Volume Ii Part 55 (1/2)

239.

WHY BEGGARS STILL LIVE.-If all alms were given only out of compa.s.sion, the whole tribe of beggars would long since have died of starvation.

240.

WHY BEGGARS STILL LIVE.-The greatest of almsgivers is cowardice.

241.

HOW THE THINKER MAKES USE OF A CONVERSATION.-Without being eavesdroppers, we can hear a good deal if we are able to see well, and at the same time to let ourselves occasionally get out of our own sight. But people do not know how to make use of a conversation. They pay far too much attention to what _they_ want to say and reply, whereas the true listener is often contented to make a provisional answer and to say something merely as a payment on account of politeness, but on the other hand, with his memory lurking in ambush, carries away with him all that the other said, together with his tones and gestures in speaking.-In ordinary conversation every one thinks _he_ is the leader, just as if two s.h.i.+ps, sailing side by side and giving each other a slight push here and there, were each firmly convinced that the other s.h.i.+p was following or even being towed.

242.

THE ART OF EXCUSING ONESELF.-If some one excuses himself to us, he has to make out a very good case, otherwise we readily come to feel ourselves the culprits, and experience an unpleasant emotion.

243.

IMPOSSIBLE INTERCOURSE.-The s.h.i.+p of your thoughts goes too deep for you to be able to travel with it in the waters of these friendly, decorous, obliging people. There are too many shallows and sandbanks: you would have to tack and turn, and would find yourself continually at your wits' end, and they would soon also be in perplexity as to _your_ perplexity, the reason for which they cannot divine.

244.

THE FOX OF FOXES.-A true fox not only calls sour the grapes he cannot reach, but also those he has reached and s.n.a.t.c.hed from the grasp of others.

245.