The
politeness and refinement which distinguish all classes of the
people in many continental countries show that those qualities
might become ours too--as doubtless they will become with increased
culture and more general social intercourse--without sacrificing
any of our more genuine qualities as men. From the highest to the
lowest, the richest to the poorest, to no rank or condition in life
has nature denied her highest boon--the great heart. There never
yet existed a gentleman but was lord of a great heart. And this
may exhibit itself under the hodden grey of the peasant as well as
under the laced coat of the noble. Robert Burns was once taken to
task by a young Edinburgh blood, with whom he was walking, for
recognising an honest farmer in the open street. "Why you
fantastic gomeral," exclaimed Burns, "it was not the great coat,
the scone bonnet, and the saunders-boot hose that I spoke to, but
THE MAN that was in them; and the man, sir, for true worth, would
weigh down you and me, and ten more such, any day." There may be a
homeliness in externals, which may seem vulgar to those who cannot
discern the heart beneath; but, to the right-minded, character will
always have its clear insignia.
William and Charles Grant were the sons of a farmer in Inverness-
shire, whom a sudden flood stripped of everything, even to the very
soil which he tilled.
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