Of Vulgarity

The essay contends that vulgarity stems from a want of delicate sensation and contrasts true gentlemanliness—understood as fine bodily and mental structure enabling deep sympathy—with traits of ill-breeding such as cruelty, ostentation, and coarse reserve. It critiques errors on both sides of society: elites who equate gentility with idleness and lower orders who deny the importance of inherited constitution, arguing that moral conduct depends on sensitiveness cultivated by birth, education, and habit. The author defends honest labor, warns against extravagance and corruption, and explains apparent reserve as the self-restraint of one who feels continuously rather than demonstratively.