Man is a creature; all his happiness consists in being a creature; or, as the Great Voice commanded us, in becoming a child.  All his fun is in having a gift or present; which the child, with profound understanding, values because it is ‘a surprise.’  But surprise implies that the thing came from outside ourselves; and gratitude that it comes from someone other than ourselves.  It is thrust through the letter-box; it is thrown in at the window; it is thrown over the wall …

     — G. K. Chesterton, “The Crime of Gabriel Gale,” in The Poet and the Lunatics