"GAIT, LAUGHTER, AND APPAREL."
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.")
SIR,—I notice that the writer of " Gait, Laughter, and Apparel " attributes the saying on which he bases his article to Peaeham, the Cavalier Schoolmaster, apparently not knowing that it was borrowed by the author of The Compleat Gentleman from the Book of Ecclesiasticus. The words in Ecclesiasticus are : " A man's attire, excessive laughter, and gait show what he is." These things are considered as the outward and visible marks of character, not of social status, though of course the writer of the article in the Spectator was quite justified in applying the tests in any manner he pleased. How little are the beauties of that Apocryphal Book of Ecclesiasticus .known and appreciated! Much of its imagery is extraordinarily fine. Take, for instance, this passage :-
" He was as the morning Star in the midst of a Cloud and as the Moon at the full; as the Sun shining upon the Temple of the Most High and as the Rainbow giving light in the bright Clouds."
Was there ever a more perfect epitaph P—I am, Sir, &c., D.
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