Chap. XIII. BLUSHING. 331 



great coming exertion, with its associated effects on the 

 system, rather than on shyness; 28 although a timid or 

 shy man no doubt suffers on such occasions infinitely 

 more than another. With very young children it is dif- 

 ficult to distinguish between fear and shyness; but this 

 latter feeling with them has often seemed to me to par- 

 take of the character of the wildness of an untamed 

 animal. Shyness comes on at a very early age. In one 

 of my own children, when two years and three months 

 old, I saw a trace of what certainly appeared to be shy- 

 ness, directed towards myself after an absence from 

 home of only a week. This was shown not by a blush, 

 but by the eyes being for a few minutes slightly averted 

 from me. I have noticed on other occasions that shyness 

 or shamefacedness and real shame are exhibited in the 

 eyes of young children before they have acquired the 

 power of blushing. 



As shyness apparently depends on self -attention, we 

 can perceive how right are those who maintain that 

 reprehending children for shyness, instead of doing 

 them any good, does much harm, as it calls their atten- 

 tion still more closely to themselves. It has been well 

 urged that "nothing hurts young people more than to 

 be watched continually about their feelings, to have 

 their countenances scrutinized, and the degrees of their 

 sensibility measured by the surveying eye of the unmerci- 

 ful spectator. Under the constraint of such examina- 

 tions they can think of nothing but that they are looked 

 at, and feel nothing but shame or apprehension." 29 



28 Mr. Bain (' The Emotions and the Will,' p. 64) has dis- 

 cussed the " abashed " feelings experienced on these occa- 

 sions, as well as the stage-fright of actors unused to the 

 stage. Mr. Bain apparently attributes these feelings to 

 simple apprehension or dread. 



29 ' Essays on Practical Education,' by Maria and R. L. 

 Edgeworth, new edit. vol. ii. 1822, p. 38. Dr. Burg-ess (ibid, 

 p. 187) insists strongly to the same effect. 



