Page:Passages from the Life of a Philosopher.djvu/328

312 that he can have a real friend, or if he have that rarest commodity, that he can know the fact.

A certain amount of distrust must therefore almost always exist in his mind. But this habitual distrust applies less to foreigners than to his own subjects. The comet which passes through the thick atmosphere of a Court may be temporarily disturbed in its path though it may never revisit it again.

Perhaps the first element of my success was, that having been the victim of shyness in early life, I could sympathise with those who still suffered under that painful complaint.

Another reason may have been, that I never stated more than I really knew. This is, I believe, a very unusual practice in Courts of every kind; and when it happens to be obviously sincere, it commands great influence.

There might be yet another reason:—it was well known that I had nothing to ask for—to expect—or to desire.