Class

This quote is saying that people will view someone by their actions and traits. If someone has bad manners people will view him or her as lower class. Some people will view race as an issue of class too. Also in the quote when he says the characteristics that ruin a man in one class makes him eminent in other, he means that someone who has the traits of a certain class can only stay in that class because he or she wouldn't fit in with any other class. Say someone has the best manners and speaks with the best grammar; this person wouldn't fit in with people who live in the projects or in a trailer park because it just doesn't work that way in society. He is basically saying that there are certain things that each class has and does to make them different so you can look eminent to many people in one class and then shunned by everyone in other classes. An example of behavior that's a virtue in one class and a vice in another is if there is the best construction worker and can construct anything. He may be looked up to in one class in society and then people in a higher class will just see him as a laborer and think better of people who are business executives.