I am officially a chapter behind the other participants, from what I can tell, but I’m plugging away nonetheless. This is truly a great book, and I have decided that, unless something else comes along over the years, we’ll use it as a spine for Government in high school. It just seems ideal to use it that way.
There were a couple things that stuck out to me in chapter 9, the first being characteristics of the American gentleman, and the second being Jonathan Edward’s comments on the affections.
The American Gentleman
I found the qualities of what Kirk called “the American gentleman” to be fascinating. The idea is that we still have an aristocracy here in America, but it isn’t an artificial one, inherited by unqualified characters. Instead, it is the natural aristocracy which occurs when we compare one man with another. As Kirk said,
The Roots of American Order
by Russell Kirk[O]ne man is not as good as another, and a society without sound social distinctions is a miserable society, and a republic requires leaders with a sense of honor.
The gentleman, then, was the best sort of man. He was the embodiment of the ideal, in many ways. I decided I’d draw up a bullet list of his qualities, and share them later with my son:
- Good breeding: good and tasteful manners
- Honorable: would not lie or cheat
- Valorous: would not flee before enemies
- Dutiful: would serve as a representative of his king or country as required
- Charitable: good steward of his wealth, using it for the common good
- Not prideful: especially about his inheritance, if he has one
- Diligent student: at the university level (meaning uncommon achievement, I think)
- Knowledge of laws: studied the law
- Rides his horse well: What would be the modern equivalent of this, do you think?
- Accepts public office: if given to him (it has always been interesting to me how many of the Founders seemed to serve their country out of duty rather than desire–a far cry from the modern politician!)
- Severe but just: judged meditatively, but acted swiftly when the matter was clear
- Prepared: used peacetime to prepare for war (didn’t waste his time, prepared well for the future)
- Known: his generosity, his dress, and his companions are remarkable
- Courteous: well mannered, flexible, truly generous in attitude toward others
“The word ‘gentleman’ has a positive and limited signification. it means one elevated above the mass of society by his birth, manners, attainments, character and social condition. As no civilized society can exist without these social differences, nothing is gained by denying the use of the term.
Jonathan Edwards on the Affections
With the best frosting, I might add.
Lots of it.
True religion in a great measure consists in holy affections. A love of divine things, for the beauty and sweetness of their moral excellency, is the spring of all holy affections.
_________________________
Read More:
–Buy the book and join in the conversation
–More book club posts linked at Cindy’s blog
10 Comments
The more I think about “riding your horse well,” the more I think there is not a one to one correlation in our culture. The horse was so important for transportation, but he was also a weapon during war, and a tool during peace. There was strength as well as grace involved in mastering the horse, and also compassion because a good rider is able to form a relationship with his steed. There is just so much there!
But Mystie, YES! That definitely is part of a modern version of manners–the ability to be present instead of distracted, the ability to use technology as a tool rather than being enslaved to it as a master. Good thoughts for sure!
this is the main reason i’m so sad we don’t still ride horses… so much there! have you watched ‘war horse’? kinda interesting in light of this comment. 🙂
your posts always make me wish i had more time to read along. 🙂
War Horse is in my Netflix queue right now! You make me anticipate watching it even more. 🙂
Speaking of time to read along…For this particular book club I have carved out time more than ever before. I’ve been more crunched than ever, so for most of this time {going on two months now, I believe} I’ve read nothing but Roots and my Bible. I made an exception last week when E.-Age-Almost-Ten wanted me to pre-read Dandelion Fire for him, but that’s been about it.
If you ever get the chance to read it, I really do recommend it, and I think it’d be easy to read it one chapter at a time, putting it down when you need to.
DH and I enjoyed War Horse ~
Hm. How about if we interpret the modern “ride your horse well” as “manage your technology well.” You know, not checking FB in the middle of a conversation. 🙂
Brandy,
I just got my copy of this book the other day. I was encouraged to try it since both you and Cindy are going through it. Now I have the benefits of your notes. 🙂 Thank you for the time and effort you put into sharing what you’re learning with the rest of us. It is a blessing.
I hope you like it! I think it is very readable compared to some of the past selections, and it is *full* of good ideas. 🙂
Enjoyed your synopsis, especially the gentleman bullet points which tie into Cindy’s parenting extrapolations from 18th Century Intellects (Chpt X) ~
and will be thinking about the modern equivalent of *riding your horse well*
Ahhh, I’m in the middle of Edwards’ book “Religious Affections” right now. Great read. I highly recommend it if you’ve never read it. 😉
Good idea! I own the Complete Works, but haven’t read everything. I’ll make that next on my list!