u are forty now. What shall you be saying of
yourself at fifty? Such reflections foster humility, and they foster
also a reluctance, which it is impossible to praise too highly, to
tread on other people's toes.

A moment ago I used the phrase "fundamental character." It is a
reminiscence of Stevenson's phrase "fundamental decency." And it is
the final test by which one judges one's friends. "After all, he's a
decent fellow." We must be able to use that formula concerning our
friends. Kindliness of heart is not the greatest of human
qualities--and its general effect on the progress of the world is not
entirely beneficent--but it is the greatest of human qualities in
friendship. It is the least dispensable quality. We come back to it
with relief from more brilliant qualities. And it has the great
advantage of always going with a broad mind. Narrow-minded people are
never kind-hearted. You may be inclined to dispute this statement:
please think it over; I am inclined to uphold it.

We can forgive the absence of any quality except kindliness of heart.
And when a man lacks that, we blame him, we will not forgive him. This
is, of course, scandalous. A man is born as he is born. And he can as
easily add a cubit to his stature as add kindliness to his heart. The
feat never has been done, and never will be done. And yet we blame
those who have not kindliness. We have the incredible, insufferable,
and odious audacity to blame them. We think of them as though they had
nothing to do but go into a shop and buy kindliness. I hear you say
that kindliness of heart can be "cultivated." Well, I hate to have
even the appearance of contradicting you, but it can only be
cultivated in the botanical sense. You can't cultivate violets on a
nettle. A philosopher has enjoined us to suffer fools gladly. He had
more usefully enjoined us to suffer ill-natured persons gladly.... I
see that in a fit of absentmindedness I have strayed into the pulpit.
I descend.

III

BREAKING WITH THE PAST

On that dark morning we woke up, and it instantly occurred to us--or
at any rate to those of us who have preserved some of our illusions
and our _naivete_--that we had something to be cheerful about, some
cause for a gay and strenuous vivacity; and then we remembered that it
was New Year's Day, and there were those Resolutions to put into
force! Of course, we all smile in a superior manner at the very
mention of New Year's Resolutions; we pretend th