THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SHYNESS.

Bruce Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 1753, 28 May 1886, Page 6

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SHYNESS.

Many are the weaknesses of fallen humanity, but we live in hopes of getting the better of them by the aid of science. It is a long time waiting, to be sure, but we see a ray of hope here and there. We are improving on the whole. On the physical side, the researches of the Tailors' __rehajlogical Society have proved beyond a doubt that we are bigger men than thoße fore-fathers whom the earlier members of that august fraternity measured for plated suits ; and statisticians tell us that the average duration of human life is increasing. On the moral side, i a generation which is able to sit out ; the average public meeting and the , average "entertainment," may fairly boast of having gone a long way towards conquering laziness ; while the freewill offerings in the plate at the door, and tbe comfortable lives led by all connected with the management of charitable institutions, attest to what an extent selfishness is departing. There is one particular weakness which the process of development bids fair to eliminate altogether, and very soon, and that is shyness. Shyness has evidently packed its portmanteau, " paid its fare, and taken only a Bingle ticket. At one time of day most children used to be born shy. We have always been taught this as a tradition of the race. We can remember feeling very shy ourselves, even at the age of seven. We should never have thought of speaking till we were spoken to, or coming without being called, or of assaulting the central plum cake, or of asking the lady on whose knee we sat how old she was, and how much money she had, There were many pauses in

the conversation when we went into *■ society at that age, and met other shy t little people. y The overtures of acquaintanceship ] between children used to be very slow 1 and tentative ; we remember, particu- 1 larly, exchanging sweets with a four- - year-old in a blue sash, long before 1 we dared ask her what her name was, i and long before she dared tell us our < hair was rough. Children then re- i quired encouraging and " bringing ] forward." But now ! The shy child i has disappeared. We have boisterous < masters and misses, and we have quiet, > self-possessed ones ; some are very unruly, and Borne comparatively tractable ; but none are shy. Some Pied Piper of Hamelin has been round and played all the shy ones away. Similarly, at a more advanced age, it used to be a serious exhortation to young men and maidens to overcome shyness. It was preached to them that bashfulness was a bar to social intercourse and to mental improvement, and they were instructed how to acquire an easy manner ; but all these exhortations, which we fiad repeated constantly in old minuals for the modelling of conduct, read like so much sarcasm now. You may look round where you wiil among youths, but that black swan, the Bhy youth, has migrated for good. You will ficid plenty of pert youths and of self-sufficient youths ; many aggressive youths, and no end of patronising youths ; even now and then a self-possessed youth who is nevertheless modest; but the shy youth — never. — —