[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—Before the Editorial foot
descends* on this correspond- ence I hasten to plead that, in common with most abstrac- tions, the term " gentleman " is undefinable, just as is the term "good taste." " Gentleman " belongs to a class of words long since defined by a high authority as " portmanteau " words, containing two meanings packed up in one. We hear of the gentleman-by-birth [in itself an indefinable term] and of him who, possessing no claim to " birth " beyond the fact that he was born, succeeds in behaving himself as a gentleman-by- birth should do. Such of the letters as I have read quote sentimentalisms and aphorisms ; but supply no definition. Th.. only watertight and Waterproof definition known to me ref e not to Gentlemen, but to Dirt, viz., that all said and done, "Dirt is merely Matter in the wrong place." What Matter is I refer, dear Sir, to you.—Yours, &c., [* It now descends.—En. The Spectator.]
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