FRANKNESS AND RESERVE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18885, 6 December 1924, Page 6 (Supplement)

FRANKNESS AND RESERVE.

Frankness is a virtue for -which we are all quick to express admiration, but our ideas concerning it vary considerably. The good-humoured woman who exclaims, "Well, I must say I do like people to be perfectly frank with me," often means that she has a keen, if innocent, taste for hearing all about everything. And the woman who is without graciousness or consideration for others defines as "frankness" her habit of the unnecessary and unf ' flattering comment. It is not wise to trust the spectacular frankness which looks you too boldly in the eye., and says, "Let us be open as the day.'" Such emphasis on un-reserve generally means that the speaker intends to hide"herself more deeply. True frankness has simplicity as its mark; it does not assume that you desire protests of sincerity, It 3 yea is yea, and its nay, nay. Our lives are so much entangled with other people's lives that we cannot very often indulge in the luxury of conversational unrestraint. Some of us have a more delicate perception than others of the sort of thing that it is not quite fair to say of a friend in her absence. And being loyally guarded in our remarks, we know that some eager talker will say of us afterwards, "Oh, my dear, isn't she closo ? Ido like people to bo frank," and so on. * Nor is, the finest sort of frankness a matter of words. Minds that are in . sympathy can. confide in each other in silence. "They "think each in each, immediately wise." But here, of course, we have the virtue at its height. For everyday purposes wo. must keep our reserves, while being as honest and as kind as fvo know how to be,