TILE " TATLER" ON GENTLEMANLINESS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR, I think the following quotation may be of some interest to your readers in reference to the definition of the word " gentleman" :—
" All distinctions of disparagement, merely from our circum- stances, are such as will not bear the examination of reason. The courtier, the trader, and the scholar should all have an equal pretension to the denomination of a gentleman. That tradesman who deals with me in a commodity which I do not understand, with uprightness, has much more tight to that character, than the courtier that gives me false hopes, or the scholar who laughs at my ignorance. The appellation of gentleman is never to be affixed to a man's circumstances, but to his behaviour in them." —( [he Tatter, No. 207.) I think there are few of your readers who will not prefer Steele's definition to that of Mr. Corbet.—I am, Sir, &e.,
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