Part 25 (1/2)
”What shall I do to get rid of it?” asks a victile freely with people Becos outside of yourself Do not brood over what is said to you, or analyze every sireatest importance Do not have such a low and unjust esti but hurting the feelings of others, and depreciating and ht of them on every possible occasion A ives his neighbors credit for being at least as good as he is, cannot be a victim of over-sensitiveness
One of the best schools for a sensitive boy is a large business house in which he will be thrown aloves In such an environment he will soon learn that everyone has all he can do to attend to his own business He will realize that he et out He will be ashamed to play ”cry baby” every tirin and bear it Working in co that exactly the saiven to those above hiins to see that the world is too busy to bother itself especially about him, and that, even when people look at hie course is of inestiirl of over-refined sensibilities Oftentie as freshmen, they are so touchy that their sense of honor is constantly being hurt and their pride stung by the unconscious thrusts of classe a terood-hue, they realize that it would be thein the world to betray resentment If one shows that he is hurt, he knows that he will be called the class booby, and teased unmercifully, so he is simply forced to drop his foolish sensitiveness
Thousands of people are out of positions, and cannot keep places when they get theood business man has been kept back, or even ruined, by his quickness to take offense, or to resent a fancied slight There is yman, well educated and able, who is so sensitive that he can not keep a pastorate long From his distorted viewpoint so hi out hints and suggestions calculated to injure hiation
Many schoolteachers are great sufferers from over-sensitiveness
Reossip which are reported to the pins in the, all the time Writers, authors, and other people with artistic temperaments, are usually very sensitive I have in orous editorial writer who is so prone to take offense that he can not hold a position either on a azine or a daily paper He is cut to the very quick by the slightest criticisestion for the improvement of his work as a personal affront He always carries about an injured air, a feeling that he has been ireeable personality
The great , are kind-hearted, and would , but they have all they can do to attend to their own affairs, and have no ti of those whom they meet in the course of their daily business In the busy world of affairs, it is give and take, touch and go, and those who expect to get on must rid themselves of all morbid sensitiveness If they do not, they doom themselves to unhappiness and failure
Self-consciousness is a foe to greatness in every line of endeavor No one ever does a really great thing until he feels that he is a part of soreater principle
Some of our best writers never found theot their rules for construction, their gra themselves in their subject
Then they found their style
It is when a writer is so completely carried aith his subject that he cannot help writing, that he writes naturally He shohat his real style is
No orator has ever electrified an audience while he was thinking of his style or was conscious of his rhetoric, or trying to apply the conventional rules of oratory It is when the orator's soul is on fire with his the but his subject, that he really does a great thing
No painter ever did a greatto keep all the rules of his profession, the laws of drawing, of perspective, the science of color, in hisenius,--then, and then only, can he really create
No singer ever captivated her audience until she forgot herself, until she was lost in her song
Could anything be hted than to allow a morbid sensitiveness to interfere with one's advance lady with a superba superior position, who has been kept in a very ordinary situation for years simply because of her ranted that if any criticism is made in the department where she works, it is intended for her, and she ”flies off the handle” over every little remark that she can possibly twist into a reflection upon herself
The result is that she makes it so unpleasant for her employers that they do not proet on faster
No one wishes to eed to be on his guard every moment lest he wound him or touch a sore spot
It makes an employer very unco around an injured air a large part of the time, so that he never quite knohether they are in sy in his business and he feels vexed, he knows that he is liable to give offense to these people without ever intending it
A man wants to feel that his employees understand him, and that they take into consideration the thousand and one little vexations and happenings which are extre, and that if he does not happen to approach the face, with consideration and friendliness in his words or commands, they will not take offense
They will think of his troubles, not their own, if they are wise: they will forget self, and contribute their zeal to the greater good
CHAPTER XX
TACT OR COMMON SENSE
”Who is stronger than thou?” asked Braham; and Force replied ”Address”--VICTOR HUGO
Address ives theh, listen, learn, or teach