Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ESSAY VI. (On Plutarch has an essay upon that defect which he calls Dus- opia (Juo-fcurj'a) ? a word signifying an unhappy facility of being put out of countenance ? viz., shamefaccdness ? shyness. Plutarch seems to consider that Dusopia consisted chiefly in the difficulty of saying No, and has a stock of anecdotes illustrating the tragic consequences which may result from that pusillanimous characteristic of Shyness. It not only subjects us to the loss of our money when a slippery acquaintance asks us for a loan which we are perfectly aware he never intends to repay, but sometimes life itself is the penalty of that cowardly shyness which can not say No to a disagreeable invitation. Antipater was invited to an entertainment by Demetrius, and, feeling ashamed to evince distrust of a man whom he himself bad entertained the day before, went forebodingly to the shambles. Polysperchon had been bribed by Cassander to make away with Hercules, the young son whom Barsina bore to Alexander. Accordingly he invited Hercules to supper. So long as Ifercules could get off the invitation by note or message, he valiantly excused himself; but when Polysperchon called in person, and said, burlily,
Why do yon refuse my invitation ? Gods ! can you suspect me of any design against your life ? poor Hercules was too shy to imply, by continued refusal, that such design was exactly what he suspected. Accordingly, he suffered himself to be carried away, and in the midst of the supper was murdered. Nowadays, Shyness does not entail on us a fate so lugubriously tragic. True that a perfidious host does his best to poison us by a villainous entree, or
the pure beverage secured to us, by commercial treaty, at a shilling a bottle; still, the effect is not usually mortal. Permitted to return home, we…
