THE CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN.
By Charles Edwards
[MR. GOUVERNEUR MORRIS on being asked for his definition of a gentleman, replied by repeating Poet-Laureate Tate’s paraphrase of the fifteenth psalm:—] “’Tis he who every thought and deed
By rules of virtue moves;
Whose generous tongue disdains to speak
The thing his heart disproves.
Who never did a slander forge,
His neighbor’s fame to wound;
Nor hearken to a false report
By malice whispered ’round.
Who vice, in all its pomp and power,
Can treat with just neglect;
And piety, though clothed in rags,
Religiously respect
Who to his plighted vows and trust
Has ever firmly stood;
And, though he promise to his loss,
He makes his promise good.
Whose soul in usury disdains
His treasure to employ;
Whom no rewards can ever bribe
The guiltless to destroy.” This psalm was copied by Thomas Jefferson, in the smallest hand-writing and neatest manner, into a common-place book which he was in the habit of frequently consulting, and we find it at the end of a letter on moral conduct which he wrote to T. Jefferson Smith, thus entitled, “The portrait of a good man, by the most sublime of poets, for your imitation.” —Charles Edwards.