I have been told that I am the only bashful man in the world.

How that is I can not say, but should not be sorry to believe that it is so, for I am of too generous a nature to desire any other mortal to suffer the mishaps which have come to me from this distressing complaint.

A person can have smallpox, scarlet fever, and measles but once each.

He can even become so inoculated with the poison of bees and mosquitoes as to make their stings harmless; and he can gradually accustom, himself to the use of arsenic until he can take 444 grains safely; but for bashfulness--like mine--there is no first and only attack, no becoming hardened to the thousand petty stings, no saturation of one's being with the poison until it loses its power.
I am a quiet, nice-enough, inoffensive young gentleman, now rapidly approaching my twenty-sixth year.

It is unnecessary to state that I am unmarried.