Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1851-02-05
SHY MEN.

SHY MEN
Individuals are often Judged of very er-
roneously from their external and ordinary
demeanor. OF particular class of mis-
judgments am peculiarly assured, namely,
those relating to men who have the repua-
ton Of being reserved through pride. In a
large proportion of such cases, it is OF any
form Of pride which produces the reserved
ness, but the opposite quality of shyness.
1t is the defect Of self esteem, rather than
pn undue endowment Of it, that causes the
conduct complained of.
Among the persons known TO me as
friends and associates. ] could point to a
number who are considered as proud men,
and to whom it is customary to attach the
of late much misnsed epi,het-aristocrati !;
while know with all possible certainty, lha,
the real cause Of lhe conduct and demeanor
which obtain them their character is nothing
else than mere lmidity Of face. Yon may
meet one OF these men in company, and at
ter lille time get into easy and familiar
converse with him; yet, mex, day, encoun-
ter bin IN the street, and eXpectl g frank
recognition, will be frozen by the most dis
tant bow. You set him down as cold
proud man. too much absorbed in self to
have anv sympa,hies with you; but The fact
is, that he has boy-l!ke shyness, which
makes the usual courlesIes of lille burden
to him and he only passes you in this re-
served manner because he could not address
you without an embarrassment painful IN
itself. and which would leave him in a state
r Il Il
over. Thus. what you deem an assumption
on his part, is in reality sien, confession
of The most distressing weakness.
"
MAN A SrUDENT-l say every man is TO
be students thinker. This does no, mean
he is to shut himself within four walls, and
bend body and mind over books. Men
thought before books were written, and
some Of The greatest thinkers never entered
what we call study. Nature, Scripture.
society. present perpetual subjects for thor;
and the man who collects, concentrates.
employs his faculties on any Of these for the
purpose Of getting the truth, is so far Stu
dent, thinker, philosopher, and is rising
10 the dignity Of man. ii is time that we
should cease to limit to prolessed scholars
the TILES Of thinkers, philosophers. Who
ever seeks the truth with an earnest mind,
no matter when or how, belongs 10 the
school of intellectual men.
in loose sense of the word, men may
be said 10 think that is, a succession of
ideas, notions, pass through their minds
from morning to night; but in as far as this
succession is passive, undrec.ed, or govern
ed only by acciden, and outward impulse.
il has lille more claim to dignity than the
experience of the brute. who receives with
like passiveneSs. sensations from abroad
through his waking hours. Such thought,
if thought it may be called, having no aim,
Is as useless as the vision Of an eve which
rests on nothing, which flies without pause
over earth and sky, and Of consequence re-
ceives no distinct image. Thought, in It's
true sense, is an energy Of intellect. In
thought, The mind no, only receives i'm
pressIons or Suggestions from within, but
reacts upon them, collects lis attention, con-
centraes its forces upon them, breaks them
up and analyzes like a living laboratory.
and then combines them anew, traces their
connexions, and thus impresses itself on all
the objects which engage it.
The universe in which we live was plain
Iy mean, by God to stir up such thought as
has now been described.--Dr. Claiming.