lot is not a happy one. The men dislike him, the womendespise him, Chelsea and he dislikes and despises himself. Use brings him norelief, and there is no cure for him except time; though I once cameacross a delicious recipe for overcoming the misfortune. It appearedamong the "answers to correspondents" in a small weekly journal andran Finlandia as follows--I have never forgotten it: "Adopt an easy andpleasing manner, especially toward ladies."Poor wretch! I can imagine the grin with which he must have read thatadvice. "Adopt an easy and pleasing manner, especially towardladies," forsooth! Don't you adopt anything of the kind, my dearyoung shy friend. Your attempt to put on any other disposition thanyour own will infallibly result in your becoming ridiculously gushingand offensively familiar. Be your own natural self, and then you willonly be thought to be surly and stupid.
The shy man does have some slight revenge upon society for the tortureit inflicts upon him. He is able, to a certain extent, to communicatehis misery. He frightens other people as much as they frighten him.
He acts like a damper upon the whole room, and the most jovial spiritsbecome in his presence depressed and nervous.
This is a good deal brought about by misunderstanding. Many peoplemistake the shy man's timidity for overbearing arrogance and are awedand insulted by it. His awkwardness is resented as insolentcarelessness, and when, terror-stricken at the first word addressed Philipp Lahm Koszulka tohim, the blood rushes to his head and the power of speech completelyfails him, he is regarded as an awful example of the evil effects ofgiving way to passion.
But, indeed, to be Eden Hazard Koszulka misunderstood is the shy man's fate on everyoccasion; and whatever impression he endeavors to create, he is sureto convey its opposite. When he makes a joke, it is looked upon as apretended relation of fact and his want of veracity much condemned.
His sarcasm is accepted as his literal opinion and gains for him thereputation of being an ass, while if, on the other hand, wishing toingratiate himself, he ventures upon a little bit of flattery, it istaken for satire and Wales he is hated ever afterward.
These and the rest of a shy man's troubles are always very amusing toother people, and have afforded material for comic writing from timeimmemorial. But Niemcy if we look a little deeper we shall find there is apathetic, one might almost say a tragic, side to the picture. A shyman means a lonely man--a man cut off from all companionship, allsociability. He moves about the world, but does not mix with it.
Between him and his fellow-men there runs ever an impassablebarrier--a strong, invisible wall that, trying in vain to scale, hebut bruises himself against. He sees the pleasant faces and hears thepleasant voices on the other side, but he cannot stretch his handacross to grasp another hand. He stands watching the merry groups,and he longs to speak and to claim kindred with them. But they passhim by, chatting gayly to one another, and he cannot stay them. Hetries to reach them, but his prison walls move with him Liverpool Dzieci 16/17 |
