"
"That supposes these men to be of a different class, with different
education and habits from the common soldier. The revolution and
conscription has leveled all those distinctions. Many a youth of good
birth and education is made to bear his musket in the ranks, and does
not elevate his comrades to his standard, but is soon degraded to the
level of their sentiments and habits. Many a French general, for
instance Junot, has been raised from the ranks. Military merit or
accident has elevated them to command without a corresponding
elevation of sentiment or principles. It is not easy to make a
gentleman in one generation: somebody says, it takes three."
"What a moderate man that somebody was!" said Lady Mabel; "I thought
that the gentry of a country were like its timber, the slow growth of
centuries, and that the beginning of nobility must be lost in the dark
ages, unless you can find some great statesman, warrior, or freebooter
of later date to start from."
"But," said L'Isle, laughing, "we find men whose pedigree fulfills
your requisitions, who are not gentlemen in their own persons. The son
of a gentleman is too often one only in name.
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