hat can be conceived
of by the finite mind of man.

There are hundreds of definitions of a gentleman, none of them
altogether satisfactory. Cardinal Newman says it is almost enough to say
that he is one who never gives pain. "They be the men," runs an old
chronicle, "whom their race and bloud, or at the least, their virtues,
do make noble and knowne." Barrow declares that they are the men lifted
above the vulgar crowd by two qualities: courage and courtesy. The
Century Dictionary, which is as good an authority as any, says, "A
gentleman is a man of good breeding, courtesy, and kindness; hence, a
man distinguished for fine sense of honor, strict regard for his
obligations, and consideration for the rights and feelings of others."
And this is a good enough working standard for anybody. The Dictionary
is careful to make--and this is important--a gentleman not one who
conforms to an outward and conventional standard, but one who follows an
inward and personal ideal.

Of late days there has been a great deal of attention paid to making
gentlemen of business men and putting courtesy into all the
ramifications of business. Without doubt the chief reason for it is the
fact that business men themselves have discovered that it pays. One
restaurant frankly adopted the motto, "Courtesy Pays," and had it all
fixed up with gilt letters and framed and hung it near the front door,
and a number of other places have exactly the same policy for exactly
the same reason though they do not all proclaim the fact so boldly. It
is not the loftiest motive in the world but it is an intelligent one,
and it is better for a man to be polite because he hopes to win success
that way than for him not to be polite at all.

Human conduct, even at its best, is not always inspired by the highest
possible motives. Not even the religions which men have followed have
been able to accomplish this. Most of them have held out the hope of
heavenly reward in payment for goodness here on earth and countless
millions of men (and women, too, for that matter) have kept in the
straight and narrow path because they were afraid to step out of it. It
may be that they were, intrinsically, no better men than the ones who
trod the primrose path to the everlasting bonfire, but they were much
easier to live with. And the man who is courteous, who is a gentleman,
whatever his motives, is a more agreeable citizen than the one who is
not.

Now how--this is our problem--does