If he learns Irish, which all
the world scoffs at, he likewise learns Italian, which all the
world melts at. If he learns Gypsy, the language of the tattered
tent, he likewise learns Greek, the language of the college-hall.
If he learns smithery, he also learns--ah! what does he learn to
set against smithery?--the law? No; he does not learn the law,
which, by the way, is not very genteel. Swimming? Yes, he learns
to swim. Swimming, however, is not genteel; and the world--at
least the genteel part of it--acts very wisely in setting its face
against it; for to swim you must be naked, and how would many a
genteel person look without his clothes? Come, he learns
horsemanship; a very genteel accomplishment, which every genteel
person would gladly possess, though not all genteel people do.
Again as to associates: if he holds communion when a boy with
Murtagh, the scarecrow of an Irish academy, he associates in after
life with Francis Ardry, a rich and talented young Irish gentleman
about town. If he accepts an invitation from Mr. Petulengro to his
tent, he has no objection to go home with a rich genius to dinner;
who then will say that he prizes a thing or a person because they
are ungenteel? That he is not ready to take up with everything
that is ungenteel he gives a proof, when he refuses, though on the
brink of starvation, to become bonnet to the thimble-man, an
office, which, though profitable, is positively ungenteel.
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