No; they have escaped from
some higher sphere, they are the outpourings of eternal harmony in
the medium of created sound; they are echoes from our home; they
are the voice of angels or the magnificat of Saints, or the living
laws of Divine Governance, or the Divinic attributes; something
are they besides themselves, which we cannot compass, which we
cannot utter,--though mortal man, and he perhaps not otherwise
distinguished above his fellows, has the gift of eliciting them."
Of quite another order is the Cardinal's description of a gentleman.
Here there is no flight of poetical imagination, but a manifestation of
felicitous intuition and penetrating insight as rare as it is convincing,
and the generous wide vision of a man of the world, undimmed by the
faintest trace of prejudice:--
"Hence it is that it is almost a definition of a gentleman to say
he is one who never inflicts pain. This description is both
refined and, as far as it goes, accurate. He is mainly occupied in
merely removing the obstacles which hinder the free and
unembarrassed action of those about him; and he concurs with their
movements rather than takes the initiative himself. His benefits
may be considered as parallel to what are called comforts or
conveniences in arrangements of a personal nature: like an easy
chair or a good fire, which do their part in dispelling cold and
fatigue, though nature provides both means of rest and animal heat
without them.
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