my lips for fear it should be seen how my hand trembled." Robert Chambers, in one of his excellent essays, tells of a kindly Scottish peer who, owing to his constitutional shyness, was disliked by all his acquaintances. To equals and inferiors, to neighbors and tenants, he appeared a freezing aristocrat. When, in his youth, the king of England was spending an evening at his father's house, and the children of the family were ordered to be prepared for a formal introduction to his Majesty, the father was mortified by the absence of his eldest son. He had secretly stolen away from home at an early hour to avoid the dreaded ceremony. A certain English nobleman was so shy that his own servants were instructed to avoid as far as possible meeting him on staircases and in passages. He was deemed proud and aristocratic, when it is altogether probable that he was one of those sensitive, shy men to whom greetings are intolerable, and from whom a "Good-morning" is wrung like gold from a miser. But shyer than any of the men we have named, one of the oddest men in this respect that ever lived, was the brilliant essayist and critic, William Hazlitt. Strange to say, his great dread in visiting his friends was that of encountering the servants in the hall, and as there was no way of reaching the drawing-room without running that gauntlet, Hazlitt never entered a friend's house without writhing under the feelings engendered during his passage to it.

The young man who suffers from bashfulness, selfdistrust, or false shame will see from the foregoing examples that he suffers in the best company. Nearly all the victims we have cited shook off at some time the shackles that fettered them; and so may he.

But how, if possible, can this distressing weakness, so fatal to worldly advancement and usefulness, be overcome? It must be gratifying to know that even in its extremest forms it can be and has been overcome by persistent effort. Sydney Smith conquered it. After much suffering he discovered, he says, that all men were not solely occupied in observing him, as all young people are apt to think of themselves, and that shamming was of no use, the world being very clearsighted and soon estimating a man at his just value. "This cured me, and I determined to be natural, and let the world find me out." Whately reached the same result by sheer force of will: "I said to myself, Why should I endure this torture all my life to no purpose? I would bear it still if there was any progress made, any success to be hoped for; but, since there is not, I will die quietly without taking any more doses. I have tried my very utmost, and find that I must be awkward as a bear all my life in spite of it. I will endeavor to think as little about it as a bear, and make up my mind to endure what can't be cured.' From this time I not only got rid of the personal suffering of shyness, but also of most of those faults of manner which consciousness produces, and acquired at once an easy and natural manner, careless in the extreme, rough and awkward for smoothness and grace are quite out of my way - and, of course, tutorially pedantic, but unconscious, and therefore giving expression to that good will toward all men which I really feel."

William Wirt was cheered and encouraged by his friend Benjamin Edwards, who, to overcome his shyness, endeavored to raise his self-estimate by reminding him of his natural advantages, and showing him

that Dorsey and Pinkney, the great lawyers whom he so admired and envied, were making their way to the pinnacles of the profession under obstacles as great as any which he (Wirt) had to encounter. The result was that by persistent effort Wirt at last overcame his tormenting self-consciousness, and became so self-reliant that he even dared to grapple with the giant of the bar, "Glendower" Pinkney. Chesterfield suffered for some time like a criminal at the bar, and would certainly have renounced all polite company whatever, if he had not been so convinced of the absolute necessity of forming his manners upon those of the best social circles, that he determined to persevere and suffer anything or everything rather than not compass that point. "Insensibly it grew easier to me, and I began not to bow so ridiculously low, and to answer questions without great hesitation or stammering. I got more courage soon afterward, and was intrepid enough to go up to a fine woman and tell her that I thought it a warm day. She answered me very civilly that she thought so, too; upon which the conversation ceased upon my part for some time, till she, good-naturedly resuming it, spoke to me thus: 'I see your embarrassment, and I am sure that the few words you said to me cost you a great deal; but do not be discouraged for that reason and avoid good company. We see that you desire to please, and that is the main point; you want only the manner, and you think that you want it still more than you do. You must go through your novitiate before you can profess good breeding, and if you will be my novice I will present you to my acquaintance as such.""

Let the young man who suffers from shynesswho is kept in the background by nervous timidity

take courage from these examples. Let him force himself into society and the bustle and uproar of the world at all hazards, and school himself to take part in its affairs. Let him keep in mind that so far is he from being the focus of all eyes in society, so far are his fellow-men from watching all his movements, that they are only too profoundly indifferent to him; and banishing all thought of them, as they do of him, let him be himself, and he may rely upon it that the malady which has poisoned all his life and kept him in obscurity will disappear. Let him especially avoid the company of melancholy, self-distrustful, despondent people — mingling with the sunny, the buoyant, and the hopeful; and gradually his shyness, with its fears, flusters, and perturbations, will leave him the horror of a conspicuous position will lose its sting. Better still, his extreme nervousness and exquisite sensitiveness to impressions, once mastered and controlled, may be made in some departments of effort as in public speaking, for example—a source of power. It is a certain anxious diffidence which, kept in check, makes one take pains to win and deserve success, that stimulates energy and sustains perseverance. In oratory, shyness is like the tension of the harpstring, which renders it liable to break, but which also makes it musical. The delicacy of perception, the exquisite sensibility to impressions, the nervous tremulousness, which are among the causes of shyness, are the very soul of eloquence. The stammering Demosthenes was probably a very shy man; but the extreme sensibility which made him such, made him the king of orators.

CHAPTER XXXIX

LITTLE HINDRANCES TO SUCCESS

"The subtlest diplomacy has sometimes been interrupted by a cough or a sneeze."- CHESTERFIELD.

"What we call little things are merely the causes of great things. They are the beginning, the embryo, and it is the point of departure which decides the whole of existence." AMIEL.

MANY persons speak contemptuously of certain matters which are essential to success in life, to health and to happiness, as "little things." They forget that life is made up largely of little things. As daylight can be seen through very small holes, so very little things will indicate character. Every young man, therefore, who wishes to succeed in life should look vigilantly at the little things - the little mannerisms, peculiarities - which may affect his chances of success and usefulness. Employers, in deciding upon an application for a clerkship or other position, are influenced not a little by the applicant's looks, dress, demeanor, and language. It was a very little thing that started Lafitte in the career in which he became a great banker in Paris. When a poor boy, he applied one day for a situation in a bank, but was refused. As he went out the door, he stooped and picked up a pin. The president of the bank saw this, called him back, and gave him a place, from which he rose to eminence. On the other hand, many a young man with good abilities has failed to get employment