We begin to realise, with a wholesome loss of
vanity and conceit, how very little people care or even notice how
we are dressed, how we look, what we say. We learn that other
people are as much preoccupied with their thoughts and fancies and
reflections as we are with our own. We realise that if we are
anxious to produce an agreeable impression, we do so far more by
being interested and sympathetic, than by attempting a brilliance
which we cannot command. We perceive that other people are not
particularly interested in our crude views, nor very grateful for
the expression of them. We acquire the power of combination and co-
operation, in losing the desire for splendour and domination. We
see that people value ease and security, more than they admire
originality and fantastic contradiction. And so we come to the
blessed time when, instead of reflecting after a social occasion
whether we did ourselves justice, we begin to consider rather the
impression we have formed of other personalities.
I believe that we ought to have recourse to very homely remedies
indeed for combating shyness.
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