Evening star., 1934-05-24

ness he Is mistaking a mistake, one
may think. Frankness more often
than not is practical foolishness, al
though theoretical perfection. Wien
one is frank, one is paying another
compliment which often enough he
does not deserve, believing that he
appreciates a quality which only gods
could deal with properly. Human be-
ings over the centuries have so dealt
in sham that the bulk of them cannot
appreciate true frankness, either in
themselves or in others. Society has
conspired to put premium on polite
subterfuge. and often visits its direst
penalties upon those who insist on
being perfectly frank"
**&
Every one has had the experience
Of having a book thrust upon one by
some enthusiastic friend, who has
liked 1t and truly wants one to like 1t,
too. What he has not done is to con-
slider fully the reading needs of the
other at the moment. Only the books
one wants to read will be eagerly read
In the best sense 1t will do no good
to ask, do you want to read this?"
because he will answer, Yes" Of
course.
Loan the right book, at the right
time, to the right person, goes great
deal deeper than a superficial ques-
ton. With the majority of persons,
no doubt. books should never be
forced on others, no matter how much
they appeal to the reader. The more
such a book appeals, the more the
friend should be left to find it for
himself. 1t is all right. of course. to
mention the work, even to praise it,
but 1t is all wrong to thrust it into
the hands of another, because the
chances are 10 to /, at least, that
he will not be in the mood for it,
and what one reads because of out
side pressure can seldom equal that
which one reads from inside pressure.
1t is the same with gifts.
One may question, at times, whether
any one ought ever to give anything
to another human being, on account
of the queer construction of the aver
age human mind.
Few persons honestly like to be be-
holden. as the gool old word has it,
to another human being. 1t leaves
a bad taste in the mouth, no matter
how poor or needy the one helped
may be- Every human being would
prefer, If he had the choice, to take
care Of himself in every way, to ac-
cept nothing from another. And gifts,
whether we like to think of them that
way or not, necessarily carry with
them this little tinge of condescension,
which made necessary the old proverb,
Never look a gift horse in the
mouth"
There can be no doubt that gift
giving in an art, to which a few are
born, which a few manage to learn,
but which the great majority OF hu-
man beings handle altogether In a
clumsy way. The latter-and they
are most of us-do not grasp the fine
points of the art Even when they
manage it better than most they still
leave great deal to be desired. So it
is not to be wondered at that, next to
loaning friend money. the best way
to lose him is to give him an outright
gift Of some sort. The STRINGS Of the
human spirit are difficult to see, the
mainsprings of human conduct hard
to find, but it is easily realized that
being a donor is equaled in difficulty
only by being a recipient, because
while the former demands that one
lay aside all hypocrisy, the latter re-
quires that one give up all false mod
esty. And where will these two para
gons be found? Hence gift giving and
gift receiving will remain, in all too
many cases, difflcult maze Many
still will insist that no such maze
exists, but probably that is because
they do not see readily in mazes, and
hence pretend that there is no maze,
but that all is clear and straight be-
fore them. That is one way of do
ing it.