A Thing Given
They Regard As A Thing Found, A Hermaion, A Happy Hit In The Lottery Of
Life; The Giver Is The Blind Instrument Of Fortune.
This chill attitude
repels us; and our effusive expressions of thankfulness astonish these
people and the Orientals.
A further difference is that the actual gift is viewed quite
extrinsically, intellectually, either in regard to what it would fetch
if bartered or sold, or, if to be kept, as to how far its possession may
raise the recipient in the eyes of other men. This is purely Homeric,
once more - Homeric or primordial, if you prefer. Odysseus told his kind
host Alkinoos, whom he was never to see again, that he would be glad to
receive farewell presents from him - to cherish as a friendly memory?
No, but "because they would make him look a finer fellow when he got
home." The idea of a keepsake, of an emotional value attaching to some
trifle, is a northern one. Here life is give and take, and lucky he who
takes more than he gives; it is what Professor Mahaffy calls the
"ingrained selfishness of the Greek character." Speaking of all below
the upper classes, I should say that disinterested benevolence is apt to
surpass their comprehension, a good-natured person being regarded as
weak in the head.
Has this man, then, no family, that he should benefit strangers? Or is
he one of nature's unfortunates - soft-witted? Thus they argue. They will
do acts of spontaneous kindness towards their family, far oftener than
is customary with us.
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