GIFTS[456]

    Gifts of one who loved me—­
    ’Twas high time they came;
    When he ceased to love me,
    Time they stopped for shame.

1.  It is said that the world is in a state of bankruptcy, that the world owes the world more than the world can pay, and ought to go into chancery,[457] and be sold.  I do not think this general insolvency, which involves in some sort all the population, to be the reason of the difficulty experienced at Christmas and New Year, and other times, in bestowing gifts; since it is always so pleasant to be generous, though very vexatious to pay debts.  But the impediment lies in the choosing.  If, at any time, it comes into my head that a present is due from me to somebody, I am puzzled what to give, until the opportunity is gone.  Flowers and fruits are always fit presents; flowers, because they are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world.  These gay natures contrast with the somewhat stern countenance of ordinary nature:  they are like music heard out of a work-house.  Nature does not cocker us:[458] we are children, not pets:  she is not fond:  everything is dealt to us without fear or favor, after severe universal laws.  Yet these delicate flowers look like the frolic and interference of love and beauty.  Men use to tell us that we love flattery, even though we are not deceived by it, because it shows that we are of importance enough to be courted.  Something like that pleasure, the flowers give us:  what am I to whom these sweet hints are addressed?  Fruits are acceptable gifts,[459] because they are the flower of commodities, and admit of fantastic values being attached to them.  If a man should send to me to come a hundred miles to visit him, and should set before me a basket of fine summer-fruit, I should think there was some proportion between the labor and the reward.

2.  For common gifts, necessity makes pertinences and beauty every day, and one is glad when an imperative leaves him no option, since if the man at the door have no shoes, you have not to consider whether you could procure him a paint-box.  And as it is always pleasing to see a man eat bread or drink water, in the house or out of doors, so it is always a great satisfaction to supply these first wants.  Necessity does everything well.  In our condition of universal dependence, it seems heroic to let the petitioner[460] be the judge of his necessity, and to give all that is asked, though at great inconvenience.  If it be a fantastic desire, it is better to leave to others the office of punishing him.  I can think of many parts I should prefer playing to that of the Furies.[461] Next to things of necessity, the rule for a gift, which one of my friends prescribed, is that we might convey to some person that which properly belonged to his character, and was easily associated with him in thought.  But our tokens of compliment and