WOMEN AND THE TRUTH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16353, 16 February 1921, Page 9

WOMEN AND THE TRUTH.

“-Mary is very clever. But it docsn t please her to ho told so. She would mu cl i rather be told she is pretty. And she is verv plain." “ Perhaps she rcallv ' thinks herself pretty I ventured. "Oh, no.” my observant friend retorted. “ I know she doesn’t. But I’ve always found that it’s best- to tell a clever woman she's pretty and a pretty woman she's clever." NY omen don’t like the truth.” This was the observation of a man. I mn inclined to believe it is accurate The average woman is interested in her own character, however far removed she may be from the heroine of tho modern novel whoso hobby it is to analyse l.er soul. But “ very few women really know themselves/ That is why, l think, so many modern women luck distinction of character and appear artificial to their acquaintances. The woman intended by nature to be reposeful and dignified longs to be vivacious and spark!mg; the kindhearted woman who thinks “ big” admires tho woman who is cleverly cynical ; the domesticated woman who shines as mother envies the woman of daring independence. For so long women have not been told the truth that now they rarely caro to hear it. The would-be bright and sparkling woman would hate it if she were told: “ You were never meant to be brilliant. You would be far more successful if you were true to you r ow n type. ’ ’ Yet the personality which attracts and hold- is the personality which is utterly sincere. The woman who can endure to be told the plain truth about herself has wisdom, for she will find that if she honestly estimates her character as it is, and makes that character as lovely as possible, she will have far more power over others than the woman who thrives on empty and meaningless flatterv. The woman who doesn’t like the truth is seldom the woman who does big things in business or in the more intimate sphere of her own home. To be willing; to face the truth about which 0 women should* achieve!in •‘The Dailv .Mail.”