(53.) A blockhead does not know what to do with himself; a coxcomb is free, easy, and confident in his manners; an impertinent man becomes impudent; and merit is always modest.
(54.) A conceited man is one in whom a knowledge of certain details, dignified by the name of business, is added to a very middling intellect.
One grain of sense and one ounce[633] of business more than there are in a conceited man, make the man of importance.
While people only laugh at a man of importance he has no other name; but when they begin to complain of him he may be called arrogant.
(55.) A gentleman is between a clever man and an honest man, though not as distant from the one as from the other.[634]
The difference between a gentleman and a clever man diminishes each day, and will soon disappear altogether.
A clever man does not blaze forth his passions, understands his own interests, sacrifices many things to them, has acquired some wealth, and knows how to keep it.
A gentleman is not a highwayman, commits no murders, and, in one word, has no flagrant vices.
It is very well known that an honest man is a gentleman; but it is comical to think that every gentleman is not an honest man.