurts him too.

He has nothing of that milky quality of good nature which, as it softens, generally something enfeebles the mind. He is in his nature stern, severe, and inflexible. The life of a man is nothing in his eyes if his dying should be anything more conducive to the management of his business than his living.Yet he cannot be said to be cruel or fond of blood, because he never chooses to do anything unnecessary. And he is seldom in the passion of anger.