Norwich bulletin., 1911-08-26
SUNDAY MORNING TALK
DON'T BE A SENSITIVE PLANT.


The poet Shelley begins one of his
striking stanzas thus:
A sensitive plant in a garden grew
And the young winds fed it with silver
dew.
The botanical name of the afore-
mentioned bit Of greenery is Mimosa
pudica and if anything in the vege-
table kingdom may be said to have
nerves, this plant has them. 1t trem-
bles at the slightest disturbance. The
tramp of a person on the ground, the
breath from stray 2nimai Is OFTEN
sufficient to make 1t wNher. II 1t is
shaken all it's leaves dreoP at once;
in the hand. 1t is keenly Sensitive to
the slightest rude treatment.
The genus Mimosa really comprises
about 200 species of plants, nearly all
of which have some queer ways. And,
what is more to our present interest,
these are types of people that we meet.
There are even more than 200 varie-
ties of sensitive plants in the human
family. The number is legion of those
whose nerves lie near the surface and
who wilt. after one fashion or another,
in the process of lifes rough handling.
You have doubtless met the sensitive
plant on your church or club work. He
or it may be she is forever getting
hurt. Sights are taken when none is
intended. Neglect or opposition is as
sumed of which the offender is entirely
unconscious. 1t seems as If these del
icately organized people always went
about with chips on their shoulders.
We must beware of any jostling what
soever lest we knock them off.
Sensitiveness, of course. has its good
side. We should beware of our neigh
bors' tastes and sympathies. We
should strive for his good opinion and
avoid giving him pain. And only one
who has some capacity for pain him
self can do this. The man with no
nerves is apt to be a laundering and
inconsiderate friend. The rhinoceros
type of companion is not an appealing
one.
But the supersensitive person is not
to be admired We are inclined,
rather, to feel for him a certain pity.
He is in for very hard time in this
rough and tumble world. He is con-
demned to live in the atmosphere of
suspicion and unrest and to do who'll
ly unnecessary amount of grieving.
Brother, it doesn't pay to be too
thin skinned Some criticism is COM
ing your way: you are going some
times to be misunderstood; not all of
your opinions will meet with favor;
the band won't always strike up when
you enter the hall. Is this a calamity
Far from it. Coddling does not make
strong character A bit Of opposition
often does us good. 1t is the live fish
that swims upstream.
The real trouble with NEST intensely
sensitive people is selfishness. They
think too much about themselves.
They are too exclusively occupied with
their own states of mind. If they were
heart and soul in some good and en-
crossing work, busy in gathering out
stones from some pathway along
which humanity is travelling, they
would not be SO acutely dependent on
what people say to them or of them
Epictetus is rated as a pagan hut
the old thinker often grasped truth
in a way that has helped all sorts and
conditions of men since his day. There
is one utterance of his that every SEN
sitive sufferer may we'll cut out and
paste on the glass of his dressing table
for consultation each morning. IF
anyone should set your body at the
mercy of every passer-by, you would
be indignant When, therefore, you
set your own mind at the mercy OF
every chance. to be troubled and per-
turbed when anyone may revile you
have you no shame of this?''
Life is a battle in which each war
rior must win his spurs No one is
exempt from jostling in the fight
When Paul babe his young friend
Timothy endure hardness as a good
soldier of Jesus Christ he was laying
down a requirement for us all. 1t was
no counsel TO harshness or to slack
ness of sympathy but simply to that
seIf-reliance and moral poise that
every efficient life must have. Don't
be sensitive plant
THE PARSON.