The Project Gutenberg EBook of Apologia Diffidentis, by W. Compton Leith

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Title: Apologia Diffidentis

Author: W. Compton Leith

Release Date: January 13, 2009 [EBook #27795]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Transcriber's Note:

Greek words in this text have been transliterated into English and are
found within { } brackets.]

Apologia Diffidentis

_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_

Sirenica

Apologia Diffidentis

By
W. Compton Leith

London: John Lane, The
Bodley Head. New York:
John Lane Company
MCMXVII

_Third Edition_

_Printed in Great Britain
by Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh_

To One
Whose Friendship is beyond Desert
and above Requital

Apologia Diffidentis

"I am naturally bashful; nor hath conversation, age,
or travel been able to effront or enharden me."

SIR THOMAS BROWNE

In the matter of avowals the diffident never speak if they can write.
That is why my apology for a furtive existence is here set down in
solitude instead of being told face to face. You have borne so many
years with my unresponsive and incomprehensible ways that shame at last
constrains me to this poor defence; for I must either justify myself in
your sight, or go far away where even your kindness cannot reach me. The
first alternative is hard, but the second too grievous for impaired
powers of endurance; I must therefore find what expression I may, and
tell you how my life has been beshrewed ever since, a boy of twelve, I
first incurred the obloquy of being shy. The word slips easily from the
pen though the lips refuse to frame it; for I think most men would
rather plead guilty to a vice than to this weakness.

A doom of reticence