Conduct of life; Courtesy; Generosity; Interpersonal relations; Kindness
“Yes, and that’s just the point,” declared Sadie. “I’ve no doubt she
thinks she’s really quite polite and kind. Oh, she ‘means well,’ I
suppose--they all do. But the trouble with Eldora is simply that she
hasn’t got the Educated Heart.”
“The Educated Heart?” I queried, amused, “what d’you mean, the Educated
Heart?”
THE lady was growing a little calmer now. “Why, I’ve called it that to
myself so long that it seems as if anyone ought to understand. Well,
it’s this way. You know you can usually tell an educated man, can’t you?
There’s something about him that’s--oh, I don’t know--extra. Finish, it
is, perhaps. Distinction, or something. He knows how to--”
“But the Educated Heart!” I insisted, “prithee, the Educated Heart!”
“Why, it’s just the same with hearts as it is with heads,” quoth my
Mentor. “Some hearts seem to be self-made, you
know--rough-dry--unvarnished--amateurish. And then some hearts are just
as if they’d been to college, and been graduated in Kindness. They’ve
got their B.K., or D.K., even, sometimes. Yes, I know at least one
Doctor of Kindness. Why, I mean, oh, they have that extra touch of
consideration--thoughtfulness, you know--imagination--and--oh, dear, why
do we like to have flowers on the dinner table? They’re not necessary,
of course; but doesn’t that extra touch always make the soup taste
perfectly wonderful? It’s all the difference between just eating and
dining. Ever see a woman without style jam on a beautiful hat and make
it look like a waste-basket? Well, some people are like that, when they
try to be kind. Style--that’s what it is! It’s just style in kindness
that most people lack. Oh, it’s the rarest thing in the world--the
Educated Heart!”
THE Educated Heart! Late that night, alone, I pondered it . . .
midnight, and still it haunted me . . . the Educated Heart. . . .
Superkindness, she might have called it. She might have called it Tact.
Vainly, I tried to coin a new word for it. But at the end, Sadie’s
simple term stayed with me--the Educated Heart. And so, using that test,
I found myself at length classifying my friends.
And first of all came Crystabel. Last October, you see, I sent Crystabel
a book. She acknowledged it, and promptly. But, two months afterward,
hadn’t she--yes, she actually had--written me another letter, telling me
what she thought of that book; and she proved, moreover, that she had
read it--actually read it! Now, reader, I ask you: Isn’t that a strange
and beautiful experience in this careless world? Yes, Crystabel had
the Educated Heart.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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