a scholar, a gentleman, and a christian to boot (was Atkins)

[Guest guest]

Wayne Fugitt wrote:

 

> I have wondered for years where this phrase originated and who said it first.

>

> Wayne

 

Wayne,

 

http://omega.cohums.ohio-state.edu:8080/hyper-lists/classics-l/listserve_archive\

s/log94/9402a/9402a.85.html

 

(pasted here)

 

Steve Shapin, in " 'A scholar and a gentleman': The problematic identity of

the scientific practitioner in early modern England, " History of Science 29

(1991): 279-327, writes that the phrase " a gentleman, a scholar, and a

Christian " seems to have emerged in English in the last quarter of the

eighteenth century. There are some earlier references, but they are rare,

and seventeenth-century examples appear to contrast the roles:

 

" An alert and provoked friend drew my attention to a late seventeenth

century description of the poet Hugh Crompton (fl. 1657) as 'born a

Gentleman and bred up a Scholar.' On closer inspection, however, the

message is that Crompton was born into a comfortable landed family, but

that his father fell one evil times, and the son was obliged to earn his

living by his wits--as a scholar. " Shapin argues that in the seventeenth

century the roles of scholar, someone deeply learned and perhaps

professionally involved in the transmission of knowledge, and of gentleman,

one who has a high social position and is concerned with affairs and the

active life, were conceived of as opposing, and that one of the challenges

facing the new science of the Royal Society was the perceived equation of

its activities with scholarly pedantry, an activity unsuited to a gentleman

(seen e.g. in Shaftesbury and Swift). In his conclusion, Shapin claims that

the phrase " a gentleman and a scholar " in the late eighteenth and

nineteenth centuries was rarely applied to possessors of technical,

practical learning. " Indeed, in Cardinal Newman's influential version 'a

gentleman's knowledge' was defined precisely by its non-utilitarian

character. "

---

Brian W. Ogilvie

or

Department of History, University of Chicago

'omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci'

 

 

hope that helps!

 

Mindy, English major and lover of google.com =)

[Guest guest]

Evening Mindy,

 

Thanks a million for finding this for me.

 

>>hope that helps!

>Mindy, English major and lover of google.com =)

 

Yes, I like and use google also. But I think you are better than I am

at finding things. <grin>

 

Maybe I need more practice with the complex search strings.

 

Wayne