VANITY!
It’s not what we're asked to do, but how we are asked, that matters often, isn’t it? It makes all the difference be tween a willing and a resentful attitude, a good job and a bad one — and sometimes between a job and no job at all. Many men have found that a wise choice of words will succeed where only guns would, otherwise. ‘There is a story of the early days of the French Revolution when people were rioting in the streets of Paris. General Lafayette ordered a young officer to open fire upon them with two cannon. The officer begged that he might be allowed first to try to persuade the rioters to withdraw. "Tt is useless to appeal to their reason," said Lafayette. "Quite so," replied the younger man, "* therefore I shall appeal, not to their reason. but to their vanity." — The officer then rode up to the mob, doffed his cocked hat, and pointed to the -guns,
"Gentlemen," he said, quietly and courteously, "will you be good enough to retire, for I am ordered to shoot down the rabble?" Rabble? The citizens lookea from one to another, and at once the street was cleared.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19400119.2.48
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 30, 19 January 1940, Page 34
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199VANITY! New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 30, 19 January 1940, Page 34
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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