HEAD AND HEART

Taranaki Daily News, 8 January 1927, Page 18

HEAD AND HEART

“Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever!” So sang the poet in the days of old. And, 1 suppose, the pretty theme to question, is to proclaim oneself a cynic bold. Yet it would seem, upon investigation, the theme leaves ample room for evuic's doubt. from actual experience, Truth emerges; and .quite another way the Truth works out. It proves, in fact, as many have discovered, the head dictates the conduct of the heart; and ethics are the outcome of grey matter, not something acting in a sphere apart. I’ve known "angelic” maids who could be cruel, M any sharp-tongued Machiavellian miss; some stupid girls who’d break a heart for folly, and seal the bargain with a -Judas kiss. And Ive known clever girls who hid their goodness, with cynic smiles and gestures of disdain. They never did appeal, of course, to poets! —and hence the burden of the old refrain. You can’t be really good unless you’re clever!---Goodness itself means activeworking mind. You’ll never find that really stupid people, have mastered the great art of being kind! No doubt our poet, like so many others, was just misled by some softspoken maid, who, looking like a nun when so it pleased her, was really just a wide-eyed, stupid jade! ’Twas ever thus. ’Tis time we all admited, that artless maids aren’t, always saints apart; that sometimes brainy ones, both good and clever, can take the palm alike for head and heart! —U.S.