Many persons whose social position is uncertain, or whose moral force is but little developed, have their days embittered by the thought of “what people will say.” If these persons could only comprehend that nothing which is _simple_ and _sincere_ can be ridiculous, if vanity and amour-propre would permit them to understand that criticism is inevitable, that it increases self-confidence in well-balanced people, and in many cases helps us towards the end we wish to attain, they would not only cease to fear the observation of others, but no longer wish to suppress the personality of a neighbour. They would say with Emerson: “That which I ought to do concerns my personality, and not what people think I ought to do.” They would remember these words of La Bruyère’s: “‘We must do as others do’ is a suspicious maxim, signifying nearly always ‘We must do wrong’ as soon as it extends beyond the purely outward things which result in nothing, and which depend upon custom, fashion, and manners.” A modern thinker, under the veil of anonymity, remarks wittily: “If one wishes to be in good society, even with those who are not of it, need one give up being oneself? Good society, pushed to this excess, is only folly and trickery. What on earth have you done with your amour-propre on these occasions? Dare to say what you think, if you _do_ think.” I add to this: Dare to do what seems to you good, useful, and sensible; flee preconceived opinions, do not let yourself be influenced by the ideas of others, keep your independence in the face of new suggestions, convince yourself of your own value, call your perceptions into play, suppress your self-love--in a word, get rid of the fear of ridicule, which, carried to excess by people, has spoilt fine careers, ruined the noblest hopes; destroyed for one his dawning happiness, for another possible fortune. Why this mean respect for _what is done_, and absurd fear of _what is not done_? Why this foolish imitation, this holding back of your real self? Why don’t you eat and drink what you like? Why spoil your behaviour in public by hypocrisy? Where is the sense of this perpetual dressing up of things which ties you down to convention not in keeping with the real impulses of your heart and mind? There is so much fear of ridicule in the world that one may see a man miss an interview which might be morally or materially useful to him because he is afraid to appear unfashionably dressed, because he has not the latest hat, or the shoes which snobbism has decreed the correct thing. Women, in whom the fear of ridicule is so strong, so intimately linked with the taste of the moment, will willingly risk their health rather than go down in the estimation of others.