The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-01-08

age is the gradual extinction of the sense of shyness. I find that I can now ask question in natural, way, say frankly, and I hope not discourteously what I think, meet a stranger on easy terms and without a suspicious feeling that he is likely to despise me. The reason partly is that though my belief in my own attainments has not markedly increased (and indeed there is little req son why it should) my belief in the att tainments of other people has not in- creased either. In youth opinions are apt to be held with species of defiance, however harmless or inconspicuous they are But the feeling that I now have,
 that have perfect right to any opin- ion of my own probably causes me to
 modify the language in which l express
 it, quite apart from the fact that now
 see no reason to deny to other people exercise it, of holding opinion diametri- cally opposite to mine.
 Moreover, my feeling of the conse- quenees of social solecisms is not so acute. As young man. if behaved |awkwardly, If expressed an unfavora- ble opinion, by mischance, of a near rel
 ative of some one present in a social
 gathering, used to go away feeling an
 outcast I now know that awkward
 ness wins more sympathy than disap- proval; and if have the misfortune to commit myself to critical opinion on a near relation of neighbor and be- come aware of the fact, have the courage to invite him to express a simi- lar opinion on some near relation ohf my
 own. no longer feel that the eyes of
 Europe are on me, and, realizing as
 do how soon forget all about the per- sons have met. realize that no one troubles their head very much about me in my absence. Part of this loss of self-consciousness is physical, no doubt, but 1t is also greatly due to truer sense of the proportion of things. It is 1 true that one does not become instinc- lively conscious of one's advancng years. But I have found it useful t lremnd myself, when I am in the conn pany of people whom I do not hesitate to consider as buffers, that, after all, I am buffer myself, and have every 1 right to behave as one. All this con
 vergence of experience helps, and the 1 fact remains that a sort of social liberty and equality is one of the best gifts of advancing years, and tends to deliver
 one from the proneness of youth to in- dulge in harsh judgments, the converse
 of which is the painful consciousness of being harshly judged oneself, which re- suits in shyness.
 l So much for negative benefits; to turn
 to the positive advantages gained by ladvancing years, I am inclined to put
 among the highest the increasing sense lof the beauty of ssimple thinge
 When was young required, to make lme conscious of beauty, that there should be some exceptional and sensa- tional quality in what I saw; wished to feast my eyes on great mountains l huge precipices, immense buildings, fu- | rious seas. Now I am contented with 2 llane of elms, sloping pasture, quiet lwood-end, a little stream a building : with a tender grace of antiquity about it. used to require to be violently inn lpressed and stirred I liked pictures representing some poignant emotion music that shrieked and blazed out il Ia tumult of sound. Now I like smal
 tranquil pictures of landscape and sof music. Hardly day passes now with
 out my being surprised by some fine ant
 delicate effect. some glimpse of meel land incofnmunicable beauty in tn
 things that surround me. A flower ol
 lmy table, a daffodill with it's chumplet
 lhead. it's smooth sword-like leaf, an air.
 lelm seen from my window against l;
 blue sky, a mellow wall orange witt
 llichens. a little pool in pasture se
 Iround by rushes-each gives me a thril
 of contented delight. I find that lov
 lpurity and simplicity of effect nor
 than complexity and magnifcence Tn
 result of this is that my life is far fulle
 lof beauty than 1t was when I wa
 lyoung, and IT have exchanged the cray
 ling of unsatisfied sensation for tran
 iquil pleasure in the uninterrupted. .serie of patient delights that nature is forev CT preparing in the homeliest land lscape. Perhaps I am not so 6eepl lmoved and stirred as in the olds days IanI1f thn snnSa If hpafltv is for r,nY