A Gentleman Instructed in the Conduct of a Virtuous and Happy Life

"For what can even fancy paint more charming and more glorious than grandees neither abject in adversity nor insolent in prosperity; than courtiers peaceable in the noise of affairs, temperate in the midst of excess, unchangeable in vicissitudes, and constant in all the turns of Fortune, untainted with lust, composed in tumults, and smiling at all those things that are either expected or feared by others; than men who have the power to do what they will and the will to do nothing but what is just and reasonable?"

At the turn of the 18th century in England, after a century of wars and revolutions and just prior to the age of infidelity and unbelief, the Jesuit father William Darrell wrote this marvellous treatise for the instruction of young noblemen, casting it defiantly against the creeping skepticism and flippancy of his day. In it the noble and witty Eusebius instructs the naive, but eager Neander in both Christian morals and the duties of a gentleman, presenting his lessons with a striking blend of religious rigorism and wry sarcasm that led to the book becoming a perennial favourite, running through ten editions in the author’s lifetime alone.

Now this classic work of morality returns in a freshly edited new edition for modern readers, who will find in it far more of the familiar than they might expect. From popular entertainment making a mockery of religion to men and women spending their lives drifting from diversion to diversion, and from free and easy profanity to financial irresponsibility, the life of virtue and the follies of mankind remain ever relevant, even as their trappings change with the centuries.

Laced with wit and wisdom, this remarkable little book is a must-have for any would-be Christian gentleman.

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