your feet except as a token of my
good will; so accept this, not for its intrinsic value, but as a token.
It will be an insult to your worth to call the best gift good enough for
you." Place the two ideas side by side; and we see that the ultimate
idea is one and the same. Neither is "awfully funny." The American
speaks of the material which makes the gift; the Japanese speaks of the
spirit which prompts the gift.

It is perverse reasoning to conclude, because our sense of propriety
shows itself in all the smallest ramifications of our deportment, to
take the least important of them and uphold it as the type, and pass
judgment upon the principle itself. Which is more important, to eat or
to observe rules of propriety about eating? A Chinese sage answers, "If
you take a case where the eating is all-important, and the observing the
rules of propriety is of little importance, and compare them together,
why merely say that the eating is of the more importance?" "Metal is
heavier than feathers," but does that saying have reference to a single
clasp of metal and a wagon-load of feathers? Take a piece of wood a foot
thick and raise it above the pinnacle of a temple, none would call it
taller than the temple. To the question, "Which is the more important,
to tell the truth or to be polite?" the Japanese are said to give an
answer diametrically opposite to what the American will say,--but I
forbear any comment until I come to speak of

VERACITY OR TRUTHFULNESS,

without which Politeness is a farce and a show. "Propriety carried
beyond right bounds," says Masamune, "becomes a lie." An ancient poet
has outdone Polonius in the advice he gives: "To thyself be faithful: if
in thy heart thou strayest not from truth, without prayer of thine the
Gods will keep thee whole." The apotheosis of Sincerity to which Tsu-tsu
gives expression in the _Doctrine of the Mean_, attributes to it
transcendental powers, almost identifying them with the Divine.
"Sincerity is the end and the beginning of all things; without Sincerity
there would be nothing." He then dwells with eloquence on its
far-reaching and long enduring nature, its power to produce changes
without movement and by its mere presence to accomplish its purpose
without effort. From the Chinese ideogram for Sincerity, which is a
combination of "Word" and "Perfect," one is tempted to draw a parallel
between it and the Neo-Platonic doctrine of _Logos_--to such height
does the sage so