uld
undeceive him as to his own motive, because he gave his time and his
money freely; yet the result was that most of the people whom he helped
tended to resent it in the end, because he demanded services in return,
and was jealous of any other interference. Chateaubriand says that it is
not true gratitude to wish to repay favours promptly and still less is
it true benevolence to wish to retain a hold over those whom one has
benefited.

Sometimes indeed the two strains are almost inextricably intertwined,
real and vital sympathy with others, combined with an overwhelming
sense of personal significance; and then the problem is an inconceivably
complicated one. For I suppose it must be frankly confessed that the
basis of the dramatic sense is not a very wholesome one; it is, of
course, a strong form of individualism. But while it is true that we
suffer from taking ourselves too seriously, it is also possible to
suffer from not taking ourselves seriously enough. If effectiveness is
the end of life, there is no question that a strong sense of what we
like to call responsibility, which is generally nothing more than a
sense of one's own importance, decorously framed and glazed, is
an immense factor in success. I myself cherish the heresy that
effectiveness is very far from being the end of life, and that the only
effectiveness that is worth anything is unintentional effectiveness. I
believe that a man or woman who is humble and sincere, who loves and is
loved, is higher on the steps of heaven than the adroitest lobbyist; but
it may be that the world's criterion of what it admires and respects is
the right one; and indeed it is hard to see how so strong an instinct is
implanted in the human race, the instinct to value strength and success
above everything, unless it is put there by our Maker. At the same time
one cherishes the hope that there is a better criterion somewhere, in
the Divine Mind, in the fruitful future; the criterion that it is not
what a man actually effects that matters, but what he makes of the
resources that are given him to work with.

The effectiveness of the dramatic sense is beyond question. One can see
a supreme instance of it in the case of the Christian Science movement,
in which a woman of strong personality, by lighting upon an idea latent
in a large number of minds, an idea moreover of real and practical
vitality, and by putting it in a form which has all the definiteness
required by brains of