high-hearted fearlessness--so that timidity and slowness and diffidence
and unreadiness become base and feeble qualities, when they are not the
things of which anyone need be ashamed! Let me say then that moral
courage, the patient and unrecognised facing of difficulties, the
disregard of popular standards, solidity and steadfastness of purpose,
the tranquil performance of tiresome and disagreeable duties, homely
perseverance, are not the things which are regarded as supreme in the
ideal of the school; so that the fear which is the shadow of sensitive
and imaginative natures is turned into the wrong channels, and becomes
a mere dread of doing the unpopular and unimpressive thing, or a craven
determination not to be found out. And the dread of being obscure and
unacceptable is what haunts the minds of boys brought up on these
ambitious and competitive lines, rather than the fear which is the
beginning of wisdom.

VIII

FEARS OF YOUTH

The fears of youth are as a rule just the terrors of self-consciousness
and shyness. They are a very irrational thing, something purely
instinctive and of old inheritance. How irrational they are is best
proved by the fact that shyness is caused mostly by the presence of
strangers; there are many young people who are bashful, awkward, and
tongue-tied in the presence of strangers, whose tremors wholly
disappear in the family circle. If these were rational fears, they
might be caused by the consciousness of the inspection and possible
disapproval of those among whom one lives, and whose annoyance and
criticism might have unpleasant practical effects. Yet they are caused
often by the presence of those whose disapproval is not of the smallest
consequence, those, in fact, whom one is not likely to see again. One
must look then for the cause of this, not in the fact that one's
awkwardness and inefficiency is likely to be blamed by those of one's
own circle, but simply in the terror of the unknown and the unfamiliar.
It is probably therefore an old inherited instinct, coming from a time
when the sight of a stranger might contain in it a menace of some
hostile usage. If one questions a shy boy or girl as to what it is they
are afraid of in the presence of strangers, they are quite unable to
answer. They are not afraid of anything that will be said or done; and
yet they will have become intensely conscious of their own appearance
and movements and dress, and will be quite unable to comman