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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 7, Issue 433, 31 October 1863, Page 6

What is Cheek ?— Pray pardoii the use of a slang term ; Impudence will not do, for it may exist without shrewdness; nor 'Self-Possession, for that is a passive rathdr than an active virtue ; nor Courage, which is often allied' with modesty; nor Bo'dness, which a man may have without humour. True, you may say a man has the face to say or do anything; but that is a roundabout way of expressing dueuelf, and you cannot speak of his'faoe in an allegorioal sense, or call him.facei/;' Grant me the term, then, and I will endeavour to explain it to my young-brotherless lady readers. Gheek, then, is a rare union of fun, i'rnpurienoe, readiness, perseverance, and intelligence, endowing. -its possessor with the power of walking 'quietly over social obstacles, which form an iyi,pasaable barrier' to the majority of mankind. For example, it was " cheek" thatfgave Diogenepthe advantage over Alexswder ; ; that procured" wives'(it s is great; at that) for the early'ltomausi:' that got dear old Falstaff out of all ids scrapes/ enabling him to "make a good end," instead of a parlous bad one; that procured., James, Boswell admission toa club and a niche in histovy denied to many a better ni an ; that enabled the, great' Barnuni to gull his. fellow-creatures out of a fortune, and when he had spent that, to make a second by telling his dupes, f»CB to face, how he liad done tKeni^— Ones a Week