assumes the rôle of effrontery, from very despair of successfully
accomplishing the task it is ambitious to perform.

Illustrious examples of this contention are not lacking. Rousseau, who
was a coward of the greatest hardihood, says in his _Confessions_:

"My foolish and unreasoning fear, that I was quite unable to overcome,
of perpetrating some breach of good manners led me to assume the
attitude of caring nothing for the niceties of life."

A little further on, he adds:

"I was made a cynic by shyness. I posed as a despiser of the politeness
I did not know how to practise."

This is a much more frequent cause than one might think of the
exhibition of an effrontery which is apparently deliberate and
intentional.

The timid man, feeling himself awkward and clownish when performing the
usual acts of courtesy, assumes the attitude of caring nothing for them
and of avoiding them deliberately, while all the while he is tortured by
the inability to perform them without seeming ridiculous.

But the onlooker is not deceived. The outward appearance of cynicism
often conceals an inward sensitiveness of soul that is quite obvious,
and the actor makes so poor a hand at identifying himself with the
character he would assume that it is clearly evident he is only playing
a part.